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The 2025 Business of YouTube Rewind
YouTube Breakdowns, Strategies and Data: Our Year in Review
Newsletter BuzzMyVideos
December 31, 2025
The Business of YouTube
A weekly strategic lens for senior leaders into how YouTube is reshaping the business of technology, sports, music, entertainment, and culture.
Welcome!
To your favourite newsletter, The Business of YouTube, brought to you by Paola Marinone and Bengü Atamer, founders of BuzzMyVideos and previously at YouTube and Google. We are bringing our exclusive insights from 20 years of experience leading strategy at YouTube and Google.
🚀 2025: A Year of Growth and "The Business of YouTube"
Looking back at 2025, it’s hard to believe we started The Business of YouTube Newsletter at zero.
Since then, this community has grown into a group large enough to populate the Comedy Cellar in NYC!
Over the last 12 months, we have written more than 56,000 words, basically a short novel, covering the evolution of YouTube, Sports Media and Creator economy landscapes from our perspective.
With an incredible 60.7% average open rate, it’s clear that the intersection of data and creativity is where we want to be whilst assessing all things YouTube for digidal media businesses.
To celebrate a massive year, we wanted to dive back into the archives.
Out of the 28 posts we shared, here are the top 3 articles that caught the most eyeballs and sparked the most conversation in 2025:
🏆 Our Top 3 Most-Read Articles of 2025
1. 4x Brand Lift: The Math Behind YouTube Collabs
YouTube’s new Collaborations feature (rolled out broadly in late 2025) is the most significant organic growth tool we’ve seen in years because it solves the "duplicate upload" problem.
👉 Read Here in case you missed it before.
2. The First "Creator World Cup" is Coming 🎥⚽️
Note: This was also our highest-engagement post as the most clicked!
We all know the 2026 World Cup in North America is going to be massive. But a new report from Rising Ballers suggests it won’t just be bigger; it will be fundamentally different.
👉 Read Here in case you missed it before.
3. The Digital Derby: Key Lessons from Neymar Jr. and Santos FC's YouTube Strategies
The core difference between the Neymar Jr. and Santos FC YouTube channels lies in their central focus. Neymar Jr.'s channel is a personality-driven brand platform, designed to give fans a curated, behind-the-scenes look into his life, career, and commercial partnerships. It’s about building the "Neymar Jr." brand beyond the football pitch.
Santos FC's channel, "SantosTV 7K," is an official club media outlet. Its primary goal is to serve the club's dedicated fanbase with comprehensive team-related content, from match highlights and training ground footage to player interviews and live broadcasts.
👉 Read Here in case you missed it before.
Want to discuss how to shape your collaboration strategy, talk to us.
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The Business of YouTube Podcast 🗣️
Watch the latest episode of The Business of YouTube podcast
A veteran in the industry, Wim Ponnet has witnessed and acted in the key industries of entertainment. A very unique point of view from someone who has been involved in real business transformation, always at cutting edge areas of the entertainment industry. From Yahoo, to Endemol Shine, then investing in sport & tech.
Weekly YouTube Round-Up 📰
That’s all for this week!
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See you next week 👋
Paola and Bengü
 Paola Marinone, Founder & CEO BuzzMyVideos |  Bengü Atamer, Co-Founder & Director BuzzMyVideos |
The Business of YouTube is powered by BuzzMyVideos and FullScore.
About BuzzMyVideos: Founded by Ex Google/YouTube Executives, BuzzMyVideos is the leading AI YouTube Growth Platform that drives hyper-growth & new revenue from and on YouTube. With clients like AC Milan, World Aquatics, United World Wrestling, and many others, BuzzMyVideos leads the way on Scaling Growth & Revenue on YouTube.