Henry Greenslade hopes smashing laptops will prove a profitable exercise.
Henry (15), a year 10 pupil at Waitaki Boys' High School, has entered the Make Money On YouTube competition, which was launched earlier this month by the Otago Business School, Upstart Business Incubator and Audacious.
The competition, in which entrants produce their own videos and compete to get the most views, is open to Otago secondary school pupils and is designed to educate them about the benefits of micro-exporting and develop business talent in that sector.
Competition winners will receive cash prizes and scholarships for the Otago Business School up to a total value of $5000.
All winners will also be invited to a workshop at Upstart to help them in building their channel into a business.
Henry, a self-described "computer geek", and his friend Cameron Hardwick (14) decided to smash two old, broken laptops, while filming the event.
They did "anything" they could to destroy the computers, including dropping them and attacking them with a hammer.
Asked if it was fun, Henry said, "Oh yeah."
They have already achieved more than 1300 hits and received some public recognition, with people coming up to Henry and saying, "You're the guy that smashed up . . . those computers."
Henry, who hoped to become a computer technician, said the money, if he won, would probably not be spent on a laptop, but rather put towards tertiary study.
The remnants of the two laptops had been taken to the local recycling centre to ensure they were disposed of correctly, he said.
Upstart marketing and communications manager Zoe Hobson said 19 entries from 10 schools had been received, with entries not closing until September 30.
Videos included everything from spoofs to magic tricks, skateboard fails and covers of well-known songs. Two of the videos, including Henry's, achieved more than 1000 views last week.
Organisers were surprised and delighted by the amount of effort that had gone into the videos.
Entrants were being sent tips to get maximum views, including thinking about the content of the video and if it could be tied in with a subject that was trending on Twitter, and sharing it on social media sites. They should also "think big", she said.
