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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Ryan Fahey

YouTuber set to give away $50,000 to his followers for his OWN birthday

A YouTube influencer is planning to give away around $50,000 to five of his followers when he turns 25.

Jimmy Donaldson, who goes by Mr Beast, is a US-based YouTuber who offers his followers the chance to bag massive cash prizes on his channel.

Five of his 65 million subscribers could win the a massive $10,000 on his birthday on Wednesday May 10.

He is thought to be worth around $100million, but gives away a lot of his cash to the followers he invites on the show to overcome challenges.

One example of a subscriber who secured a massive windfall was Alex Maloney, 20, from Canada, who won $100,000 by holding his finger on a button in an app for more than 48 hours.

Unemployed Maloney said the payout was "monumental" and "made me feel more stable".

He started the channel around 11 years ago (Wikipedia)
MrBeast attends YouTube Brandcast 2022 at Imperial Theatre on May 17 (Getty Images for Youtube)

He added that Donaldson "changes lives unbelievably".

To win, people have been told to follow his Instagram account, share his post and tag a friend.

MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, started his channel in early 2012 at the age of 13 with videos of himself playing computer games and, ironically, estimating the wealth of other YouTubers.

Now his videos consist of attention-grabbing stunts, in which he mostly either gives away millions of dollars or gets people compete to win mega cash prizes.

His channel has become so big that he now hires his childhood pals to help him run the brand, set up the challenges and deliver his incredible acts of kindness.

Having started out rather unsuccessfully as a 13-year-old on YouTube, MrBeast first started to gain a following three years later in 2013 by poking fun at some of his rivals' intros.

His childhood pals now help him run the show (Getty Images for TikTok)

He first went viral in 2017 with a video of himself counting to 100,000, which took him 44 hours.

Jimmy soon realised what worked with the YouTube algorithm and did similar stunts, such as spinning a fidget spinner for 24 hours or listening to a Jake Paul music video for 10 hours straight.

MrBeast hit 1 million subscribers in 2017 and now gets most of his hits from either competing in or hosting hours-long endurance stunts.

When his videos go viral, he makes "tens of millions" of dollars in advertising sales - providing higher engagement and reception than TV ads but at half the cost.

By December 2018 he had given out $1 million through his outlandish stunts, earning him the title of 'YouTube's biggest philanthropist'.

Jimmy has also branched out into money-making ventures, such as MrBeast Burger restaurants and his Feastables food company which sells MrBeast Bars of chocolate.

He has also invested in tech startup backbone One, partnered with Creative Juice financial network and become a long-term investor and partner of financial technology company Current.

In January 2022, it was reported that MrBeast was the highest-earning YouTuber, making $54 million in 2021.

Forbes estimate Donaldson is worth a staggering $500 million - and he reportedly wants to sell a 10% stake in his studio for $150 million, valuing it at $1.5 billion.

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