The Multi-Billion-Dollar Industry Selling Young Men Fake Belonging and Fake Wealth

New joint report from Reset Tech and Equimundo maps, for the first time, the commercial and financial infrastructure behind the online ecosystem targeting young men – and finds the regulatory tools to address it already exists

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August 2026, WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reset Tech and Equimundo today released The Grift Economy: How Young Men Are Being Sold Fake Belonging and Fake Wealth Online, an 18-month investigation into the commercial ecosystem of creators, platforms, membership schemes, and financial products that monetize male loneliness, economic anxiety, and identity uncertainty at scale.

The report argues that what is commonly described as the “manosphere” is better understood as the male grievance industry – a structured, three-stage commercial pipeline (recruitment, grievance injection, and monetization of trust) that converts a young man’s search for purpose into recurring revenue for creators and the platforms that amplify them. The report and its coauthors treat the ecosystem as a consumer protection and financial accountability story, not a culture war.

Key findings

• An original, cross-platform reach analysis of 216 looksmaxxing influencers across TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook found a combined 14.6 billion views during the analysis period – the first systematic quantification of this ecosystem’s scale.
• Original OSINT-based revenue mapping documents and estimates individual creator earnings across membership programs, livestream tipping, sponsorships, and platform payouts, revealing a mature, diversified financial infrastructure rather than a fringe phenomenon.
• Platforms are not passive hosts: recommendation systems, monetization programs, and inconsistent, after-the-fact (or non-existent) enforcement mean platforms are active financial beneficiaries of the ecosystem they claim to police.
• The consumer-protection and platform-accountability tools to address this largely already exist, and platform-accountability frameworks operating in the UK, EU, Australia, and Brazil are paving the way for further product safety oversight on commercial operators. What has been missing is the will to apply these tools as aggressively as necessary, and the evidence that makes doing so obvious.

“We step into this conversation to shed light on how the grift economy works to drive young men to harm and how it monetizes their insecurities”, says Gary Barker, CEO & Founder Equimundo: Center for Masculinities & Social Justice. “As the report shows, apart from the platforms who make millions in ad revenue, individual influencers earn billions of dollars on young men’s anxieties. Far from a fringe or underground space, the most followed influencers in the grift economy are part of a complex financial system of affiliated networks, cross-pro-motional deals and stakes in platform equity. These revenue amounts are mostly out in the open. This is exploitation in plain sight.”

“When people ask why digital platforms haven’t fixed this, the answer is that the business model was never built to,” said Kristina Wilfore, Director of Innovation & Global Projects at Reset Tech. “Take YouTube for example – they are the landlord, the banker, and the distributor of an ecosystem that is stealing the future of young men across the world, one course, one membership, one supplement stack at a time,”

Methodology

The report draws on five original and secondary research streams conducted between 2024 and 2026: an 18-month cross-platform discourse analysis; an original quantitative reach study of looksmaxxing influencers; focus groups conducted by Lake Research Partners in March 2026; original OSINT-based revenue mapping; and secondary research including Equimundo’s State of American Men 2025 and Reset Tech’s Clickbait Cures investigation. Full methodology is available in the report.

About Equimundo

Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice works internationally and in the United States to engage men and boys as allies in gender equality, promote healthy manhood, and prevent violence. Through a research-first approach, Equimundo drives innovative solutions to shift norms, narratives, and policies – in partnership with women, girls, and individuals of all gender identities.

About Reset Tech

Reset Tech is a public policy organization advocating for technology that protects children, consumers, and public safety. Its team of researchers, policy experts, storytellers, and operational specialists works across the UK, Europe, Canada, and the United States.

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