In 2023, Kurzgesagt will have been around for 10 years - an incredibly long time in Internet years. We are one of the largest science channels on YouTube and still a bit of a mystery to many. So, let’s talk a bit about ourselves in three parts: our backstory, how we finance our work, and the values of Kurzgesagt.
Our story begins with our founder, Philipp, who dropped out of high school as a teenager. He didn’t find learning interesting or useful until a special teacher at a school for dropouts grabbed his attention. She taught by connecting the dots and telling stories - something that sparked Philipp’s interest and led him to pursue a high school degree, study history and design, and eventually start Kurzgesagt as a passion project.
At the time, YouTube was less commercial and more idealistic, and it was impossible to make a living from videos like ours. We worked day jobs and worked on Kurzgesagt at night, often putting in 80-100 hours a week. Then, in 2015, Patreon launched, sponsorships started, our views increased, and YouTube changed. We were able to break even, and then eventually make a profit. This allowed us to bring on more team members and create a legal entity.
Today, Kurzgesagt is an animation studio with offices in Munich and Berlin. We need computers, monitors, tablets, desks, coffee, contracts, licenses, taxes, rent, and insurance. Our team consists of over 60 full employees and many freelancers around the world. We need millions of dollars a year just to stay afloat.
So, how do we finance Kurzgesagt? Our main sources of income are agency work, ad revenue, sponsorships, and our shop. 62% of our revenue comes directly or indirectly from our viewers: they watch our videos with ads, support us on Patreon, or buy from our shop. The single biggest source of income is our shop, accounting for 40% of our revenue over the last 8 years. YouTube ads account for 13%, and Patreon for 9%. Without our viewers’ support, we would cease to exist. We want to fight this and be a beacon of hope.
Our most important sources of revenue are our shop and Patreon, as we see ourselves as science communicators. We spend hundreds of hours researching, discussing with experts, and working directly with manufacturers to create sciency products that are part of the science story we try to tell. We also get funded directly by our patrons, and YouTube ads are a crucial part of our funding as well.
We used to do paid agency work, which accounted for 9% of our revenue over the last 8 years, but we stopped doing this in 2022. We also got about 12% of our revenue from commercial sponsors advertising products, and 7% from German Public Broadcasting for the German Channel, which we ended in 2022.
Institutional sponsors accounted for 10% of our revenue, and some people take issue with this, especially Bill Gates who has come under public scrutiny. About 3% of our revenue over the last eight years came from Gates organisations for a wide variety of topics, often suggested by us. 5% comes from Open Philanthropy and is only used for specific projects. With these funds, we have started Arabic, Hindi, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, and French channels, bringing more free science content to more people. We also have a two-year funding for original Tik Tok content, which gives us freedom to explore and learn how to do short form science communication. The final 2% came from other organisations like the Red Cross or the UN.
We choose our institutional sponsors carefully, and we have contracts with every grant giver or sponsor that bars them from editorial influence, other than suggesting topic areas like “global health” or “climate change”. We agree on video topics together, but sponsors can neither influence details, nor our conclusions.
Our core mission is to spark curiosity, make science and humanism accessible for as many people as possible, and inspire long term thinking and a positive, constructive outlook. We want to fight pessimism and be a beacon of hope. Despite the often gloomy topics we discuss, we strive to approach them with informed and well-researched optimism. We want to encourage people to dream of the glorious future that could be built, but only if we believe it is possible. We want to be a positive influence on more than just YouTube, such as our Tik Tok channel, long-form content, apps, VR game, and future games. Our shop is also an integral part of this vision: we start with a video and end with a poster.
We are thankful for those of you who watch our videos, purchase from our shop, become a Patreon, or give us an ad blocker exception. We exist because of you and we are incredibly grateful. Hopefully, we are less of a black box now. Doing Kurzgesagt for a decade has been a wild ride and we want to thank you for being with us all these years.