A News-Clip YouTube Channel Making ¥176K/Month Sells for Just ¥400K (2.3 Months)
From Rakko M&A's public list of closed deals: a current-affairs and politics clip channel on YouTube earning ¥176K a month sold for ¥400K, roughly 2.3 months of revenue. We record the going rates of the individual-scale M&A market from the listed data.
This is a translation of the Japanese original. The Japanese version and cited primary sources are authoritative for all figures.
The Deal in Numbers (from Rakko M&A’s closed-deal listings)
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Sale price | ¥400K |
| Monthly revenue at listing | ¥176K |
| Time from listing to close | 13 days |
| Marketplace | Rakko M&A (no seller fees) |
How to Read This Case
This deal appears in the closed-deal listings that Rakko M&A publishes on its official site; there is no detailed backstory such as an operator interview. We record it as a data point on market rates, based on what the listing discloses (genre, sale price, monthly revenue).
Reading Between the Numbers
The low multiple of roughly 2.3 months of monthly revenue is a price with the market’s discounts baked in: the terms-of-service and demonetization risks that hang over clip channels, plus the dependence on someone else’s source content. Set against the going rate for website sales (around 20 months of profit), the same “¥170K a month” is valued as an asset at one-tenth the level.
For reference, the going rate for a personal website is said to be 18–24 months of monthly profit; the spread in multiples across closed deals, including this one, reflects how the market rates each genre’s revenue durability, transferability, and risk.
Cross-Comparison — Where This Sits Among 15 Rakko M&A Deals Closed in the Same Period
| Genre (type) | Sale price | Monthly revenue | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urban legends (YouTube) | ¥100K | ¥1,644 | 60.8 months |
| Gacha toys (website) | ¥280K | ¥14K | 20.4 months |
| History explainers (YouTube) | ¥710K | ¥40K | 17.7 months |
| Compilation (YouTube) | ¥3M | ¥277K | 10.8 months |
| Psychology/trivia (YouTube) | ¥4.8M | ¥560K | 8.6 months |
| RPG game (app) | ¥1.75M | ¥250K | 7.0 months |
| Spirituality (YouTube) | ¥1.2M | ¥173K | 6.9 months |
| Japan reactions (YouTube) | ¥320K | ¥58K | 5.6 months |
| Romance (YouTube) | ¥320K | ¥60K | 5.4 months |
| News clips, current affairs (YouTube) | ¥400K | ¥176K | 2.3 months |
| Seniors-focused (YouTube) | ¥250K | ¥127K | 2.0 months |
| Camping content (Instagram) | ¥300K | ¥0 | — |
| Diet recipes (Instagram) | ¥65K | Unknown | — |
| Fashion (Instagram) | ¥800K | Unknown | — |
| Space science (YouTube) | ¥50K | Unknown | — |
Lay the 15 deals side by side and the market’s pricing logic comes into view. Search-traffic websites fetch about 20 months of profit, YouTube channels 2–18 months, and zero-revenue social accounts are priced on the follower base alone. Even at the same “monthly revenue,” how breakable that revenue is — algorithm dependence, terms-of-service risk, reliance on a specific person — shows up as the difference in multiples.
The Buyer’s and Seller’s Math
- Buyer’s side: At ¥400K, the price pays for itself in about 2.3 months if monthly revenue holds. It is judged against the time it would take to grow an equivalent channel or account from zero (content production, algorithm trial-and-error)
- Seller’s side: A trade of expected future earnings for cash now. YouTube and social accounts in particular can drop to zero value through demonetization, bans, or algorithm changes, so “cash out while things are good” is a rational call
- This price band (tens of thousands to a few million yen) enjoys deep buyer demand, just like the telecom site that sold for ¥950K in 21 days, and with no seller fees, the cost of simply trying a listing is close to nil
Related Cases
Sources
This article summarizes and analyzes the public sources above. Please refer to the primary sources for details.