- MrBeast told Mark Zuckerberg that Meta's lack of multilingual dubbing hurts content reach compared to YouTube, where creators can upload multiple audio tracks for different languages. Zuckerberg agreed and suggested AI could be the solution, with MrBeast highlighting how AI-generated dubs in his own voice have already improved viewer retention on other platforms.
There aren't many people who can tell Mark Zuckerberg how his platforms could perform better, but YouTube sensation MrBeast is apparently one of them.
Zuckerberg's recent interview with podcast duo Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry saw MrBeast—real name Jimmy Donaldson—join the chat.
The most-subscribed-to man on YouTube wasted no time in sharing how he thought Meta's platforms could be improved, particularly when it came to his specialty: video.
"One thing I think really sucks [about Meta] is like, on YouTube you can have different audio tracks. So 70% of my audience on YouTube don't speak English, so I upload videos, and then you just upload a bunch of different files, so if you click on my video in Mexico, it autoplays in Spanish," Donaldson explained.
Donaldson says he rakes in tens of millions of views from people watching in Spanish or Portuguese, for example.
He continued: "What's brutal is when I post those same videos on Facebook or any of your platforms, I can't import the dubs over, so my viewership is always just infinitely lower because people from Mexico and Brazil and things can't watch it with dubs."
While exact data on YouTube viewership isn't publicly available, some research suggests that India is the country with the highest viewership on YouTube, followed by the USA and then Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico—presenting a major missed opportunity for large audiences if they can't watch in languages other than English.
Donaldson added that he knew teams at Silicon Valley giant Meta were working on the dubbing issue, but said if he was in the corner office it would move to the top of the priority list.
"If I was CEO that's one of the first things I would fast-track because…everything you do revolves around the creators and the people who use the platform and you want to help them get more views and more engagement," Donaldson continued. "It's pretty crippling once it clicks in your head. You're like, Whoa, only like 20% of the world...or whatever the number is consumes content in English...it's brutal.
"It feels almost barbaric to use a platform where you have to pick a language."
AI solution
Zuckerberg, the third-richest person on the planet with a net worth of $213 billion, agreed—adding that AI likely presents a solution to Donaldson's conundrum.
On other platforms, MrBeast—who also has a number of business interests, including chocolate brand Feastables, restaurant chain MrBeast Burgers, and snack brand Lunchly—added he is using AI to dub his own voice into other languages.
"The retention's actually 1% higher in that language because when you do AI dubs you can use my voice instead of sounding like a voice actor," the YouTuber and philanthropist continued.
"So even though it's marginally worse, because it sounds like me people are watching a little longer. It's getting so much better every month that I wouldn't be surprised if ideally in a year I just post a video on Facebook, check a box, then it AI dubs it in 20 languages."
While publicly calling out billionaires might be a pastime the average content creator might steer clear of, this isn't the first time MrBeast—estimated to be worth around $85 million—has unpicked his decision-making with a titan of tech.
Last year, Donaldson rejected an appeal from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to begin posting his videos directly on X.
The creator responded that the ad revenue from Musk's social media platform wouldn't be enough to "fund a fraction" of the millions of dollars it costs to make his videos.
By the end of January 2024 MrBeast shared the receipts of posting a video on X, saying it had generated $263,655.
"But it’s a bit of a facade," Donaldson cautioned. "Advertisers saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video (I think) and thus my revenue per view is prob higher than what you’d experience."
