Logan Paul vs. KSI—Making Internet History or Making Bank?

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Hope Muñoz-Stanley, Author

The long awaited fight has come and gone. On Aug. 25, the KSI vs. Logan Paul fight swept the internet like a storm. But the highly anticipated Manchester fight ended in a draw, leaving some viewers wanting refunds and others angered that their favorite boxer didn’t win. More importantly, many say the fight was just a scam to make millions, a complaint that is being heard more and more these days about content creators on YouTube.

The fight cost $10 per person to livestream, not to mention ticket revenue at the stadium where the event was held. The main event consisted of a fight between famous YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI while the fight held prior to that was between their younger brothers, Jake Paul and Deji. Although the Jake vs. Deji fight ended with Jake taking the win, the fight many were looking forward to ended in disappointment.

@DanielNoob on Twitter says, “KSI vs Logan Paul refund pls thank.” This, along with many other tweets and articles, shows just how upset many fans are.

Adding fuel to the fire, the full fights between both sets of boxers was just released on YouTube. Many who paid for it are upset because they didn’t know it would be released for free just a week after the event.

Although many want refunds, Logan denies that they were just fighting for the money. In a recent video he says, “Each one of the fighters involved was absolutely not doing it for the money.” He also says he is not sure if he even profited from the event at all, due to all the expenses it took to hold it in the first place.

Immediately after the fight, both fighters were dissatisfied with the results. KSI proposed a rematch, and Logan enthusiastically agreed. As for Jake and Deji, Jake challenged Chris Brown— and made sure to plug his new clothing line, leading to accusations that he used the fight as a platform to promote his merch.

There are many examples of YouTuber creators trying to sell their products and merchandise to their young audiences lately. While many people seem to be okay with it, it makes many wonder if things are going too far. An example is the TanaCon event in June. The YouTuber Tana Mongeau wanted to hold an event similar to VidCon as she was upset with how the company had treated her.

People were promised goody bags worth four times the price of their ticket and a chance to meet their favorite creator at the event. But the goody bags were not worth that much, and many fans didn’t even get to enter the venue as they were left outside all day getting sunburned. Refunds were issued, but not everyone got their money back for travel and hotel fees.

After “adpocalypse,” when YouTube began restricting ads on certain videos they deemed not “ad-friendly,” many YouTubers spoke out against the company. Others had to learn better money-making strategies since their primary source of income comes from advertisers.

Clickbait is used all over YouTube, fooling people into thinking a video is about one thing when it is really about another. Merch is also shoved down viewers’ throats in nearly every video, with people desperate to sell their brands.

Some content creators are more transparent, promoting the website Patreon as a way to make money. Patreon allows users to pay a certain amount of cash every month to get some sort of exclusive content from their favorite creators. Examples of this are exclusive storytimes, personal messages, and maybe even a P.O. Box address to send the influencers mail or gifts.

Both subscribers and content creators seem to be getting fed up with all the YouTube rules and regulations. Many are even losing motivation to create videos. This is a full-time job for them, and without revenue they can’t make the high-quality videos that they used to make. Hank Green, founder and advisory board member of the Internet Creators Guild, said in reference to the adpocalypse, “This has really squeezed creators who are making content that’s maybe good, but not like super happy family fun time stuff. And again, it’s like, is this worth it?”

Logan already had a controversial year and has been trying to redeem himself after the internet blasted him in January for filming a dead body in the Japanese suicide forest. He has since apologized and had a few interviews explaining what happened.

In an interview with YouTuber Casey Neistat, Logan addressed his reasons for doing the fight: “This was a way to step back from the world of YouTube and stop worrying about the views, the money, the clout … so I can become a different guy.” Logan says the fight was more about a journey to redemption. After the fight, he even thanked KSI for helping him with the journey.

KSI also spoke out in a video made a couple days after the fight. “Personally,” he says, “I thought I won the fight.”

Although the fight was pretty action-packed, many were left frustrated. Hopefully a winner will be declared in the re-match. Until then, many will continue to question the future of YouTube. Will audiences stay interested with all this product pushing? Will YouTube ease up on the demonetization of certain videos? Millions of people are hoping that things will get better for #teaminternet.