Around GMA

Article Inside Page

Local tech vloggers were among the winners during the nationwide lockdown enforced last year at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent report by e-commerce aggregator iPrice Group revealed that top Filipino tech vloggers have earned between P20,000 to P500,000 per month last year.

The Map of E-Commerce Yearend Report 2020 showed that websites selling electronics enjoyed a 59 percent jump in web visits last year.

Smartphone products are a favorite among other categories based on impressions and frequency of searches and visits.

The surge in numbers in effect further pushed the popularity of tech vloggers among netizens who are always on the lookout for tech-related content whether for news, product information, and reviews.

Emerging as the top players among the pack, based on the report, were Unbox Diaries and Mary Bautista.

Photo by: iPrice

“Mary Bautista, a semi-celebrity in the tech world, has about 1.4 million subscribers with 128 [million] views, yet she's estimated to earn a few hundred thousands below Unbox Diaries, which [has] fewer subscribers and views than hers,” the study said.

“The reason for this being so is that Social Blade [the social media statistics and analytics firm] estimates this based on the cost per impression that gets multiplied with the number of views the channel gets per day. Unbox Diaries does get more views per video (versus in total). You know what they say, the more views, the more ads you can get as well.”

Earnings-wise, Unbox Diaries has earned an estimated P522,000 per month, while Mary Bautista raked in around P351,000 a month.

Revealingly, individual vloggers such as Bautista, Liz Tech, and Poy Reviews seem to earn more as compared to the authoritative tech blogs like Yugatech and GadgetMatch, among others.

“What makes these individual vloggers more successful than Youtube accounts from actual authoritative tech blogs? iPrice hypothesizes that consumers like watching content that is more personal and relatable,” the report mentioned.

“Thus, this is why individual vloggers that review in Filipino seems to have an affinity with the country's market.”

However, earnings incurred by these profitable vlogs might decrease in the coming months as YouTube starts to deduct taxes from creators residing outside the US.

Google, YouTube's parent company, has announced that any amount earned from U.S. viewers via Youtube Premium, ad views, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Channel membership will be subjected to tax deductions starting in June of this year.

“That said, Filipino tech vloggers may not be as affected, especially for the individuals that review in the Filipino language,” the report stated in closing.

“However, this doesn't discount their Filipino-American audience. With this new rule in place, we will have to wait and see how much this will affect the country's tech vloggers.”

And speaking of vlogging, take a look at these Kapuso stars who made it big in vlogging during the past year: