MrBeast is planning a membership program as the world’s biggest social media star looks beyond YouTube to build a diversified entertainment company.
Beast Industries executives shared the news Tuesday at an invite-only breakfast for brand and ad executives and industry insiders at Penthouse 45, a swanky Manhattan event venue.
On tap were Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast), Beast Industries CEO Jeffrey Housenbold, and Partnerships SVP Beau Avril. Coinciding with the annual TV upfronts week, when legacy TV companies like NBCUniversal and Disney make their big pitches to advertisers, it showed how top creators are now competing with entertainment giants for brand budgets.
Reps from blue-chip brands like Coke, KFC, NBCUniversal, Samsung, Disney, and Lamborghini were among those in attendance. They munched on Croque Madame sandwiches, mini doughnuts, smoked salmon crostini, mingled and took videos with Donaldson, and took home Beast sweatshirts for their kids.
The big reveal was the membership program, which the company said, in typical MrBeast-style proportions, aspired to be the “largest membership service in the world.” Three people who attended the event shared the details with Business Insider, which the company confirmed.
Charity is a recurring theme in MrBeast’s viral videos, and attendees were told the membership program would include a philanthropic element, the attendees told Business Insider. There also would be early access to content, exclusive content, and challenges for members to participate in.
MrBeast has shared aspirations for a membership program before. A 2021 pitch deck described a plan for the 2022 launch of “Beast World,” a $9.95 a month platform featuring “exclusive content, merchandise, community, and experiences.” It never materialized, though.
Execs also shared some eye-popping stats at the breakfast, like MrBeast reaching the equivalent of two Super Bowl audiences a month (last year’s Super Bowl reached an estimated 128 million viewers).
They revealed that MrBeast would branch out into new content areas, starting with food this summer and then moving to entertainment, fitness, and gaming, attendees told Business Insider.
“The general gist is, they’re trying to get out of being in a YouTube channel,” said David Cohen, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, an attendee.
Execs also touched on MrBeast’s previously confirmed plans for a mobile phone service, which execs said would include exclusive content; its financial services ambitions through the newly acquired Step app, and Vyro, MrBeast’s clipping service that gives brands access to a large creator network.
The size and scope of MrBeast’s media empire wasn’t lost on attendees like Bryce Adams, the US influencer lead for WPP’s influencer agency, The Goat Agency. Adams said that MrBeast has so much scale and reach that, with the addition of first-party data through a membership service, the company could have the power equivalent to a social media app.
MrBeast has nearly 500 million subscribers to its main YouTube channel and said that over a given 90-day period, 1.3 billion unique people — about 15% of the global population — interact with its content.
“I compared it to Viacom back in the day,” Adams said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if a theme park doesn’t come next.”
Challenges for a company like MrBeast include retaining its audience as they age and being overly reliant on the namesake founder.
“At some point, how do you separate Jimmy from his IP engine?” Adams said. “He can only be in so many places at once.”
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