In early March, YouTube announced it would restrict monetization features in Russia.
All videos that are watched in Russia — regardless of where the creator is — no longer have ads.
Because of this, US-based YouTubers who post Russian-language videos have seen ad earnings plummet.
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On March 3, YouTube announced that all monetization features would be blocked in Russia, meaning any video watched there would be stripped of its ads.
“Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re pausing all Google and YouTube ads in Russia as well as access to all monetization features,” YouTube’s parent company, Google, wrote in a statement announcing the demonetization, which also affected features like subscriptions, Super Chat, and Super Stickers. “This means YouTube creators will temporarily stop earning ad revenue on views received in Russia or revenue from other monetization features.”
While some joked that YouTube was giving a free Premium subscription to all Russia-based users by removing ads, creators — and not only the ones based in Russia — are less thrilled with the decision.
The removal of advertisements in Russia applies to all videos that are watched by Russian audiences — regardless of where the creator is located. This means creators who are part of YouTube’s Partner Program and split ad revenue with the platform can no longer earn money from views that come from Russia.
A number of US-based creators who post videos in Russian or whose audiences are primarily based in Russia have seen their ad earnings drop.
US-based ASMR YouTuber Maria, who asked to only be identified by first name due to her ongoing relationship with YouTube, wrote to Insider in an email that ad earnings for her Russian content — whose audience is largely located in Russia — has fallen significantly.
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She attached a screenshot of data on her most viewed Russian video as an example. The dashboard shows that since early March, views in the geographical region of Russia have gone up, while her earnings have simultaneously plummeted.
Maria, who is a full-time YouTuber, has decided to stop publishing content in Russian altogether.
“It is very unfortunate that creators that have nothing to do with the war but share the same language are punished too,” she wrote in her email. “If I speak Russian, I should stop entertaining Russian people or YouTube punishes me.”
Anatoly Vlasov, who lives in California and has a Russian-language channel with more than 850,000 subscribers, mainly posts videos discussing the news.
In the weeks after the war began, Vlasov posted videos about US coverage of the conflict and saw viewership increase from an average of about 125,000 views per video to about 300,000. One video, posted the day after the invasion of Ukraine, has over 500,000 views.
“The war was the only thing that everybody was talking about,” he said. “People in Russia are interested in what American media think about the world, and what views they have on the war.”
Approximately half of his audience watches him from Russia, he said, and he thought it was natural for them to turn to to YouTube for content that differs from that of Russian state media.
“YouTube in Russia is the last free speech platform where all opinions are allowed,” Vlasov said. “That’s why people watch it, because all other sources are censored.”
But despite the increased viewership, Vlasov’s ad revenue decreased by 56% since February, according to screenshots viewed by Insider.
In a video he posted on March 6, three days after ads were blocked in Russia, he encouraged his viewers to download a VPN and change their virtual location to a different country so he wouldn’t lose out on ad revenue.
While he thinks some viewers did so, his earnings from ads have not fully recovered.
Marina Mogilko has three channels on YouTube.
Marina Mogilko
Marina Mogilko, a YouTube creator with three channels, saw the ad revenue on her Russian channel, which has over 1 million subscribers, decline from around $2,500 a month to $1,300, according to documentation of her earnings viewed by Insider.
“People are definitely looking to shift away from Russian content on YouTube,” a talent manager who works with several international creators said, adding that clients who create content in Russian have lost between 10% and 20% of their ad revenue. “Many of these creators are wondering if they should keep doing that, and some are looking into alternative, local Russian platforms to reach that audience, yet these platforms haven’t been so successful.”
In response to questions about the declining revenue for creators who have audiences in Russia, a YouTube spokesperson said in an email to Insider that creators can still make money from ads and other monetization features when their videos are shown to users in countries outside of Russia.
