Name: 2000萬訂閱者YouTube如何賺錢？💰 (How We Make Money on YouTube with 20M Subs)
Uploaded: 2026-01-24T17:14:54.000Z
Duration: 9 min 58 s

情態副詞

Kurzgesagt has existed for 10 years, insanely long in Internet years.

Kurzgesagt 已經存在 10 年了，在 Internet years 裡算是超級久。

We're among the largest sciency channels on YouTube and still a bit of a black box to people.

我們是 YouTube 上最大的 sciency 頻道之一，但大家對我們還是有點像個 black box。

So let's talk about ourselves a bit in three parts.

所以我們來分三部分聊聊自己。

Our backstory, how we finance our work, and the values of Kurzgesagt.

我們的 backstory、我們如何籌措資金，以及 Kurzgesagt 的價值觀。

Let's jump back to a more innocent time, from humble beginnings to today.

我們就來回溯一下，從 humble beginnings 到今天。

Kurzgesagt's foundation was laid when Philip, our founder, dropped out of high school.

Kurzgesagt 的基礎是我們的 founder Philip 在 high school 輟學時打下的。

As a teenager, learning seemed daft and useless.

當時他還是個 teenager，覺得學習很無聊又沒用。

And he wasn't interested in anything until a very special teacher at a school for dropouts grabbed him by the neck.

直到一位 school for dropouts 的老師抓住了他，他才對任何事產生興趣。

She talked about connections and the big picture.

For the first time ever, Philip wanted to learn more without being forced.

這是 Philip 第一次主動想學更多，而不是被強迫。

Kurzgesagt tries to recreate this experience for you.

Kurzgesagt 試圖為你重現這種體驗。

Nothing is boring if you tell a good story.

如果故事講得好，沒有什麼是無聊的。

And we try to tell these stories to spark excitement and make you want to go on and learn more.

我們試圖講述這些故事，激發你的熱情，讓你想要繼續學習更多。

Because of the one teacher that could do this, Philip got a high school degree, studied history and design, and

因為那位能做到這點的老師，Philip 拿到了 high school 文憑，學習了歷史和設計，

eventually started Kurzgesagt as a passion project inspired by Crash Course world history.

最後以 Crash Course world history 為靈感，創立了 Kurzgesagt 這個 passion project。

In 2012, YouTube was less commercial and more idealistic.

2012 年的 YouTube 比較不 commercial，也比較 idealistic。

You couldn't make a living with videos as involved as ours.

我們的影片這麼費工，你根本沒辦法靠這個維生。

And so for the first few years, it actually cost money to make Kurzgesagt.

所以一開始的幾年，做 Kurzgesagt 反而是賠錢的。

We had no outside funding, just intrinsic motivation and a few friends from university.

我們沒有 outside funding，只有 intrinsic motivation 和幾個 university 的朋友。

We worked for clients during the day and on kurzgesagt at night, 80 to 100 hours a week.

白天我們接案子，晚上做 Kurzgesagt，一週工時 80 到 100 小時。

It was a real struggle, but also very rewarding.

雖然很辛苦，但也非常有成就感。

But then Patreon launched, sponsorship started, our views increased.

但後來 Patreon 上線了，開始有贊助，我們的觀看數也增加了。

YouTube changed in 2015, the channel began to break even, and then to earn a profit.

2015 年 YouTube 改變了，頻道開始打平，然後開始賺錢。

But we were pretty burned out at this point.

但那時候我們已經累到不行了。

So we decided to bring in more friends and hire the first team members full time.

所以我們決定找更多朋友加入，全職聘請第一批團隊成員。

Creating a legal entity, more people meant that we could stop overworking, do more and improve.

成立公司後，更多人加入，我們就能停止過度勞累，做更多事，並且做得更好。

The livelihood of real humans depended upon it.

None of us had any experience in running a company.

我們沒有人有經營公司的經驗。

Kurzgesagt is not a small project anymore.

Kurzgesagt 已經不是個小專案了。

We are an animation studio with offices in Munich and Berlin.

我們是一家在慕尼黑和柏林設有辦公室的動畫工作室。

We need computers, monitors, tablets, desks, coffee contracts, pay licenses, taxes, rent and insurance.

我們需要電腦、螢幕、平板、桌子、咖啡合約、支付授權費、稅金、租金和保險。

In 2023, our team consists of over 60 employees and a lot of freelancers around the world.

在 2023 年，我們的團隊有超過 60 名員工，還有世界各地許多自由工作者。

Salaries alone cost millions of dollars a year just to stay around.

光是薪資一年就要數百萬美元，才能維持運作。

With such high production costs, how can we publish our work for free?

製作成本這麼高，我們要怎麼免費發布我們的作品呢？

How WE FINANCE KURZGESAGT We've added up our earnings from 2015 through 2022.

我們是怎麼資助 Kurzgesagt 的？我們加總了 2015 年到 2022 年的收入。

Our sources of funding change depending on opportunities and the state of the world.

我們的資金來源會隨著機會和世界局勢而改變。

Early on, agency work was our main source of income.

早期，代理工作是我們主要的收入來源。

In some years we got more sponsorships than in others.

有些年份，我們的贊助比其他年份多。

Then it became pretty big after we launched our canon, 62% of our revenue comes indirectly or directly from you.

然後，在我們推出經典系列後，規模就變得相當大了，62% 的收入直接或間接來自你們。

You watch our videos with ads, support us on Patreon, or buy from our shop.

你們看我們的廣告影片、在 Patreon 上支持我們，或是從我們的商店購買商品。

The single biggest source of income by far is our shop.

到目前為止，最大的收入來源是我們的商店。

That alone accounted for 40% over the last eight years.

光是這項收入，在過去八年就佔了 40%。

once we published our calendar for the first time in 2016, we realized it could really help us do more things.

自從我們在 2016 年首次推出月曆後，我們就發現它能幫助我們做更多事。

And we started producing more and more science products, from our posters to our gratitude journal or universe scented candles.

於是我們開始生產越來越多的科學相關產品，從海報、感謝日記到宇宙香氛蠟燭。

YouTube ads accounted for 13% and Patreon 9%.

YouTube 廣告佔了 13%，Patreon 佔了 9%。

So without your support, we would cease to exist.

所以，沒有你們的支持，我們就無法繼續經營下去。

Our shop and Patreon are our most important sources of revenue.

我們的商店和 Patreon 是我們最重要的收入來源。

And because we see ourselves as science communicators, we don't just do merch, but

而且因為我們認為自己是科學傳播者，我們不只做周邊商品，

sciency products that we spend hundreds of hours researching, discussing with experts, polishing up and working on directly with the manufacturers.

還有我們花數百小時研究、與專家討論、打磨並直接與製造商合作的 sciency 產品。

They are part of the science story we try to tell.

它們是我們試圖講述的科學故事的一部分。

It also just feels good to get directly funded by you guys and give you something back for it on top of our videos.

而且，能直接獲得你們的支持，並在影片之外再回饋給你們一些東西，感覺真的很棒。

YouTube ads are a crucial part of our funding as well, but they are not within our control.

YouTube 廣告也是我們資金的重要組成部分，但它們不受我們控制。

Then there's paid agency work, which we stopped doing in 2022.

再來是付費的代理工作，我們在 2022 年就停止做了。

It accounted for 9% of our revenue over the last eight years.

過去八年，這佔了我們收入的 9%。

A lot in the beginning, not much by the end.

一開始佔的比例很高，到後來就很少了。

Then there are commercial sponsors advertising products.

We also got about 7% from German public broadcasting for the German Channel, but

我們也從德國公共電視臺獲得了德語頻道大約 7% 的收入，

但在 2022 年就結束了這項合作。

Finally, there are institutional sponsors representing about 10%.

最後，還有機構贊助商，大約佔了 10%。

Some people take issue with this, especially Bill Gates has come under public scrutiny and we've been criticized for even working with organisations funded by him.

有些人對此有意見，特別是 Bill Gates 受到公眾的嚴格審查，我們也因為與他資助的組織合作而受到批評。

So let's look at this 10% in more detail.

所以我們來更詳細地看看這 10%。

About 3% of our revenue over the last eight years came from the Gates organizations for a wide variety of topics often suggested by us.

在過去八年裡，我們大約有 3% 的收入來自 Gates 組織，主題非常廣泛，通常是我們提出的。

5% comes from open philanthropy and is only used for specific projects with these funds, we've started Arabic, Hindi, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese and French channels, bringing more free science content to more people.

5% 來自開放式慈善捐款，僅用於特定項目，利用這些資金，我們開辦了阿拉伯語、印地語、韓語、日語、葡萄牙語和法語頻道，為更多人帶來免費的科學內容。

Then there's a two year funding for original TikTok content, which gives us freedom to explore and learn how to do short form science communication.

然後是兩年的原創 TikTok 內容資金，這讓我們有自由去探索和學習如何進行短影音科學傳播。

The final 2% came from other organizations like the Red Cross or the un, for example.

最後的 2% 來自其他組織，例如紅十字會或聯合國。

We choose institutional sponsors carefully, but

我們會仔細選擇機構贊助商，但

if organizations want to fund videos that help us spread quality information about relevant topics, this is an easy yes for us if we have the capacity for it.

如果有組織想資助我們製作優質資訊影片，探討相關主題，只要我們有能力，這對我們來說都很容易接受。

On top of that, the institutional sponsors we're working with align with our values.

此外，我們合作的機構贊助商都與我們的價值觀一致。

We have contracts with every grant giver or sponsor that bars them from editorial influence other than suggesting topic areas like global health or climate change.

我們與每一位補助金提供者或贊助商都有合約，禁止他們在編輯上有任何影響，但可以建議全球健康或氣候變遷等主題領域。

We agree on video topics together, but sponsors can neither influence details nor our conclusions.

我們會一起討論影片主題，但贊助商無法影響細節或我們的結論。

The final decision always remains with us, and

最後的決定權始終掌握在我們手中，

usually we develop the topics of the videos autonomously and tell the sponsor what we're doing afterwards.

通常我們會獨立開發影片主題，事後再告知贊助商我們的做法。

If you're interested in how we research our videos in detail, our head of research wrote an article about it.

如果你想了解我們如何詳細研究影片內容，我們的研究主管寫了一篇文章。

Running an educational YouTube channel is a balancing act that we take very seriously.

經營一個教育性的 YouTube 頻道是一項我們非常認真看待的平衡工作。

We're doing our best to maintain this balance, adjusting whenever necessary.

我們正盡力維持這個平衡，並隨時進行必要的調整。

As a team and a company, we want to grow to give more people access to a science based outlook on the world.

作為一個團隊和公司，我們希望能成長，讓更多人能以科學的角度看待世界。

這樣就來到我們最後一個主題了。

Why are we doing kurzgesagt Our values and our vision Our core mission is to spark curiosity.

為什麼我們要創立 Kurzgesagt？我們的價值觀和願景是什麼？我們的核心使命是激發好奇心。

We want to make science and humanism accessible for as many people as possible.

我們希望讓盡可能多的人都能輕鬆接觸科學和人文主義。

The effort we put into creating our videos is a way of achieving that.

我們在製作影片上付出的努力，就是達成這個目標的方式。

Our videos are beautiful because that helps to spark curiosity, to understand complex topics, and

我們的影片之所以精美，是因為這有助於激發好奇心、理解複雜的主題，而且

because it just feels good to create and watch.

光是創作和觀賞本身就令人愉悅。

Our research is as intensive as it is, so our videos are a good simplification of very complicated topics.

我們的研究有多深入，我們的影片就是對複雜主題的絕佳簡化。

We want to make people excited about science so they rediscover subjects they hated in school and see how amazing they are.

我們希望激發大家對科學的熱情，讓他們重新發現以前在學校討厭的科目，並看到它們有多棒。

On top of curiosity, we want to inspire long term thinking and a positive, constructive outlook.

除了好奇心，我們還希望激發長遠思考以及積極、建設性的觀點。

Being optimistic about the future of humanity is not mainstream and we think this is horrible.

對人類的未來感到樂觀並不是主流，而我們認為這很糟糕。