MrBeast’s Media Empire Expands Far Beyond YouTube

Jimmy Donaldson, known online as MrBeast, isn’t just the world’s most popular YouTuber—he’s also a successful chocolatier, theme park operator and television producer, and his business empire keeps expanding. His company, Beast Industries, is now preparing to push into new sectors, including telecommunications and financial services.

“We’re also launching a phone company—Beast Mobile—and a financial services platform,” announced Jeffrey Housenbold, CEO of Beast Industries, during the New York Times’ DealBook Summit yesterday (Dec. 3). Donaldson hired Housenbold, a venture capitalist and the former CEO of Shutterfly, last year to manage his various efforts under a $5 billion holding company.

Today, Donaldson’s consumer products division generates as much revenue as his social media content. Beast Industries now includes the Feastables snack line, a lunch kit brand, a beef jerky collaboration with Jack Link’s and the toy line MrBeast Lab.

It will also soon include Beast Mobile, a phone company that will reportedly pursue the mobile virtual network operator (MNVO) strategy of running on infrastructure from a major carrier. This approach has already been successfully pursued by celebrities like Ryan Reynolds, who sold his Mint Mobile phone service to T-Mobile in 2023 for more than $1.3 billion.

Donaldson’s financial services bet is expected to be similarly broad. In October, the influencer filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that outlined plans for a mobile app offering banking, cryptocurrency, consumer lending and financial advisory services.

On the media side, Beast Industries still revolves around Donaldson’s dominance on YouTube, where the 27-year-old has more than 450 million subscribers. He has also built large audiences on Instagram and TikTok—though he prefers YouTube to the latter, which he described as filled with “brain rot”—and in 2024 partnered with Amazon to launch the competition show Beast Games. The collaboration helped expose the MrBeast brand to new viewers, said Donaldson, noting that the “demographic on streaming platforms is a little older.”

But the rollout of Beast Games also triggered controversy. A handful of former contestants filed a lawsuit alleging unsafe conditions, prompting Donaldson to shrink the number of participants for the show’s upcoming second season. “I learned why people don’t have 2,000 people compete in a show, because you’re essentially creating a scenario where 1,999 aren’t happy because they didn’t win,” he said.

Beyond consumer products and media, Beast Industries is preparing to add a third pillar to its business. The company plans to build a two-sided marketplace that matches creators with Fortune 1000 marketers, according to Housenbold, who described Beast Industries’ broader ambition as becoming “the most impactful entertainment brand in the world.”

As Donaldson expands into new industries, he finds “nuggets” of inspiration from entrepreneurs he admires. He keeps posters of Steve Jobs in his office and says he looks up to Elon Musk’s ability to “push boundaries in multiple industries at the same time.”

Still, Donaldson acknowledges that his own path is unique. “There’s not really anyone who’s doing YouTube content at the level we’re doing while also trying to run a chocolate company, while also trying to run a bank and this and that,” he said. “I don’t know if there’s one person I would want to be.”