Working on an algorithm-controlled platform as a content creator: what explains unequal earnings on YouTube?

Abstract The rise of digital platforms like YouTube has transformed content creation into a lucrative yet precarious industry. We explore the inequality in earnings among content creators (CCs) by conducting a large-scale quantitative analysis of YouTube channels from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Our findings reveal a highly skewed earning distribution, with a Gini coefficient of 0.89, indicating extreme inequality. Detailed exploratory data analyses show to what extent sociostructural factors, including gender and age, and platform-specific variables, such as the number of subscribers and channel topic, influence earnings inequality among CCs. These findings underscore the presence of winner-take-all dynamics in the YouTube ecosystem. Despite the platform's potential for niche market success, the economic outcomes for CCs are highly polarized, reflecting broader inequalities present in the digital economy. This paper contributes to the understanding of social stratification in the creator economy, highlighting the need for further investigation into the mechanisms driving these inequalities.