Page 31 - 33-2

NTU Management Review Vol. 33 No. 2 Aug. 2023

shed light on MCN companies in practice to consider how to operate their companies.
Besides, our models suggest that the existence of an independent MCN gives weaker
creators more opportunities regarding advertorial business. As a result, we could infer that
MCN companies may facilitate the diversity of the video-sharing industry and thus enrich
the whole ecosystem. Consequently, it seems that the rise of MCN companies is beneficial
to video-sharing platforms and that the platforms should adopt a positive attitude towards
the trend. Indeed, in the real business world, the largest video-sharing platform, YouTube,

has adopted several methods to recognize and assist the cooperation between MCN
companies and creators. On the one hand, although YouTube does not endorse the service
6
provided by MCN companies, it offers creators the instruction of MCN companies.
Moreover, YouTube provides certain functions to support the cooperation between MCN
companies and creators, such as sending creators’ income directly to MCN companies’
accounts and sharing information about creators’ performances with MCN companies. On
the other hand, YouTube sets policies for MCN companies and lists those MCN companies

7
who have direct relationships with YouTube on its service directory. Through the list,
creators could find out whether an MCN company is in touch with YouTube on a regular
basis, making themselves easier to reach a reliable MCN company. The findings from
8
our study may explain the above practices and provide valuable insights for video sharing
platforms, such as YouTube, to determine their further actions towards MCN companies.
Our study has its limitations. First, so far, all our findings regarding advertorial
allocation are based on numerical studies. It would be nice if one may modify our model
to obtain some analytical findings. Second, in practice, an MCN company may group
multiple creators to make one video together. This not only increases the probability

of meeting a certain number of views but also helps a creator with lower popularity to
become famous. It will be interesting if such a strategic decision may be further explored.

6 See https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2737059?hl=en
7 See https://servicesdirectory.withyoutube.com/
8 See https://servicesdirectory.withyoutube.com/directory/#?services=multi-channel-networks

23