Ten Parallels Between YouTube and Roblox

The key digital playgrounds for kids these days are YouTube and Roblox. That’s not to the exclusion of TikTok, Minecraft, Netflix and other platforms, but the latest data from Qustodio’s 2023 annual report (available to download for free here—this is a great report btw, with a good cross section for the US and other markets) has both YouTube and Roblox solidly leading the way in respective popularity and engagement metrics.

YouTube has long been an acknowledged part of the average kid’s media diet. The service turned 18 last year. The core presence of Roblox is something newer, for media execs that is; kids have been in on the ground level for years. That’s the simple reality of working in kids media—you’ll always need to follow them into the next new digital thing. They’ll be there ahead of you, mastering, whilst you’re following behind, usually fumbling.

As I’ve learnt more about Roblox myself, particularly over the past two years, a number of things have struck me as being parallel to YouTube. Having worked on the latter for more than a decade, this realization has given me some confidence in knowing that not all the tricks I now need to learn have to be new. When I published a starter version of these thoughts last week as a post on LinkedIn, Jerome Mazandarani generously pointed out that there might be other execs that “don’t get Roblox” but “do know a bit about YouTube” and might also find comfort in this starting point.

So here we go: Ten Parallels Between YouTube and Roblox. Please hit me with your thoughts in the comments or at [email protected].

1.??????? The kids caught on first.

As mentioned above and just as it happened with YouTube, younger audiences were the first to flock to Roblox. Growth of the younger segment is slowing for sure, but with nearly 30 million daily active users (DAUs) last quarter, it’s sizeable.

Of course, having kids be such a significant portion of the userbase means…

2.??????? Creating revenue streams can be a pain.

From an advertising point of view there is a duty of care to our younger audiences. COPPA and GDPR-K are both there for a reason. Driving ad revenue from this significant portion of audience isn’t impossible, but it’s a grind. Exclude them and you’re ignoring over 40% of the available userbase.

3.??????? This led to both platforms observably distancing themselves from the kids audience.

For years, YouTube attempted to abdicate a duty of care to kids by trying to assert that its platform was for 13+, despite kids-specific IP holding a significant footprint across the top channels. This ultimately caught up with them in the 2019 FTC ruling and associated $170 million fine.

On Roblox things are more subtle. They fully acknowledge a younger audience is present, but have taken active steps to cater to users who are older. It’s a natural pipeline effect of course, to keep the kids who grew up on Roblox on the platform as they become teens and beyond. This approach also comes with the handy side effect (read: key objective) of accessing marketing budgets of those looking to reach older audiences.

4.??????? One does not simply “put” things on Roblox/YouTube.

When pushing forward new platforms in traditional media companies there can be a refrain to “just put” content there. An unconstructive oversimplification. Like with any other medium, consideration and strategy are required for a successful content plan. Lesser-known kids media expert Boromir knows the truth on both counts:

All that being said…

5.??????? A tiered approach is possible in terms of commitment and investment.

Although you can’t “just put” content on either, some routes to entry in are easier (read: cheaper) than others. For both, the starter route is advertising and, being digital, the initial investment price can be pretty efficient.

From there you can test the water with content. On YouTube this would be something like an influencer collaboration. For Roblox this could be paid placed accessories or items, or smaller game-in-game activations.

The full-fat version is setting up your own ongoing presence, a YouTube Channel or Roblox Experience. Here the fat can go as far as you like, but at a baseline you need a critical mass of investment in content and marketing for both launch and sustain because…

6.??????? Both platforms are hungry beasts that need feeding.

Like all entertainment platforms, Roblox and YouTube crave newness to drive audience scale and engagement. Both YouTube Channels and Roblox Experiences need to be consistently plugged with content drops, with a medium-term road map of investment. It’s minimum a year to be able to decide whether there has been success. From there, running a Roblox Experience will tend to come with less of a sting. Pumping out enough original animation to properly service a YouTube Channel is expensive.

7.??????? ?These platforms offer a gold mine of data, which needs to drive decision making.

Once you launch on either YouTube or Roblox, you’re then at the receiving end of your audience’s interests, preferences and behaviors. The bonus of this is you can track what’s working and what’s not. You’ll be rewarded for having the flexibility in your production pipeline to lean into the former.

8.??????? Discovery can be a bugger.

Both platforms are vast ecosystems. YouTube has been around longer so the playbook is more defined as regards how to cut through. The bottom line is that finding an audience takes investment no matter what the platform. Said investment is generally a mixture of content, time and, often, marketing.

9.??????? Both platforms gave birth to a new field of creators.

A key thing about both platforms is that they saw the value in creators early on, and quickly moved to sort out means of compensating folks who were consistently posting engaging content.

YouTubers, vloggers, influencers, call ’em what you will. We are all aware of this established field which, to my mind, is at a 2.0 wave. PewDiePie walked so MrBeast could run. Things in Roblox are earlier but building. I was surprised to hear on a recent Kids Media Club Podcast that top Roblox developers now have their own agents.

With all this in mind, entertainment lawyer Simon Pulman made the point that nascent creator frontiers will always have cynical bad actors, swooping in to take advantage. This definitely happened with YouTube. His thoughts:

“Imagine finding out that your kid is generating six figures a year on Roblox. A lot of parents wouldn’t know where to start and it could be quite persuasive to sign with someone saying “trust me.” High potential for financial abuse IMO - I think about child stars, young athletes, etc. There’s also probably a lot of blurring of lines between agent, manager, producer, etc. If you’re a Disney star you should have a top tier entertainment lawyer protecting your interests in concert with the parent/guardian. I don’t think it’s any different for a top Roblox creator.”

10.??????? Both are hotbeds of rights infringement at scale.?

Most digital content platforms have an issue with copyright infringement at some level. This was a major issue with YouTube back in the day, somewhat salved by its Content ID system, but the piracy keeps coming. On Roblox, it’s game developers which are making their own experiences out of established IP. A quick search for “Frozen” threw up ten different Experiences on Roblox, some of which would give beloved brand management colleagues the shivers:

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On both platforms, the line between audience engagement and straightforward rights violation is a sensitive one to call. IP owners want to stimulate fandom and what can essentially amount to free marketing. Things tend to get more attention once others are seen to be profiting off a proprietary IP.

With this starting point of familiarity, perhaps the industry as a whole will be able to avoid some of the pitfalls and mistakes on Roblox that occurred on YouTube (h/t Jo Redfern ). ??The under 13 userbase might be stabilising on Roblox in terms of volume, but engagement rates keep growing (h/t Jo Redfern also, y’all know at this stage to go follow her when it comes to Roblox, right?).? At the very least let’s hope that keeping the kids audience safe in this new frontier will be a top priority, for both the platform and the kids brands that go there.

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