Marques Brownlee

YouTube career

MKBHD joined YouTube on March 21, 2008. He first started uploading technology videos in January 2009, while still in high school, about new products, or reviews of products he already owned. He says his first videos were screencasting where he would post an image and just talk over it, then responded to requests from viewers of what they would like to watch. His first several hundred videos were primarily hardware tutorials and freeware. He was later approached by companies to demonstrate their paid software and hardware, but only reviews products that would be of interest to his audience of technology enthusiasts. He is noted for responding to viewers' feedback about what questions they have, and features they want explained, as well as demonstrating a "deep knowledge of the products he discusses, and his understanding of what his audience wants to learn". His reviews are often timely, coming out the same day or soon after for anticipated products. He is arguably best known today for his content about smartphones. As of May 2017, his channel has gained over 4.5 million subscribers, making MKBHD the most subscribed-to "tech-based" YouTube channel. On average, Brownlee uploads one video per week. The channel receives an average of over 3,000 subscribers every day as of May 2017.

Brownlee's reviews have been promoted by other review sites as well. Engadget promoted the site in January 2012 when they featured his tour of the then-new cloud storage service called Insync. In November 2013, one of Brownlee's most viral videos was posted based on the LG G Flex. He performed various scratch tests to portray the self-healing ability of the device. The video hit a million views on the first day. As of May 2017, the video has over 6 million views. In December 2013, Brownlee did an interview with Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside. In May 2014, Brownlee did the first over-the-air interview with Evan Blass, also known by his previous name, evleaks.

Brownlee's video review and scratch test of a rumored 4.7 inch iPhone 6 front glass component, uploaded July 7, 2014, gained immediate popularity, being featured on sites such as The Verge, Forbes Tech, HuffPost Tech, CNET, and Time Magazine. The video appeared on NBC news, and in newspapers across the world. As of May 2017, the video has gained over 8.9 million views on YouTube and has had over 50,000 ratings. Brownlee also has a similar video regarding a dummy model of the iPhone 6, uploaded a couple of months earlier, which (as of May 2017) has since gained over 7 million views on YouTube.

In December 2015, Brownlee did an interview with Kobe Bryant, a professional NBA basketball player, and uploaded the results, titled Talking Tech with Kobe Bryant! in which he talks about Tech interests of Kobe and the most recent Kobe designed Nike shoes, the Kobe 11.

In December, 2016, he interviewed Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi during the release of their latest MacBook Pro 2016.

From his interview with NBC News on February 2017, "I guess for me, I keep saying the words consumer electronics, consumer tech—the biggest purchase decisions people make a lot of times are the phones they buy and the tech they buy. To be able to influence other people's decisions on that front is pretty game changing."

Personal life

Brownlee, grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey. He attended Columbia High School, and studied as part of the Howe School at Stevens Institute of Technology. He majored in business and information technology. Brownlee graduated from college in May 2015 and became a full-time YouTuber. Being a tech enthusiast, he also owns a Tesla Model S P100D which he occasionally features in his channel. Other than producing content, he plays golf, and is a professional ultimate frisbee player for the Philadelphia Spinners. Brownlee was previously on the now-folded New Jersey Hammerheads, a team belonging to the American Ultimate Disc League and the New York Rumble, which is a part of Major League Ultimate.