YouTube's economic impact in France

According to the Impact Report 2025, released during the YouTube Festival on October 13, the creative ecosystem of YouTube contributed over 1.1 billion euros to the French GDP in 2025 and supported more than 27,000 full-time equivalent jobs. This growth is attributed to the increasing professionalization of content creators over the past two to three years.

Professionalization of content creators

Justine Ryst, general director of YouTube France, explained that creators initially launched videos from their rooms, gradually developed their activities, formed collaborations, and eventually started hiring and organizing around real structures, with offices and studios. This shift indicates a more structured and business-oriented approach to content creation.

Entrepreneurial success of YouTubers

Some YouTubers have built companies, hired teams, and structured their activities well beyond their own channels. For example, Lucas Hauchard, known as Squeezie, has launched two beverage brands and created Bump, a talent management agency representing more than 60 creators and over 300 brands.

Cinematic productions on YouTube

In September 2024, Inoxtag published Kaizen, a nearly two-and-a-half-hour documentary on his preparation for the ascent of Mount Everest. The film first went to cinemas, attracting about 340,000 spectators during premieres, before being uploaded to YouTube, where it surpassed 17 million views in less than 48 hours.

High-budget YouTube productions

Michou screened the first episode of Terminal, his YouTube series, in cinemas in September 2025. The four-episode project, costing one million euros, involved 90 cameras, a team of 150 people, and a 50-hectare field rented for 48 hours of continuous filming. These productions have changed the rules of the game behind the scenes, requiring financing, mobilizing teams, organizing logistics, and preparing for broadcasts.

Behind-the-scenes professionalization

Professionals, employees, or service providers now intervene to write, edit, or market the productions. Behind HugoDécrypte, for example, there is a company employing 25 people, including ten journalists. "Strategists" have also found their place, tasked with optimizing titles, thumbnails, and formats to attract viewers.

YouTube's role in content creation

According to Ryst, "Their home, their red thread of creation, and their rallying point with their community, it continues to be YouTube." Creators have invested in events, multiplied offline projects, and gradually freed themselves from their original screen, though their headquarters remain YouTube.

User engagement and viewing habits

In France, users spend an average of 55 minutes per day on the platform, across all age groups, according to platform data. Television, once thought to be doomed by new uses, is becoming a preferred screen, with more than half of the top 100 French creators being watched more on television than on other screens.

Long-term viewer engagement

However, 40% of a video's views arrive more than a month after its publication, which can help sustain revenue despite varying viewer numbers. Creators can rely on several income sources, including advertising revenue, subscriptions, and soon YouTube shopping. Commercial partnerships are another pillar, with all revenue from collaborations going directly to the creators.

Revenue challenges and public funding

According to internal YouTube data, 40% of a video's views arrive more than a month after its publication, allowing a video to continue attracting viewers while the team works on the following projects. However, this extended audience does not guarantee that revenue will cover production costs.

Public funding concerns

Public funding remains a concern, with 60% of respondents feeling they receive too little or no help to access grants and public funding, while 65% consider the support for their representation before public authorities to be insufficient. Despite this, not all creators need to enter the race for productions costing hundreds of thousands of euros.

Diverse content creation

All forms of creation coexist on the platform, from the most sophisticated to the simplest, according to Ryst. She emphasized that despite the more than 10 million hours of content uploaded by French channels since January, it is still possible to start and emerge on the Google platform.

Starting and emerging on YouTube

The key is to focus on what one wants to share, find one's grammar, and test formats. The launch of Shorts, in particular, allowed new creators to become known before turning to longer formats. The success of a channel can then be transformed into a viable business model.

Legitimacy and industry recognition

Nearly ten years after Thierry Ardisson's appearance on Squeezie, creators have won a battle: that of their legitimacy. Gaspard G works with TF1, Juju Fitcats with M6, and Squeezie has sold the worldwide rights to his concept "Who will manage to stop the train" to Banijay. Commenting on video games has indeed become a job. And even a job that television channels are fighting over.