Kids Love YouTube and TikTok: Even as young as 2 years old! 81% of 2–12-year-olds watch YouTube regularly, and 40% watch TikTok. That’s the surprising result of PreciseTV’s latest study of US families. And more than half of toddlers and tweens recall seeing a recent ad on YouTube, 2.5x more than on TikTok. And as YouTube cements its place on the big screen, co-viewing has grown as well, mostly at the expense of paid cable and VOD. Let’s face it – kids are going to watch these platforms. At least parents are getting involved. Their research also found that Roblox is also tops for the 2-12 set too, beating out Lego, PawPatrol, and Disney. YouTube has been relatively effective in providing a safe space for kids – but TikTok still has a lot of work to do.
- RELATED: Shakeup at TikTok as Adam Presser (head of Ops) takes over trust and safety, and EMEA GM Rich Waterwork steps down.
- RELATED: Adam Presser releases an interesting “Thanks Creators” open letter on TikTok’s blog.
- RELATED: YouTube is killing its TV app for kids.
- RELATED: More reasons to limit social media access for tweens – viral beauty products aren’t meant for kids.
AI Video is Now Solvable – Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: Quick, what are the two most popular TV shows in the world? According to Doug Shapiro’s latest must-read analysis, it’s Mr. Beast and CoComelon. And that’s part of why Sora and other AI video models will likely disrupt traditional video in (as I said two weeks ago), 30 months, not 30 years. Read the post and then layer on what I think Shapiro missed – time. We already spend over 11 hours a day consuming media. As AI video seeps into our diet, it will nudge out traditional and creator-led videos to make room.
The Dark Side of TikTok Live: Last December we discussed how TikTok Live grossed nearly $3B in 2023 – primarily through digital gifting. Creators ended up with $1B. It’s not going well for many creators though – and fans. Live’s product design ties into a dangerous dopamine reservoir that can quickly spiral out of control, turning both creators and fans into addicts. Australia was one of Live’s earliest markets – and it’s an ominous foreshadowing of what’s coming globally.
Pay Up or We Own You! Meta’s controversial “Pay us or we own your data” stance is under fire in the EU. LinkedIn’s discussion explores both sides of the issue, but in the end it’s just making de jure what’s already de facto: Meta is in business to make money. Those” free to use services” are expensive to host, and someone’s got to pay. Read more about how I think paid tiers are OK, but Meta’s past behavior is not.
Creator World is ON in Singapore: Really looking forward to exploring the creator economy in Southeast Asia with 2k+ creators, brands, platforms and (because it’s sharing with Music Matters), musicians too! May 8-9 in Singapore, along with a free music festival! Want to speak? DM or email me jim@Louderback.com would love to talk about it.
I’m a Starlet! Karat launches new “insights” tool to help creators benchmark themselves financially against other creators. Plus, they’ll sort you into one of 8 houses, er, archetypes too. I connected my Instagram account (they don’t support LinkedIn) and my business bank account and it turns out I’m a “starlet”. Nice.
- RELATED: How much influencers actually make.
QUIBIS:
YOUTUBE
- YouTube expands its CapCut competitor “Create” to 21 countries worldwide. Check out their 7 step process to mastering the app.
- Ex YouTube-exec Robert Kyncl lays out his plans for a Warner Music “superfans app”. TikTok killer? UMG, your move.
- Studio Mobile now lets creators upload Shorts or long videos, plus a new “posts only” feed for mobile.
META
- The rehabilitation of Mark Zuckerberg.
- Meta removes the monthly limits on “Performance Bonus” payments to creators and expand to additional countries. But it’s still invite-only – obfuscating its value to creators.
- Threads API will be broadly available by June. Caveat emptor, as Meta’s API track record is not great.
TIKTOK
- Mr. Beast’s manager Reed Duchscher dishes on TikTok’s “Slop”.
- TikTok and UMG enter the trench warfare phase of their music dispute. TikTok’s official statement.
- Here’s a fun new career – the TikTok Trend Forecaster!
- Bytedance developing digital AI humans, as well as Sora and Midjourney competitors for Capcut.
- TikTok launches new monthly “Trends” digest, with hashtags, sonic identity, visual narrative and message. Also includes ways brands can jump on the trend. Given how quickly trends develop and fade, monthly might not be the best cadence.
- TikTok thinks every video should be shoppable, apparently.
OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY
- Great analysis of M&A in the ad and influencer marketing space from Rockwater. Key takeaway? With the decline of ATT, influencer marketing agencies are HOT!
- Twitch shut down in Korea last week. It didn’t go well, and I feel awful for all the creators suddenly forced out of work.
- Related: When top creators argue about which platform is worse, that’s not good for either Kick or Twitch.
- Passes raises $40M to compete with Patreon and Fanfix. It also recently announced a 20% transaction take for its Creator+ tier, which is expensive.
- Interesting breakdown of the Reddit S1 in advance of its IPO – interesting for investors, but also those curious to see how it stacks up to other creator platforms.
- Related: VC Tomasz Tunguz wonders whether data sales – like Reddit’s $60m from Google – will change the media business model on the web.
- Why we need reliable SEO from Google – and tangentially why creators might save the product review.
BRANDING AND MARKETING
- First dedicated LinkedIn influencer agency launches – excited to be on the board of Creator Authority!
- Tarte Cosmetics took a bunch of influencers to Bora Bora. It did not go well.
- UTA buys GenZ marketing agency Juv Consulting, rebrands it to Next Gen.
- RivalIQ looks at 5M posts from 2,100 brands across 14 industries to measure engagement on social. Facebook’s up, TikTok’s down a lot (but still in the lead). Lots of great data for marketers.
GENERATIVE AI
- Put it on your radar: New social app Yolk combines AR, AI and stickers.
- Events are hard. With AI, event scams are easy.
- Automattic finally figures out a way to recoup some of the millions it dumped on Tumblr – sell its data to OpenAI.
- Interesting conversation on whether AI-Generated music will obviate the need for musicians and composers in the wake of Adobe’s new tool.
- I guess now the singing frog will actually sing well.
TIPS
- @Jason Feifer of Entrepreneur did a great job interviewing LinkedIn EIC @Daniel Roth and Sr. Engineer @Tim Jurka about changes to the LinkedIn algorithm. I asked ChatGPT to do a recap – and then Feifer recapped it himself. Links to the podcast, ChatGPT and Jason’s recap here – let me know which one you liked best!
- Curated list of tools for creators from TikTok exec @Stephanie Hind. Good stuff in her Google Sheets link! For a more comprehensive list, check out @Janis Mjartan’s list of 1000+ tools, platforms and startups
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