YouTube BrandConnect

Interactive entertainment company

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2023)

|

YouTube BrandConnect

Current logo as a subsidiary of YouTube

Type of business| Private[1]
Founded| 2013
Headquarters|

Santa Monica, California[1]

United States

Area served| Worldwide
Founder(s)| Agnes Kozera, and David Kierzkowski[1]
Industry| Influencer marketing
Employees| 11-50[1]
URL| www.famebit.com

YouTube BrandConnect (formerly FameBit) is an interactive entertainment company founded in 2013 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

The company develops and maintains an Influencer Marketing link sharing platform. As of 2016,[update] the company has been a subsidiary of Google, grouped under their YouTube division.[2]

## History

[edit]

### As independent company

[edit]

FameBit was formed in 2013 by high school friends Agnes Kozera, and David Kierzkowski. Kierzkowski had previously co-founded the digital marketing platform TapClicks.[3] He was approached by Kozera who was the founder of SeasonsBox, a subscription based gift delivery service, which had used social media influencers for advertising.[4] The two developed FameBit as a link sharing platform which allowed companies to post offers to influencers.[5][6]

In February 2014 FameBit was one of two Canadian based companies accepted into 500 Startups venture fund.[7]

By 2015 FameBit had signed up about 9,000 YouTubers, and had run about 1,600 campaigns for about 1200 brands. At the time the average subscriber count for a FameBit Influencer was 46,000.[8]

By the end of the 2015 that number had risen to 21,000 across 6 social media platforms (Vine, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, & YouTube)[9]

By 2016, FameBit had been used in the creation of about 25,000 branded videos, with and estimated 2 billion minutes of viewing time.[10]

### Acquisition by Google

[edit]

On October 11, 2016, Google acquired Famebit, for what was later disclosed to be $USD 36 million. At the time of purchase, FameBit claimed 50,000 registered users. Google planned to merge the platform within their YouTube division.[11][12][13]

Since being acquired by Google, FameBit has allowed marketers to retarget videos made on FameBit to viewers via Google's Ads.[14]

In 2020, FameBit shut down its self-service program which allowed creators to independently find brands to work with.[15]

On June 16, 2020, the company rebranded as YouTube BrandConnect.[16]

## Business Model

[edit]

FameBit acts as a platform for companies to post requests for social media content creators to advertise products and services, for a negotiable fee.[17] FameBit receives 10% of this fee.[18]

## Controversy

[edit]

FameBit has been criticized by brands for allowing YouTubers to join without verifying their followers. FameBit has also been criticized by Content Creators for banning them from the platform due to brand disputes.[19]

Several employees have claimed that FameBit promotes a toxic work environment, with 3 out of 4 of their Glassdoor reviews awarding the company 1 star.[20]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d "FameBit AngelList Profile". angel.co.
2. ^ "Google Acquires Famebit To Connect YouTube Creators With Brands". techcrunch.com. 11 October 2016.
3. ^ "Starup Dreams Come True As FameBit Engineers Head To California". therecord.com.
4. ^ "FameBit turns any business brand into a Youtube star". itbusiness.com. 16 January 2014.
5. ^ "Bloomberg Profile on David Kierzkowski". bloomberg. 13 June 2023.
6. ^ "Agnes Kozera on small budgets and big results". StreamDaily.
7. ^ "2 CANADIAN TEAMS MAKE THE 500 STARTUPS CUT: FAMEBIT AND VENUESPOT". betakit. 3 February 2014.
8. ^ "FameBit's Long Tail Of Creators Grow To More Than 9k YouTubers". techcrunch.com. 17 April 2015.
9. ^ "FameBit Banks On The Little Guy". streamdaily.com.
10. ^ "Google Acquires FameBit". variety.com. 11 October 2016.
11. ^ "YouTube FameBit Branded Content Product Promotion". theverge.com. 11 October 2016.
12. ^ "Startup Dreams Come True As Famebit Engineers Head To California". therecord.com. 14 February 2017.
13. ^ "Publishers Acquiring Marketing Agencies Surge". adage.com. 17 January 2017.
14. ^ "YouTube's FameBit New Sales Boss Expanded Platform Post". marketingland.com. 25 October 2017.
15. ^ "YouTube's FameBit Shutters Self-Service Influencer Marketing Platform To Prioritize In-House Matchmaking". Tubefilter. 2020-05-13. Retrieved 2021-05-20.
16. ^ "YouTube's FameBit rebrands as YouTube BrandConnect, shuts down its self-service program". finance.yahoo.com. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 2021-05-20.
17. ^ "YouTube's Marketing And Content Platform Nets Startups Millions". techcrunch. 23 June 2014.
18. ^ "FameBit Overview". influencermarketinghub.com. 28 February 2017.
19. ^ "Famebit Seedy Underbelly Influencer Marketing Tale". linkedin.com.
20. ^ "FameBit Glassdoor Profile". glassdoor.com.

## External links

[edit]

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| Entertainment|

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and productivity|

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photography|

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Litigation

Advertising|

* Feldman v. Google, Inc. (2007)
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* Google, Inc. v. American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, Inc. (2017)
* Jedi Blue

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* Umar Javeed, Sukarma Thapar, Aaqib Javeed vs. Google LLC and Ors. (2019)
* United States v. Google LLC (2020)
* United States v. Google LLC (2023)

Intellectual property|

* Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. and A9.com Inc. and Google Inc. (2007)
* Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube, Inc. (2010)
* Lenz v. Universal Music Corp.(2015)
* Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc. (2015)
* Field v. Google, Inc. (2016)
* Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. (2021)
* Smartphone patent wars

Privacy|

* Rocky Mountain Bank v. Google, Inc. (2009)
* Hibnick v. Google, Inc. (2010)
* United States v. Google Inc. (2012)
* Judgement of the German Federal Court of Justice on Google's autocomplete function (2013)
* Joffe v. Google, Inc. (2013)
* Mosley v SARL Google (2013)
* Google Spain v AEPD and Mario Costeja González (2014)
* Frank v. Gaos (2019)

Other|

* Garcia v. Google, Inc. (2015)
* Google LLC v Defteros (2020)
* Epic Games v. Google (2021)
* Gonzalez v. Google LLC (2022)

* Category

Related

| Terms and phrases|

* "Don't be evil"
* Gayglers
* Google (verb)
* Google bombing
* 2004 U.S. presidential election
* Google effect
* Googlefight
* Google hacking
* Googleshare
* Google tax
* Googlewhack
* Googlization
* "Illegal flower tribute"
* Rooting
* Search engine manipulation effect
* Sitelink
* Site reliability engineering
* YouTube poop

|

Documentaries|

* AlphaGo
* Google: Behind the Screen
* Google Maps Road Trip
* Google and the World Brain
* The Creepy Line

Books|

* Google Hacks
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* Google Volume One
* Googled: The End of the World as We Know It
* How Google Works
* I'm Feeling Lucky
* In the Plex
* The Google Book
* The MANIAC

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* "Google Me" (Teyana Taylor song)
* Is Google Making Us Stupid?
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* Matt Nathanson: Live at Google
* The Billion Dollar Code
* The Internship
* Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

Others|

* "Attention Is All You Need"
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* Predictions of the end
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* .dev
* g.co
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* Pimp My Search
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* Italics indicate discontinued products or services.
* Category
* Commons
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* v
* t
* e

YouTube

* Google (parent)
* History
* Social impact

People|

| Current|

* Neal Mohan (CEO)
* Lyor Cohen

|

Former|

* Steve Chen (founder)
* Chad Hurley (founder & CEO)
* Salar Kamangar (CEO)
* Susan Wojcicki (CEO)
* Jawed Karim (founder)
* Susanne Daniels
* Robert Kyncl (CBO)
* Udi Manber
* Yu Pan

Channels|

* Most-subscribed channels
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* Multi-channel network (list)
* Official channel
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Culture and
videos|

* Apology
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* BreadTube
* Creator Awards
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* PewDiePie vs T-Series
* Reply girl
* StudyTube
* Viral video
* YouTube poop
* YouTube Rewind
* 2018
* 2019
* YouTuber
* list
* VTuber

Lists|

* Most-viewed videos
* Arabic music videos
* French music videos
* Indian videos
* Pakistani videos
* Most-liked videos
* Most-disliked videos

Criticism|

* Censorship
* Copyright issues
* Content ID
* Copyright strike
* Elsagate
* Fantastic Adventures scandal
* Garcia v. Google, Inc.
* Kohistan video case
* Korean backdoor advertisement controversy
* Lenz v. Universal Music Corp.
* Privacy
* Reactions to Innocence of Muslims
* Slovenian government incident
* Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube, Inc.

Apps and services|

* BrandConnect
* Kids
* Music
* Premium
* original programming
* Shorts
* Studio
* TV
* VR

Events|

* Awards
* CNN/YouTube presidential debates
* Comedy Week
* Creator Clash
* KSI vs Logan Paul
* rematch
* Live
* Music Awards
* 2013
* 2015
* Open Sauce
* Playlist Live
* Project for Awesome
* Social in the City
* Streamy Awards
* Space Lab
* Symphony Orchestra
* Internet Symphony No. 1
* Mothership
* Tubecon
* VidCon

Related|

* Censorship of YouTube
* Germany
* Channel suspensions
* YouTube Select
* Headquarters shooting
* In education
* Vevo
* YouTube downloaders
* YouTube Instant
* YouTube Space
* YouTube Theater

* Category

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