Newly-Christened Billionaire David Baszucki's 'Addictive' Roblox Is Equal To YouTube Among Gen-Z

Better known as Builderman to tech’s youngest consumers, Baszucki’s platform has seen massive growth internally — and enriched its users by hundreds of millions of dollars. To millions of Tweens, David Baszucki is much better known as his avatar, “Builderman.” What he built is Roblox, an addictive combo videogame/social-media site that rivals YouTube and TikTok for engaging children. “Roblox is an immersive entertainment platform,” Baszucki told Forbes in 2018. Baszucki’s company is thriving as kids stuck in the rec room have turned to Roblox to while away the pandemic. In 2020, the San Mateo, CA-based startup grew users by 85%, to 32.6 million; hours spent on Roblox’s app and website soared 124% to 30.6 billion.   What sets Roblox apart: It provides tools to kids who then use them to make – and sell — their own games, turning its audience into an army of apple-cheeked capitalists. Roblox sells a virtual currency called Robux—100 for a dollar—that players can spend on games and digital trinkets, like avatars and in-game items. Creators earn a share of the Robux spent in their game worlds, at a rate of 35 cents per 100 Robux. In aggregate, Roblox’s 1.25 million creators made $216 million…
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