The media landscape has dramatically changed over the past decade, as new media has made it possible for anyone to become a content creator and distributor. With the emergence of digital artists, audiences have shifted their attention from mainstream media to social media, creating superstars out of YouTubers such as Pewdiepie and Jenna Marbles.
And recently, the YouTube bug has infected the Middle East and Arab world as well, with more and more young talents turning to the popular site to build their fanbases and to create and share their own content, opportunities often hard to obtain through traditional media outlets.
Egyptian YouTuber Shady Srour is no exception, the online comedian has just recently reached 700,000 subscribers and his 105 uploads now have a total of 162,498,062 views. According to VidStatsX , the average number of Srour's daily subscribers has almost doubled in the last month, as he is quickly climbing up the YouTube rankings.
The 20 year old, who started his self-titled YouTube comedy channel in November 2013, creates comic sketches and vines about Egyptian and Arab society and the everyday lives of young people and their family interactions, making them not only funny but very relatable.
Like many YouTubers, he creates and plays his own characters, such as his parent characters, that satirically represent what Egyptian and Arab parents are like. Srour's sketches also comment on notable social happenings and hilariously compare Egyptians to foreigners.
In addition to the comedy sketches and vines, Srour also does film parodies, his most popular video is a parody of the Egyptian film "Ibrahim El-Abyad" in which he hilariously mocked the film, it now has 6 million views.
With more than 2 million likes on Facebook and over 580,000 Instagram followers, the young comedian has an army of young fans behind him. Not only does he make them laugh, but Srour also constantly shares inspirational advice and motivational messages with his strong social media following, only increasing his popularity.
However, like every online creator, the comedian has had his fair share of criticism and negative comments. Many people criticize his videos for mocking Egyptian society, but Srour says his goal is far from that.
"I always intend something positive from my videos. The goal of all of my videos is to portray Egyptian society in a comedic way, not to mock it at all. I portray these negative societal aspects so people can see them, laugh about them and try to change them," Srour explained in an interview on the Egyptian TV show "Masaa' El-Kheir" in December 2014.
But the comedian is not letting the negativity get to him, as he wrote on Facebook Thursday: "I will ban anyone who insults me in a comment, I work hard to present something different that can make people laugh so I can achieve my goal, not so someone who I've never hurt can insult me so easily."
With a strong audience behind him that keeps growing, an inspirational message that motivates him and a versatility of comedic styles to explore, Srour's success story seems like it's just beginning.