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This Tech YouTuber Lost His Credibility Because Of A Wallpaper App
The story of Panels by MKBHD
Aditya Kumar Saroj
September 30, 2024
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This Tech YouTuber Lost His Credibility Because Of A Wallpaper App
YouTuber Marques Brownlee, more popularly known as MKBHD, has more than 19.5 million subscribers at the time of writing this article. He has been reviewing tech products since the last 15 years.
Generally a tech optimist, some of MKBHD’s more critical reviews are known to have killed products before they could improve. For example, he tore into Humane’s AI pin with this video.
After reviewing products for such a long time, he decided to launch one of his own - Panels, a subscription-based HD wallpaper app. Panels charges $12 a month for something available for free online.
Imagine having a large enough audience to make almost any idea work, and then settling on a subscription-based wallpaper app.
— Shayan (@ImSh4yy)
8:29 AM • Sep 24, 2024
Users noted that apart from being overpriced and full with ads, the app also collected unnecessary amount of data.
On another note, there were definitely some people just waiting for an opportunity to finally be the critic to the the person who has been criticizing others for years and making millions of it.
Nikita Bier noted how damaging this wallpaper experiment can turn out to be for MKBHD.
I’m guessing the wall paper app will make $2-3mil in the first year after App Store fees given its chart position.
But I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone’s reputation get vaporized like this in a single day.
I think he nets out negative in the medium term.
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier)
2:23 AM • Sep 25, 2024
Brownlee responded to the criticism but that did not really help his cause.
Part of building in public is getting mass feedback immediately, which is pretty dope. Almost exactly like publishing a YouTube video
First thing we're doing is fixing the excessive data disclosures, as people rightfully brought up. For transparency, we'd never actually ask for… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD)
2:13 PM • Sep 24, 2024
Panels is a swing-and-a-miss situation but also a good lesson that it is always easier to criticize than to actually build something valuable.
Perhaps, MKBHD should’ve read this tweet he posted 8 years ago -
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