The speaker, Philip, the founder of the YouTube channel Kotzkazat, shares the history and mission of the channel. He started the channel as a passion project in 2012, inspired by Crash Course World History. Initially, the channel was funded by intrinsic motivation and a few friends, with no outside funding. The channel began to break even and earn a profit in 2015.
In 2023, Kotzkazat has grown into an animation studio with offices in Munich and Berlin. The team consists of over 60 employees and many freelancers worldwide. The channel's earnings have been used to cover costs such as computers, monitors, tablets, desks, coffee, contracts, pay, licenses, taxes, rent, and insurance.
The channel's funding sources have varied over the years. Early on, agency work was the main source of income. Later, the shop became a significant source of revenue, accounting for 40% of the revenue over the last eight years. YouTube ads and Patreon also contribute to the channel's revenue.
The channel has faced criticism for accepting sponsorships from institutional sponsors, including those funded by Bill Gates. However, the channel has contracts with every grant giver or sponsor that bar them from editorial influence other than suggesting topic areas. The final decision always remains with the channel.
The core mission of Kotzkazat is to spark curiosity and make science and humanism accessible for as many people as possible. The channel aims to inspire long-term thinking and a positive, constructive outlook on the future of humanity. The channel plans to expand its influence across more media, including apps, VR games, and future games.
1. "In 2023, Kotzgesant has existed for 10 years, which is insanely long in Internet years."
2. "We're among the largest scientific channels on YouTube."
3. "Our founder, Philip, dropped out of high school as a teenager."
4. "He was taught by a special teacher at a school for dropouts who sparked his interest in learning."
5. "Kotzgesant tries to recreate this experience for its audience, aiming to make learning exciting and engaging."
6. "Philip got a high school degree, studied history and design, and eventually started Kotzgesant as a passion project."
7. "In 2012, YouTube was less commercial and more idealistic, allowing creators to make a living with videos as involved as ours."
8. "For the first few years, it actually cost money to make Kotzgesant, with no outside funding, just intrinsic motivation and a few friends."
9. "In 2015, the channel began to break even and then to earn a profit."
10. "In 2023, Kotzgesant is an animation studio with offices in Munich and Berlin."
11. "The team consists of over 60 employees and a lot of freelancers around the world."
12. "The Santa is alone cost millions of dollars a year just to stay around."
13. "The shop and Patreon are the most important sources of revenue."
14. "62 percent of our revenue comes indirectly or directly from you, the viewer."
15. "The shop alone accounted for forty percent over the last eight years."
16. "YouTube ads accounted for 13 percent and Patreon accounted for 9 percent of the revenue."
17. "Paid agency work accounted for 9 percent of the revenue over the last eight years."
18. "Commercial sponsors advertising products accounted for 12 percent of the revenue."
19. "German public broadcasting provided about 7 percent of the revenue."
20. "Institutional sponsors represented about 10 percent of the revenue."
21. "About 3 percent of the revenue over the last eight years came from the Gates organizations."
22. "5 percent comes from open philanthropy and is only used for specific projects."
23. "Arabic, Hindi, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, and French channels were started to bring more free science content to more people."
24. "There's a two-year funding for original Tick Tock content which gives us freedom to explore and learn how to do short form science communication."
25. "The final two percent came from other organizations like the Red Cross or the UN."
26. "Our core mission is to spark curiosity and make science and humanism accessible for as many people as possible."
27. "The effort we put into creating our videos is a way of achieving that our videos are beautiful because that helps to spark curiosity to understand complex topics."
28. "We want to make people excited about science so they rediscover subjects they hated in school and see how amazing they are."
29. "We want to inspire long-term thinking and a positive constructive outlook."
30. "We want to approach challenging topics with informed and well-researched optimism."
31. "We want to inspire you to dream a little about the glorious future that we could actually build."
32. "We hope you like what we offer and that we'll be doing something worthwhile for as long as we exist."
33. "If you personally want to help us do this, you can watch and share our videos, check out our shop, become a Patreon, or give us an ad blocker exception."
34. "We exist because of you and you have no idea how much we appreciate that you're here."
35. "Doing courts aren't for a decade has been a pretty crazy ride and so from the whole team, thank you so much for being with us all these years."