Unbox Therapy, a YouTube channel run by the 36-year-old Ontario native Lewis Hilsenteger, is one of the most successful on the video sharing platform, with over 18 million subscribers at the time of this writing. Almost all of his videos earn millions of views, and it's all based on an extremely simple premise: unboxing all kinds of stuff, mostly tech.
Screencap from Unbox Therapy - YouTube
If you try to explain the concept of unboxing videos to someone not too familiar with them, they might think you're crazy. After all, why do we even find it entertaining enough to watch this guy unbox tech? But true enough, Hilsenteger actually gave an explanation for why his YouTube career blew up.
'Consumption By Proxy'
In an interview by the Toronto Star, the YouTuber mentioned the concept of "consumption by proxy" as an explanation for why unboxing videos are so popular.
What this basically means is that even if you don't own (or haven't bought the tech) yourself, watching somebody else unbox it makes you feel like you're doing it on your own. And that makes you and millions of other people feel good. According to Vidooly, the viewing experience is even almost therapeutic, which helped make the concept a lucrative business opportunity for Hilsenteger over the years.
Unbox Therapy Basically Taps Into Your 'Inner Child'
Here's another explanation as to why Unbox Therapy's extremely simple premise works: we all remain children at heart.
BetterMarketing explains this as follows: think back to the times when you were little, and it's either Christmas Eve or you/someone else's birthday. You're unwrapping presents or watching your friend unwrap presents. Do you remember feeling an eager sense of anticipation?
Christmas presents
That, according to a study by Google, is why unboxing videos work. It takes advantage of people's tendencies to feel gleeful whenever they see something shiny and new get unwrapped.
How Lewis Hilsenteger Built His YouTube Empire
Before he was known as that unboxing guy, Hilsenteger was already a techie at heart. In the Toronto Star interview, he revealed that he's always been looking for the latest and greatest tech since he was a kid, and all that enthusiasm just bled out into his line of work.
He would tap into this enthusiasm for tech and establish his own business called iUpgrade, a repair-and-upgrade store for Apple products. Through his business, he created tutorial videos which he first published on YouTube. These videos would then gain traction, which led him to see how all of it can be turned into a full-time job.
Since then, his YouTube career has earned him a lot of recognition in tech circles. He was even named a finalist for the 2017 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) category of the Shorty Awards, alongside well-known tech and science content creators.
This included "MythBusters" alum Adam Savage, Dr. Sandra Lee (Dr. Pimple Poppler), "Useless Robots" inventor Simone Giertz, astronaut Tim Peake, and eventual winner Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Related Article: [YouTuber] How Markiplier Built His Gaming Channel On YouTube
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Written by RJ Pierce
