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TheSoul Publishing is a global
digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...
publisher based in
Limassol Limassol, also known as Lemesos, is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the Limassol district. Limassol is the second-largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population of 195,139 and a district population o ...
, Cyprus which oversees multiple brands that monetize based on short-form content. Founded in 2016, it focuses on video content, most of which has been categorised as
content farm A content farm or content mill is an organization focused on generating a large amount of web content, often specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by search engines, a practice known as search engine optimization (SE ...
material. TheSoul's brands include
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channels such as 5-Minute Crafts,
Bright Side Bright Side or The Bright Side may refer to: *The English language idiom "Look on the bright side (disambiguation), Look on the bright side" Music *Bright Side (album), ''Bright Side'' (album), a 2014 album by OBB *The Bright Side (Lenka album), ...
, La La Life, Teen-Z, and 123 GO! Although TheSoul is headquartered in Cyprus, its videos are produced all over the world with multiple offices throughout Europe and North America. It develops videos across 100 channel brands in 19 different languages.


History

TheSoul Publishing was launched by web developers Pavel Radaev and Marat Mukhametov, who are Cyprus-based Russian nationals, in the Cypriot city of
Limassol Limassol, also known as Lemesos, is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the Limassol district. Limassol is the second-largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population of 195,139 and a district population o ...
in 2016. It grew out of the duo's
Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...
-based company AdMe, which focused on digital advertising and content distribution. Later that year, TheSoul launched its YouTube channel 5-Minute Crafts, which became 13th most-subscribed YouTube channel in the world as of April 2023. In 2017, the company launched
Bright Side Bright Side or The Bright Side may refer to: *The English language idiom "Look on the bright side (disambiguation), Look on the bright side" Music *Bright Side (album), ''Bright Side'' (album), a 2014 album by OBB *The Bright Side (Lenka album), ...
, which became its second-most popular YouTube channel. In 2019, TheSoul said it had 550 employees and produced 1,500 videos a month. In 2021, it was recorded that the company had 2,100 employees, 80% of whom work remotely and follow a "no meetings" policy. As of October 2022, the company's employees are based in over 70 countries and six continents. In March 2021, TheSoul was named Digital Studio of the Year by ''
Digiday ''Digiday'' is an online trade magazine for online media founded in 2008 by Nick Friese. It is headquartered in New York City, with offices in London and Tokyo. Description ''Digiday'' provides daily online news about advertising, publishing, a ...
'' at its Video & TV Awards. In September, the company published a video launching its
virtual YouTuber A or is an online entertainer who uses a virtual Avatar (computing), avatar generated using computer graphics. Real-time motion capture software or technology are often—but not always—used to capture movement. The digital trend originated i ...
musician character Polar, which received over 3 million views by December. TheSoul also announced a distribution deal with French record label Believe in December. In 2021, the company adapted content from its various DIY-focused channels (including 5-Minute Crafts) for distribution on
Pinterest Pinterest is an American social media service for publishing and discovery of information in the form of digital Bulletin board, pinboards. This includes recipes, home, style, motivation, and inspiration on the Internet using image sharing. Pint ...
. This began with translating 5-Minute Crafts' videos into Portuguese and Spanish, a move that was recognized with the Best Use of Pinterest Award at that year's Drum Awards for Digital Industries. In May 2022, TheSoul announced a partnership with Retail Monster to develop licensing and retail programs around 5-Minute Crafts. In November, TheSoul launched a partnership with
Samsung TV Plus Samsung TV Plus is a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service owned by Samsung Electronics that was introduced in 2015. The platform was designed to provide free, live streaming content for users with Samsung devices. As of 2022, the ...
which brought 5-Minute Crafts and TeenVee to TV audiences in Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. In the same month, TheSoul Publishing partnered with Kidoodle.TV to bring 5-Minute Crafts, Baby Zoo, and Slick Slime Sam to Kidoodle in both English and Spanish. In December, TheSoul Publishing acquired a majority stake in the management firm Underscore Talent. That same month, the company opened its Latvian branch in
Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...
.


Leadership

In October, the company named its new
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
as Arthur Mamedov, who had been COO since 2016. This came after founders Radaev and Mukhametov, said they would "step away from day-to-day operations to assume non-executive advisory positions". Anastasiia Vinogradova was also promoted to CCO.


Popularity

TheSoul is the largest media production hub in the world and is the largest company on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
in terms of social media views. The company has over 1.5 billion subscribers worldwide. Most of its channels feature "
life hack A life hack (or life hacking) is any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in all walks of life. The term was primarily used by computer experts who suffer from information overload or those with a p ...
s" and have been categorised as
content farm A content farm or content mill is an organization focused on generating a large amount of web content, often specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by search engines, a practice known as search engine optimization (SE ...
s. The company also has a presence on
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
,
Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia social media and instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of the app are that pictures and messages, known as "snaps", are usually availa ...
, and
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
. In November 2021, ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote that TheSoul had the ninth most viewed YouTube Short on its 5-Minute Crafts channel, as well as the most viewed YouTube Short overall with over 433 million views. By April 2023, 5-Minute Crafts had amassed over 25.7 billion views and Bright Side had amassed over 10.6 billion views.


Criticism

In November 2018, ''Vox'' published an article calling TheSoul's content "cringy", "
clickbait Clickbait (also known as link bait or linkbait) is a text or a thumbnail hyperlink, link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow ("click") that link and view, read, stream or listen to the linked piece of online cont ...
", and "bizarre". However, the article also stated, "To answer the implicit question, unlike many viral
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
posts that came out of Russia over the past few years, TheSoul Publishing's content does not appear to be overtly political." In December 2019, the company's channel Smart Banana was criticized by ''
Lawfare Lawfare is the use of legal systems and institutions to affect foreign or domestic affairs, as a more peaceful and rational alternative, or as a less benign adjunct, to warfare. Detractors have alternately begun to define the phrase as, "An att ...
'' for making "history videos with a political tinge". One video falsely claimed that Ukraine is part of Russia, another gave a "heavily sanitized" summary of
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
's reign and incorrectly claimed that Alaska was a gift from Russia to the United States, and a third video predicted that the United States would likely collapse within 20 years. The ''Lawfare'' article's claims were picked up by American political commentator
Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow ( ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. She hosts '' The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special event ...
, who likened the videos to Russia's interference in the 2016 United States elections. However, ''
Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...
'' found no new political content on any of TheSoul's channels in the lead-up to the
2020 United States elections Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's nominee, former Vice presidents of the United States, vice president Joe Biden, defeated incu ...
, and described it as more of a
content farm A content farm or content mill is an organization focused on generating a large amount of web content, often specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by search engines, a practice known as search engine optimization (SE ...
than a channel intended to sway public opinion. Shortly after the ''Lawfare'' article was published, TheSoul apologised for posting "historically questionable" videos and removed the content, as well as announcing an editorial decision to no longer create history videos and stating that it had never worked with "any government or semi-government organization of any country". In June 2020, TheSoul's animated subsidiary channel Actually Happened was deleted, and references to the channel were removed from the company's website. The channel, which had over 4 million subscribers, hosted cartoons of supposedly real events presented as firsthand experiences of American teenagers; the stories were often questioned.


References

{{Reflist


External links


Official website
TheSoul Publishing 2016 establishments in Cyprus Mass media companies established in 2016 Entertainment companies established in 2016 Technology companies established in 2016 Mass media companies of Cyprus Multi-channel networks Remote companies