“Are there people going to watch you talk on video games? » At 43, Yann Carrey, aka CodJordan23, does not forget the astonishment of his friends when he started as a streamer. He is one of many web stars to testify in the five-part series dedicated to Squeezie, the content creator with 18.6 million subscribers on YouTube.
We find this incomprehension from the first episode, devoted to the adolescence of Lucas Hauchard. Since he was 4 years old and his parents divorced, he, with his older brother, Florent (particularly touching in the series), has been torn between Thierry, the computer scientist father, who gave him his first console, and his mother, Corinne, who will do everything to stop him from playing. “Old people don’t understand what’s going on in young people’s heads,” Orelsan raps in Changement, in 2008.
First walk in 2011. At 15, Lucas Hauchard gave birth to Squeezie. Then Laurent Rumayor, his future manager and general director of his agency Bump, introduced him to Cyprien, “the” guy who managed YouTube at the time. From then on, people will pay to watch them play. “At 16, he went to school, made a video, edited it, posted it online every day. Who do this ? Nobody,” underlines the usually invisible financier.
Meet your audience
Beyond the rise of Squeezie, this first chapter traces, in detail, the birth of the first generation of YouTubers (Cyprien, Natoo, Mister V) and gives a glimpse of Squeezie’s other great motivation: meeting his audience.
The first time, there are three kids lurking in front of the family house and whom he brings into his room. Later (episode 4), 1,000 volunteers will come to Paris La Défense Arena to play Where’s Waldo?, in April 2022. Until the apotheosis of the first GP Explorer, a Formula 4 race where twenty pairs of Internet personalities compete on the Le Mans track, in front of 40,000 people, on October 8, 2022. “Every day, he has tweets trying to take him down,” explains Gotaga, another streamer. That day, he only had love. »
This “jump in time” of three episodes – Le Monde was only able to view episodes 1 and 4 – reveals other developments. From now on, Squeezie talks about money, taking risks. And the mainstream media have assimilated that Internet videographers get more views than them. In this new balance of power, Squeezie retains one asset: the trust of its team and its guests.
“There are very few opportunities where you can be yourself,” assures actor and director Jonathan Cohen. In interviews, you’re always afraid of saying something stupid. There [in Squeezie videos like Who’s the Impostor?], you can be you, and it’s so good. » An opinion shared, in front of the camera, by Bigflo and Oli, Eric (Judor) and Ramzy, or Orelsan. The challenge now is to last.