(Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
One of YouTube's biggest stars is back, following his tumultuous fallout with CNN. Filmmaker Casey Neistat took to his channel today to announce his next business venture - and yes, it involves a daily vlog.
The YouTuber published a new video online titled "WHAT'S NEXT FOR ME ON YouTube", in which he addressed what he'd been doing since his company Beme's $25 million CNN deal came to an end. Decked out in his trademark beaten up sunglasses and a dapper suit, he explained that he would be launching a kind of 'factory' for YouTubers and other creative professionals.
(Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Turner)
Neistat explained that the genesis of the idea boiled down to the fact that he wanted to do more with his channel, which has 9.1 million subscribers at the time of this article.
He said, "I wanted this channel to be about something bigger than just me."
The 37 year old explained that working with fellow YouTubers, collaborators and other creative types was one of his biggest passions and that he wanted his new business to revolve around that. To that end, he revealed that taken out a lease on a "huge collaborative space": i.e. the iconic former Beme offices, a three storey space in New York.
While Neistat was light on the details of his new company, he did reveal its name and it's a relatively straightforward one. He stated that his office address was 368 Broadway and that the company therefore would be called 368.
He said, "I call [368] a company but I'm not sure what the business is behind it yet. I'll figure it out later."
Neistat took to Twitter to announce the news, where he invited his fellow YouTuber and VidCon co-founder Hank Green to 'Make 368 his east coast studio'.
Although Neistat was in relatively high spirits, he confronted Beme's failure head-on in his video and its affect on him. He explained his brief absence, saying, "I needed a hard reset. I needed a break. See when you're standing so close to something, when you're standing in the forest and the trees are blinding you, when your only focus is your next upload, it makes it hard to see the big picture."
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"Officially, I ended [my daily vlog series] in Fall of 2016 and I spent the following year trying to build something new. And ultimately, I failed. Failure sucks, but the pain that is failure does not exceed the pain that is not trying at all," he continued.
He also announced the return of his daily vlog, which would centre around the development of 368 (much as his former vlogs did around Beme in its infancy). The first episode is expected to be uploaded to his channel tomorrow at 8am EST and will hopefully provide more clarification about the business - at a stretch, it appears to be something along the lines of a creative co-working space.
Megan C. Hills is a freelance journalist and blogger based in London, writing about YouTube and women's lifestyle. Follow her on Twitter, Instagram and on her blog.
