SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
One problem with being a YouTube creator or anybody else who wants to make long-form videos is, look, the rest of us don't have time for all of that. Too much life is happening. Maybe just too much other nonsense is out there on the internet to watch every 20- or 30- or 40-minute video. So one solution is to put shorter video excerpts up on social media. They're much more likely to go viral and bring people to your work. And as it turns out, this has become a cottage industry in itself, even used by the world's most popular YouTube personality. Cecilia D'Anastasio has reported on the clipping business for Bloomberg. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
CECILIA D'ANASTASIO: Thanks for having me.
DETROW: So let's start with the term here. What are we talking about when we're talking about clipping? Explain how this whole ecosystem works.
D'ANASTASIO: Sure. Clipping involves clipping a short segment of a longer video and editing it with some fun text or a description of what's happening. And then you just scatter that across the internet - Instagram Reels, TikTok, anywhere you would look for short-form video.
DETROW: Yeah, and I see this everywhere, and I often don't give much thought to it, but your story kind of explains that this is actually an enormous industry. One particular company that you focus on is run by a 23-year-old named Anthony Fujiwara, and he has worked with some of the biggest people out there - MrBeast, IShowSpeed. How does this business work, and how big is it?
D'ANASTASIO: It's funny because when you scroll a short-form video app, you might think, oh, you know, this clip I saw from this YouTuber's video or from this podcast or even from a musician's concert is something that a fan found and posted on the internet because they authentically thought it was really cool and other people might like it. But that's not the way that the internet's built anymore. Clipping has short-circuited social media as we know it. There are thousands and thousands of contractors who work for Anthony Fujiwara who are paid somewhere between $300 or $1,500 for every 1 million views one of these clips of theirs garners on Instagram Reels, TikTok, etc.
DETROW: It's hard to really quantify just how much the internet has changed in kind of a not great way in recent decades. But I feel like this, to me, was a really clear example of the synthesizing and the monetizing of what used to be kind of the natural process of stuff that gets a lot of eyes makes its way to the top.
D'ANASTASIO: Exactly. This is a modern marketing technique for the digital media era. This is advertising that looks like authentic organic fandom.
DETROW: Did you come across - did you get an understanding of, like, what the best formula is to get our eyeballs on something? Like, what some of the standard moves are for these clippers?
D'ANASTASIO: I asked clippers this because I'm really curious, also, about how they're getting my attention when I'm scrolling...
DETROW: Yeah.
D'ANASTASIO: ...Through TikTok and Instagram Reels. And what I heard is that you have to identify a hook, and the hook is in the first one to two seconds of a video, something that really pops out at you or inspires questions in you or seems particularly unusual or sexy and just makes you want to keep watching, because as we all know, there's no shortage of short-form videos to scroll through, and if something doesn't capture you immediately, you're just going to keep scrolling.
DETROW: I mentioned at the top of the conversation some of the enormous, big YouTube names who use this service, but, like, how widespread is this? Who is the clientele here? Like, is this like standard practice at this point? If you are a content creator, you are contracting a clipping service?
D'ANASTASIO: It's totally standard practice.
DETROW: Yeah.
D'ANASTASIO: All of the top YouTubers, Twitch streamers use it, you know, your favorite podcasters, musicians. United Talent Agency, one of the biggest talent agencies you can think of, based in Beverly Hills, they use clipping. It's become a ubiquitous technique for flooding the zone with your client's content if you're a manager or an agent working in the talent space.
DETROW: Cecilia D'Anastasio covers video games and digital culture for Bloomberg. Thank you so much. I feel like we definitely gave clippers some good content here between this conversation.
D'ANASTASIO: (Laughter) Thank you.
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