2 Chapter 2 - Ayetuber

Chapter 2 - Ayetuber

Ayetube was the biggest and best video sharing and video streaming platform in the world. It launched 20 years ago and immediately gained popularity due to its easy-to-access features.

The platform could only be viewed with a computer in the past but after smartphones appeared on the market, everyone could use Ayetube with a click of their finger.

It was popular in the past but was massively popular and became part of many people's lives after 20 years.

At the moment, Ayetube had millions of active users every time and had billions of monthly users.

People could find any videos possible on Ayetube be it animation, music, games, and many more. Other than the sensitive videos, most kinds of videos could be found on Ayetube.

Danial clicked on the Ayetube app's icon which was a purple square with a white A-shaped bubble font in the middle.

The app opened and the list of recommended videos appeared on Danial's phone screen.

The first video was titled, 'Top Ten Historical Buildings in the World'.

The second recommended video was, 'Architectural Design Process'.

The third video was, 'What not to do when designing.

The other recommended video was quite similar to the first three videos. They were all related to architecture.

Since Danial studied Architecture, he watched many videos related to it. Thus, his recommendation videos on Ayetube were all related to Architecture.

He did watch other videos like drama clips, music, and animation but only once in a while.

When the recommended videos appeared on the screen, Danial's eyes dimmed. He was not in the mood to see any of the videos related to his studies.

He had been failing in his interviews too many times and was in a bad mood. He went to Ayetube to lift his mood, not to lower it more.

Danial immediately clicked on the trending tab to see if there were any interesting trending videos but was hampered when most of them were about politics.

He was not interested in politics. He felt like they were all messy and could easily be solved if the politicians were not greedy in power.

He knew that politics was important but that was if they brought good stuff to people. Politics nowadays bought poisons most of the time. They even poisoned the good people that wanted to help people with it.

So, he ignored most of them and looked at the other trending videos. Other than politics, there were music videos from popular idol groups, singers, or bands.

He clicked on one of them but 30-seconds after watching the idols dancing around, he lost interest. He did find the song interesting and catchy but the dancing was distracting him from the song.

He decided to search for the song later.

Danial clicked on the next video. It was a reaction video towards a certain chef's video. The man in the video was criticizing the chef for cooking incorrectly.

The chef was cooking food from another country but used the wrong ingredients and the end product was 100% different than what he claimed to do.

The reactor was furious and Danial could understand him. Who would not be furious about that? The chef was insulting and playing with other country's cultures.

Danial felt that this video was soothing. He went to the comment section and saw the natives of that country had the same reaction as the reactor. They were all angry at the chef.

'I must be stressed… I like watching everyone getting angry at one person,' thought Danial. He clicked on another video and continued watching.

Ten minutes later, his bus arrived. Danial got in and scanned his phone on the scanner to pay his bus fee.

Since it was almost midnight, there were not many people on the bus. Danial chose a seat in the middle of the bus and sat there.

While the bus was moving, he continued watching the videos. From the reaction videos, he moved on to cooking videos and after that, he was watching a debunking cooking video.

All the videos he saw were trending videos and when he looked at the views, they were in the millions.

"These uploaders must have earned a lot of money from these views," Danial raised an eyebrow.

Anyone could earn money from Ayetube. The method was simple.

Created an account on Ayetube and made a channel. After that, you just need to upload a video and wait for people to watch the video.

Mandatory advertisements would be presented in the video. It could not be skipped by viewers and from these advertisements, the uploader would get paid.

How they got paid was based on the views. 1000 views would give the uploader, 1 Fil. It might seem easy to get 1000 views but it was not. If the video was not interesting, even getting 10 views was hard.

Moreover, there was a subscriber price too. If the 1000 views were from the channel's subscribers, the uploader would get 20% more. In other words, they would get 1.20 Fil.

The difference was only 20 cents but what if the views from subscribers were in the hundred thousand or even millions? That would be a lot.

These uploaders that upload their videos on Ayetube were called, Ayetubers. It was seen as child's play in the early days but now, it was a career. A solid and stable career if their videos constantly got enough views.

There were two types of Ayetubers. One was the Video Uploader and another was the Streamer.

While Video Uploader only uploaded their edited videos, Streamer was different. Instead of edited videos, they recorded a live video.

Most of the streamers were usually gamers where they played their games live and their fans and subscribers could watch and interact with them while they were playing.

Streamers were paid differently than Video Uploaders.

If Video Uploader got 1 Fil per 1000 Views, Streamers got 1 cent per 1 view during the live broadcast. In other words, they got 1 Fil per 100 Views and 10 Fil per 1000 views.

It might look lucrative but there was a catch. The viewers must watch the live broadcast for at least 15 minutes for it to be counted as 1 view. As for subscribers, it will be 10 minutes as 1 view.

However, this payment was only during the live broadcast. Once the broadcast ends, if more viewers watch the video, the payment will be similar to a normal Video Uploader.

Other than these, both Video Uploader and Streamer could also gain money in another feature which was a donation.

If the viewer liked the video, they could donate to the Ayetuber in the form of Ayetube's currency. For the normal videos, it would be 50-50 split between the uploader and the platform.

For the live broadcast, it would be 70-30 split between the streamer and the platform where the streamer got 70% of the donation and the platform 30%.

Many successful Ayetubers became rich from these. Small Ayetubers might not gain as much but it was enough for pocket money.

Still, becoming an Ayetubers was not easy. It might look easy but it was not. There was no easy job in the world and the same was with Ayetuber.

Many hopped on into this career but many of them failed easily too.

Danial continued watching the videos and a few minutes later, he arrived at his destination. He got off and walked through the road to a cheap-looking flat building.

Danial's family was not poor or were they average. They were not rich either. His family was on the good-earning side. A bit above average.

His mother was a full-time housewife while his father was a lawyer. Danial had two older siblings and one younger sibling.

The eldest was his sister and she was following their father's footsteps becoming a lawyer. She was a successful lawyer too. She had appeared a few times on tv after solving a few high-profile cases.

Below his sister was his older brother. His older brother entered the entertainment industry but not as an artist but as a director. He was not a full-fledged director yet and was currently learning under his teacher who was a popular director.

Below Danial was his younger sister. She was currently in her second year in college. She was considered to be the smartest in the family and studying in the no 1 college in the country. She took a pure science course.

Danial's father was a strict man. He went hard on his children to educate them. He would be paying for their school fees and monthly allowance but if his children overspent the allowance, he would not give them more. No compromise.

Since Danial had graduated, he did not get any more allowance from his father. Thus, he was working part-time. Also, to save some money, he rented a super cheap room. Thus, the cheap-looking flat building.

Danial took the stairs to the fourth floor where his room was located. There was no elevator available in this cheap building. He arrived in front of his room and opened the door.

It was a single room where the living room and bedroom were connected. The kitchen was also connected with the living room. There was also a small bathroom where the toilet and shower were located.

The room was clean because Danial was educated to clean his room. So, he was used to it.

"HAA!!!" Danial sighed loudly and jumped on his futon that was on the floor. He was frustrated and scared if he did not get any job.

"Am I going to be the black sheep in the family?" he muttered. He was scared and embarrassed if he ended up like that.

His brother and sister were all successful. Although his dad was not a star lawyer, he was considered successful too. Even his younger sister showed a bright future.

He was the only one at the moment that did not show any bright future. He studied hard but his future was uncertain at the moment.

Danial closed his eyes for a bit to calm his mind. A few minutes later, he got up and had a shower. He spread the futon and lied on it.

He opened his smartphone and continued watching videos on Ayetube. He was lost at the moment and decided to calm his mind.

A few minutes later, he was snoring while the video continued playing. He was too tired from working part-time and needed that rest.

*Ning ni ning ni ning ni* Danial's phone rang. In a drowsy state, Danial reached for his phone and looked at it. It was already 10 am and there was an incoming call from his mom.

Danial rubbed his eyes and answered the phone.

"Hello, mom," he answered groggily.

"Are you sleeping?" his mom asked.

"Hmm? No, I am not," Danial got up. He was afraid if his dad was by his mom's side. It was the weekend and the chance that his dad was home was high.

His dad would never let him and his siblings be lazy. They needed to wake up early or they would suffer from a barrage of words coming out of his dad's mouth.

"Really?"

"Yes. I am not sleeping!" Danial replied.

"Hahaha. Your dad is not home today. No need to worry," his mom laughed. If his dad was strict, his mom was a bit kinder. Since the dad decided to take over educating the children strictly, the mom decided to be the kind support.

Danial relaxed when he heard that. "Yawn~" He yawned and asked, "Why are you calling this early?"

"It is not early. Anyway, your dad has been asking me about you. You never call him and he has been pestering me all day," his mom complained.

Danial's body turned stiff. He knew why his dad was asking about him. It was about his job.

"So, do you get any job?" his mom asked directly. There was no need for flowery words between families.

"…" Danial was reluctant to answer but he still replied, "No."

"…" his mom was silent. "Hmm, I guess it is not your luck. I am sure you will find one soon. No need to worry," his mom tried to encourage him.

"Dad… will be very angry when he hears this later, right?" Danial asked.

"I will handle him. You should take things slowly. How about money? Do you have enough? I can send you some."

"Don't worry. I have enough," Danial smiled. He felt comforted by his mom's words. The duo talked for a bit more before they ended the call.

He was worried about his dad. His father's expectation was high since his other siblings were all doing well. He was doing well in studies too but unexpectedly was doing poorly when looking for a job.

Danial took a deep breath. He needed to steel himself as he was sure that his dad would call him later and he would need to hear an hour or two long lectures from him.

He made instant noodles for breakfast and sat on the floor. His one hand was grabbing his phone while watching Ayetube while his other hand was used to eating the noodle.

"I need to find some other job fast…" he mumbled. He continued watching the videos and an idea suddenly struck his mind.

"…Should I try to become an Ayetuber?"