Maker Studios is an American based multi-channel network that produces videos for Youtube. It was co-founded in 2009 by Shay Carl, Philip DeFranco, Lisa Donovan, Ben Donovan, Kassem G, Scott Katz, and Danny Zappin. Since then Maker Studios has become successful, achieving the status of top ranked Youtube-based network in October of 2012. There are around 55,000 channels signed under Maker Studios, which collectively bring in more than 5.5 billion views per month. The channels within the Maker network form a subscriber base of over 380 million.
Maker Studios has three sub-networks that specialize in different areas of interest; Maker Music specializes in undiscovered music, Polaris focuses on video games and the gaming culture, while MakerGen was created to promote small and growing channels. Maker Studios has signed many well known Youtube personalities including celebraties such as Kevin Smith, Snoop Lion's channel WestFest TV, and Robert De Niro's Tribeca Enterprises. Their most subscribed channel is gaming reltated and was created by Felix Kjellberg, known also as PewDiePie. Other popular channels signed under Maker Studios include The Yogscast, Totalbiscuit, Jesse Cox, Markiplier, Angry Joe, and The Creatures.
In March of 2014 Maker Studios agreed to sell itself to The Walt Disney Company $500 million. Disney believes that acquiring Maker will help them learn how to interact with, and appeal to, the "raised-on-the-web" generation.
