Key Factors for Unsubscribing from YouTube Channels: A Study of YouTubers in Taiwan

YouTube has become a major advertisement media for industries. People watch TV shows, movie trailers, news and episodes, on-line shows streaming as well. When people want to purchase something, they can find some unboxing reviews, experiences shares, using instructions and services introductions on YouTube before making orders. Traveling guides and educational tutorials are also can be found on YouTube. Thousands of YouTube channels need channel’s subscribers directly or indirectly affect the revenue of channel owners. In addition to YouTube’s own profit from watching, the subscribers are also an important reference when manufacturers want to choose key opinion leaders (KOL) or internet celebrities to promote their products or services. Since, maintaining a stable growth of channel subscribers and reducing the occurrence of unsubscribing are the key issue that every YouTuber needs to understand urgently. In this study, we used a survey to understand subscribers and YouTubers on unsubscribing, and analyzed some key factors for unsubscribing. The data analyses include descriptive analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlation analysis. Through this study, people can understand key factors for unsubscribing reasons on YouTube platform and the priority of these factors. Whether there is special unsubscribe factors for different channel types and attributes. The key contribution of this study is: a questionnaire on key factors for unsubscribing on the YouTube platform was designed, and it could be utilized for further use in related studies in the future. We also summarize the responses and suggestions of we-media channel owners on the factors for unsubscribing.