It’s hard to imagine that MrBeast, the most popular YouTuber, needs help gaining and keeping fans.
But behind the scenes, MrBeast aka Jimmy Donaldson employs what amounts to a vast call center. More than 1,000 “Clippers” present short versions of their stunts and challenge videos to an online audience, directing them to his YouTube channel, which boasts 448 million subscribers.
In a recent campaign, Donaldson’s team paid independent editors employed by a startup called Clipping $50 for every 100,000 views of an excerpt of Donaldson’s YouTube show on the social media app, according to a post on the social media app Discord. These contractors identify viral moments, embellish them with funny slogans, and feed them into services like TikTok and Instagram.
“People were buying commercials during TV, billboard and radio time slots,” said Anthony Fujiwara, 23, founder of the marketing service Clipping, which named itself after this new social media marketing method. “Clipping is the modern thing: buying space and time while people are scrolling on their phones.”
The advent of clipping shows how much social media has changed since its early days as a platform for user-generated content. Videos, which once seemed unusual or spontaneous and quickly became the topic of chatter, have been replaced by organized marketing efforts. These ad videos pop up on social media feeds and appear to be from random superfans.
In one YouTube short clip posted by an account called Reelz_official, MrBeast encourages comedian Andrew Desbordes, aka Druski, to dunk a basketball. Below the clip, characters from Amazon’s video game “King of Meat,” one of Donaldson’s sponsors, jump over obstacles. This is a requirement detailed in Discord’s clipping campaign instructions. The text reads, “I didn’t expect MrBeast to put Drusky on a 11.5 meter hoop???????”
Mr. Fujiwara declined to comment on his business with MrBeast, which has started its own clipping business called Vyro.
According to Discord data, creating a clip can earn you between $300 and $1,500 for every million views your clip receives across all apps. In addition, customers pay monthly subscription fees to the company ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, sometimes more, Fujiwara said. Behind the company are 23,300 Clippers, contract editors who create shortened versions of celebrity long-form content on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch.
One of the clippers, Faisal Ali, 23, who is based in Pakistan, said he made $600 by making clips for Donaldson. He also hired two subcontractors who edited the video and received a cut of the fees.
The key to getting a clip into a consumer’s data feed is identifying the “hook” in the first 1-2 seconds of the video.
“Think of it like fishing,” he said.
Fujiwara started editing YouTube videos in 2018, when he was a 16-year-old attending high school in Los Angeles. His parents, who immigrated to the United States from Japan and Costa Rica, pushed him to earn money from an early age.
Fujiwara recalled that the YouTubers whose clips he edited went from zero to 100,000 followers in one month. Famous gamers took notice, and soon Fujiwara started receiving inquiries from popular Fortnite players. Although he wasn’t a gamer himself, he applied his knowledge of popular soccer videos to clips of video gamers killing their opponents.
Fujiwara noticed that social media users didn’t just care about whether a gaming influencer won a Fortnite match. They were more interested in what celebrities had to say and wanted to see something interesting. Fujiwara began posting clips of internet stars hurling insults at each other, name-calling clips of online haters and passionate opinions about pop culture.
During the pandemic, Fujiwara began researching the go-viral strategies popularized by self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and his controversial money-making school, Hustlers University. skill. In a conversation with gamer and influencer Adin Ross, Fujiwara recalled discussing Tate’s strategy and the potential of short-form video marketing.
So far this year, Clipping has generated approximately $7.7 million in revenue, much of it in cryptocurrencies. Clients such as YouTube personalities, record labels, and podcaster managers allocate large sums of money to Contract Clippers, sometimes more than $10,000 per month.
Beverly Hills-based United Talent Agency works with Clipping to enhance its clients’ social media profiles and attract potential fans to YouTube, Spotify or Twitch, where short-form video apps can generate more revenue. Ross’ recent campaign generated 430 million views on 11,000 videos created by 520 Clippers, according to the company’s social media accounts.
A representative for Mr. Ross did not respond to a request for comment.
Dante Smith, Capitol Music Group’s senior vice president and head of Motown Digital, said clipping is “a way to promote artists through an organic form of UGC (user-generated content).”
Smith discovered clipping in March through someone else. When he wants his artist’s song to go viral, he and his team of digital marketers consider which subcultures to target, such as fashion, sports, and reality TV. Clipper then suggests pairing the song with a video genre.
Smith said he chose pro wrestling and anime clips for “Bodies,” the lead single from Offset’s Chiari album.
Everyone from Internet celebrities like Ross and Jake Paul to hip-hop artists Ice Spice and Offset have benefited from Clipping’s services, according to the company’s social media accounts.
“My main goal is that if you want to go viral, you have to go through me,” Fujiwara said.
Fujiwara still edits videos for the likes of top YouTuber Darren Jason Watkins, known as IShowSpeed. However, for others, they outsource their clipping to contractors. This year, he incorporated the company.
“If you want to pay taxes and be legal, or if someone wants to come in and invest, you need the right books,” Fujiwara said.
So far, he has fought off interest from those seeking partial ownership of the company. “I had many meetings with a Los Angeles-based management company, listened to their advice, and did everything else myself,” he said.
Smith, the Capitol Records executive, said the company is looking to run a clipping campaign for music from its back catalogue, not just new singles, in 2026. He credits Fujiwara with building “an infrastructure that shows how things move in today’s digital space and has the fluidity to adapt.”
D’Anastasio writes for Bloomberg.
