College drop-out joins list
But Dáithí still goes to shop in Lidl
A YOUNG Limerick man has gone from college drop-out to join the exclusive list of Irish YouTube millionaires.
Dáithí De Nogla (26) set up his channel on the social media giant back in 2012 and has grown a huge following.
Today Dáithi boasts an eye-watering 6.28 million subscribers and yesterday he said he expects it to achieve more than a billion views before the end of the year.
New accounts show that accumulated profits at Mr De Nogla’s YouTube firm last year soared by €661,967 to €1.5m as the company recorded weekly profits of €12,730 in 2017.
During a bumper year for the low-profile Mr De Nogla, his company’s cash pile increased more than five-fold going from €247,158 to €1.329m.
The number of views for his channel currently sits at 962.3 million and the 26-year-old said that by December he hopes to ramp up monthly views to around 30 million.
Subscribers have been won over by Dáithí’s ‘goofy’ YouTube persona playing video games “and having the craic and banter”.
The channel generates its cash through ad revenue and views, and Mr De Nogla said the single highest monthly payment he has received from his YouTube work was a payment of more than €100,000 last year. He said his monthly payment from his work this coming December could be even higher.
Mr De Nogla is a cousin of All-Ireland winning Limerick hurler Sean Finn and said that he was very proud to cheer on the Limerick hurlers from his home earlier this month. He said: “The Finns bleed hurling. It was really cool to see Limerick win the AllIreland.”
The Institute of Technology at
Tralee (ITT) drop-out said he expects his YouTube business to generate revenues of around €1m this year.
The YouTuber, who studied Early Childhood Care and Education at ITT, leads a modest lifestyle and said he does his shopping at the local Lidl. “They do nice juices,” he said. Mr De Nogla handed himself a handsome pay-rise last year going from €33,800 to €78,810, though he pointed out that he gave away some of his salary “to those in need”.
He also said much of his income last year came from sponsorship from gaming firms.
While the internet may have given him a handsome living, Mr De Nogla said: “The internet can be a cruel place and people can be tough on you. I steer well clear of that.”
Mr De Nogla said that he spends as much as five months a year in Los Angeles “doing deals”. The YouTuber rents an apartment in LA to act as a hub for his business there and he doesn’t employ a manager or an agent and completes all the deals himself. Asked how long he will remain in the business, Mr De Nogla said: “My longevity depends how much I evolve and I think I can continue doing this into my early 30s.”