Hi, I’m Jim Louderback and this is my weekly creator economy newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you are either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.
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WALLED GARDENS ARE SO LAST DECADE
Yahoo Finance adds 8 mid and micro-financial creators to their roster, which is great for the creators. They’ll be doing podcasts and what looks like “shows” for Yahoo Finance to help GenZ understand financial and investment issues. But rather than seeing those creators as an extension of the Yahoo Finance brand, their content will only be distributed on Yahoo (and their “distribution channels”). Yahoo Finance’s GM explained that they want to give creators “another platform to share and introduce (their) communities to the content and tools that Yahoo Finance offers”. Reminds me of when I started writing on Yahoo 20 years ago – via PC Magazine – with content that only lived on Yahoo. That might have worked then – but it seems so old school today. Better to partner (or purchase) those creators and optimize for conversion – rather than lock them up in a cage.
SOCIAL HARMS KIDS
Evidence continues to mount that social platforms are bad for kids and teens. The latest – a new academic study found that social media negatively affects most teens – specifically calling out TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Snap and Whatsapp fared better – as befits messaging apps. Governments are waking up. Australia plans to ban social apps for those younger than 14-16 years old. More than 40 US states back the US Feds threatening to slap warning labels on social platforms (like those on cigarettes and alcohol). Other countries will follow. But how will they enforce those age limits – and will warning labels defeat addictive algorithms?
TIKTOK USERS STILL LEERY OF CHINA’s INTENTIONS
Interesting facts from Dan Frommer’s June update of New Consumer – GenZ and Millennials still feel more like themselves online than off, TikTok users might not want a ban but they are still suspicious of China’s intentions. Plus, China, Russia, Israel and celeb booze brands are on the outs. Lots more interesting facts inside the update!
US CRACKS DOWN ON TEMU AND SHEIN
Chinese ecommerce giants have discovered how to ship inexpensive items to the US while avoiding tariffs. But the Biden administration wants to limit that loophole. This is good news for Amazon and other US-based companies; although I’ve recently bought stuff on Amazon that appeared to be drop-shipped from China. It probably won’t affect TikTok Shop in the US either, as TikTok requires that “sellers based in the U.S. can only utilize domestic shipping consolidation services that are based in the U.S” – although some sellers have reportedly flaunted the rules with impunity.
- Related: Better late than never – Alibaba hopes to crack the US market.
OPEN AI ANNOUNCES NEW “SCARE-BERRY” MODEL
The latest model from OpenAI – code-named Strawberry – promises to improve reasoning and problem solving. We won’t get it for a few weeks, but early adopters are gushing. Others, however, see problems in an AI reasoning without empathy. We’ll see. The bigger question in my mind: is OpenAI adopting Android’s sugar-fueled naming scheme (Jelly Bean, KitKat, Marshmallow) – but with fruit? If so, could “Prune” be next?
SPONSOR: The NFL has made Creators a core part of its strategy and has just launched it’s Creator of the Week program for a second season with Whalar and YouTube. Throughout the season, the NFL granted 27 creators VIP access to the sidelines, locker rooms and other behind-the-scenes areas of 24 games, including the Super Bowl.
Follow Creator of the Week here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRdw3IjKY2gnaRishrbkK-RYzSvwih6u6.
QUIBIS:
YOUTUBE
- It’s quiet over at YouTube. Too quiet. Example: CEO Neal Mohan keeps posting pictures on X from their India summit two weeks ago – as if it just happened yesterday.
- YouTube’s new pause that decidedly doesn’t refresh.
META
- Zuckerberg records a podcast at the vertiginous Chase Center in San Francisco – 6,000 fans paid $50 to attend. Who says people won’t pay for “journalism”?
- Facebook blocking fire warnings in California, calling them clickbait. This is what happens when the machines are in charge.
- Meta, Snap and TikTok team up on Thrive – to identify and share images and videos showing graphic suicide and self-harm – to make it harder to find and to protect teens.
- V21 of Meta’s marketing API to be released on October 2nd, further restricting the original (legacy) objectives, as Meta continues to simplify ad objectives – notably eliminating “video views” as an option.
TIKTOK
- TikTok released their fall trending report, saying goodbye to Brat summer and hello to cozy gaming and outdoor core. Heads up, my Keen/Patagonia/Icebreaker style just made a fantabulous comeback! (see below for Pinterest’s trend report too).
- It’s about time, TikTok is rolling-out a delete and re-edit feature. Game changer! (HT Lia Haberman).
- TikTok, Bytedance and a bunch of users get their day in court today (Monday) as they argue the divest/ban is unconstitutional.
- More evidence emerges on why the US believes TikTok’s Chinese ownership is a national security risk.
- TikTok partnering with NHL hockey team The Washington Capitals – but logos will be displayed only on the road. Guess they don’t want to PO the hometown DC crowd.
BRANDING AND MARKETING
- Apparently GenZ broke the marketing funnel, but empowering ketamine-soaked art directors to create new article formats probably had something to do with it too.
- Duolingo social wizard Zaria Parvez takes the sword to “that evil, evil word: authenticity”
- Get ready for 2025 with Reddit’s downloadable 2025 tentpole moments.
RESEARCH
- I always love reading the Pinterest trend report – the fall version focuses on Prints, Puffs, Foxy, Jelly and Social Vibrations! It’s a good early warning system for upcoming trends (HT Ankur Mehra).
- Not really a study – more of a small black-box analysis – but new creative ad effectiveness platform Daivid found that 30 of 50 TikTok ads analyzed were forgettable, while only 8 were deemed better than average.
OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY
- Business Insider explores the Apple / Creator fallout ($) we talked about two weeks ago here – and even quoted ICE! Thanks Amanda Perelli!
- Top VC at a16z explains why we won’t see another broad social video platform, and predicts more useful vertical apps will rule.
- Excited to see Virtualness launch their new Verix platform for authenticating everything from an Ivy League education to event tickets and sneakers. (Full disclosure, I’m an advisor).
- Jon Youshaei explains how Russia spent $10M to co-opt creators and influence a US election. CNN looks into the facts.
- Spotify to pay YouTubers “millions” to post their videos on its platform.
- When “Who TF Did I Marry” went viral, I pondered whether big media was behind it. Turns out it wasn’t… until now!
- Spotter raises $7.4M more, a drop in the bucket compared to their last $200M raise from Softbank. No mention of who, or at what valuation though.
- Oh . Emojis are dead ($).
- The FTC will lean into rules enforcing product review standards and social network data in its Thursday Open Commission meeting.
- Business Insider and Politico parent Axel Springer and private equity firm KKR to split up, as CEO wants to focus on US news amid growing ties to Elon Musk.
- Netflix wants to live-stream Hot Ones – perhaps more live creator-centric programming deals will come (Good Mythical Morning anyone?).
- Looks like the end of the line for Vox’ once prestigious “Code” conference.
- Had fun watching Twitch CEO Dan Clancy play Roblox (for the first time!) with CreekCraft.
- Why should you care about Roblox? Reed Duchscher explains.
Dan Clancy kills KreekCraft in Roblox
CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE
- Good interview with Instagram co-founder Mike Kreiger, now head of product at AI company Anthropic.
- Lots of chin-wagging about the New Yorker’s essay about how AI will never create art. AI is creativity middleware, not an endpoint. I replaced the words “A.I.” and “ChatGPT” with “paintbrush”, and the story read pretty much the same.
- Adobe shows off its upcoming text to video features in Firefly.
- What’s New RunwayCat! This parody trailer for 60s a French movie featuring today’s biggest names is the best AI-generated video I’ve seen yet. I would so watch this movie!
- First images from Apple’s Ai Image generator harken back to simpler times. Like 2022’s Stable Diffusion.
100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).
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I’ve built and sold multiple creator economy startups to top media companies – including Discovery and Paramount. Subscribe here on LinkedIn to get this newsletter every Monday.
Let me know what you think – email me at jim@louderback.com. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.
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