Frankie Fights: How A Michigan-based Influencer Is Battling For Fair Payment

One West Michigan social media influencer is taking on one of the biggest platforms in the world to make sure he and others finally get paid what they deserve.

We all know that social media creators generate millions of dollars for the platforms they post to. Between all of those ads you see between swipes and scrolls, on top of the paid content they post, there is a lot of money out there being generated by that "free" entertainment you get while you stare blankly at that tiny screen in your hand.

Grand Rapids resident, Frankie Lapenna is one of the biggest content creators on the planet. Recently, he had his first video reach 500 million views on Youtube, which puts him right below big name creators like Mr. Beast.

You may have seen him running around West Michigan causing chaos with a comically large fake butt:

@frankielapenna Peak male performance in America. #merica #police #cops #concert #festival #running #lol #freedom #arrested #fyp #usa_tiktok ♬ America, F**K Yeah! (From "Team America World Police") - Geek Music

The internet loves Frankie, and he is clearly generating tons of views for platforms like YouTube Shorts and TikTok, but it turns out he isn't making nearly as much as you'd think he is off of his hard work.

In a recent video, Frankie broke down. how much he made off of his 500 million view video. He claims that he took in around $13,000 in compensation from Youtube off this single pieced of content.

And while that may seem like a lot to most of us, when he broke down the numbers it adds up to micro-cents per view.

And while we can't expect him to make dollars per view, it feels way below what they could be paying out based on the revenue they generated. To give you an idea, it's just barely above what Spotify pays artists who are complaining that they are barely making money off their songs. (.003 to .005)

But what does Youtube make off that video? They don't disclose that information, but in 2022 they pulled in $29 billion dollars, so I'm sure they could spare a little more to the creators who keep their platform afloat.

You can check out Frankie's video below and decide what you think:

Do you think he deserves the earn more for the joy he brings his fans? I'm taking his side- Youtube, pay up!