This Week: Dudeperfect’s biggest trick yet, the end of free AI, a $1M grant program for creators and Google wants to help you make bad videos. And don’t miss my Creator Economy meetup in Las Vegas from 5-6PM Tuesday at The Creator Lab at NAB. Use code CL11 for free tickets!
Hey Instagram, What’s With the Rinky-Dink RevShare: We found out last week that Instagram brings in more ad dollars than YouTube. Yet the cheap app refuses to share more than token amounts – occasionally – with creators. The latest slap in the face? There’s a new temporary bonus scheme, but it features convoluted hoops and strict eligibility. TikTok has 14 ways for creators to make money, YouTube pays out about half of its revenue to creators. Instagram is an embarrassment.
Unicorn Perfect: Dude Perfect’s next big trick – turning themselves into a Unicorn! Congrats on their just closed $100m+ investment round. I’m on record predicting that the next big media companies will come from creators – and now Dude Perfect joins MrBeast and a handful of others flirting with billion-dollar valuations. Far from being an aberration, I expect this to be just the first of many as traditional media fades and creator-led enterprises bloom.
- RELATED: Don’t miss our “Investing in and with Creators” session at NAB’s Creator Lab Tuesday at 2p.
Free Money – Or Marketing Hack? Gigastar launches $1M grant program for creators. They expect 20-40 creators to receive grants between $10k and $50k – no strings attached – between now and the end of next year. Great to see creators getting free money, but it’s also a clever way to connect with even more creators to upsell into its core creator investment business. You can chat with their partnerships team here.
Bye Bye Free AI: Looks like this might be the end of free AI, as Google considers whether to charge for AI searches. As models get more and more expensive to train and run, the gravy train could be coming to an end. Perhaps new ways to build AI models will help, including those from Symbolica and Pattern – but that’s likely a few years away.
QUIBIS:
YOUTUBE
- YouTube launches new shopping capabilities to better compete with TikTok.
- Google’s new video app VIDS will unleash a torrent of bad videos on the world. But that might not be a bad thing.
- Great to see YouTube co-founder Steve Chen working to bridge the gap between Taiwan and Silicon Valley
- Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie throws a Shorts Mythbusters festival.
META
- New Llama 3 model almost ready to launch, with double the parameters of Llama 2. Trained on Facebook?
- Instagram has a new “Double Tap” newsletter for creators. @Matt Navarra shared it with his readers (Subscribe to Matt’s Geekout newsletter!).
- Meta developing new tools to protect kids from sextortion – why did it take so long?
TIKTOK
- Looks like TikTok’s new photo apps “Notes” is due out soon.
- Liar Liar Pants on Fire – Bytedance calls out Bloomberg ($), says it didn’t make $40B in profit last year. Promise.
- TikTok’s stagnant growth in Europe prompts the release of a new “rewards” app to juice usage.
- Not a fan of creators doing work on spec – but some UGC creators seem to be doing well with TikTok’s Creative challenge.
- TikTok working on virtual influencers for ads. Lil Miquela approves.
- Live video is more than just push-n-go. Streamlabs now supports TikTok Live, making it easier to produce more polished live streams.
- Taylor Swift is back on TikTok – but UMG tiff is still a thing.
BRANDING AND MARKETING
- The Tween demo is dead – kids today race from Bikini Bottom to Mr. Beast.
- Looking forward to a new series on influencer marketing – with lessons from Olympic athletes and more – from old friend @Denise Vitola.
- Interesting look at three ways AI is changing ads, including dynamic background insertion into creator content – from the CEO of Rembrand (who does just that). BI covered them last week too ($).
- New ad options indicate that LinkedInfluencers are the future.
OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY
- Night buys Rooster Teeth’s podcast network – strategic shift to becoming a modern MCN?
- I’ve been calling it “The Carcinization” of social video platforms for the past year. Techcrunch just caught up.
- A deeper look at whether research validates claims made in best-selling book “The Anxious Generation”.
- MKBHD does the right thing by calling out Dbrand.
- VidCon supposedly for sale – and Cannes launches a “Creator Pass”.
- Uneven returns from Kick’s hourly incentive plan – below minimum wage for many.
- Snap makes Solar System opt-in instead of on by default. This feature should have been better analyzed before launch.
- Last Burger Standing: Mr Beast: 1 – Bored Apes: 0.
- Thanks to everyone who invited me to Airchat over the weekend. I’m going just loiter for now.
CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE
- How’s this going to work in practice? New bill will force AI companies to disclose all copyrighted data used for training – which is probably most of it.
- Hatsune Miku’s virtual pop-star tour is not going well. Coachella fans and others paid big bucks, but the 3D hologram was MIA.
- Does anyone else think Huawei’s new computer sounds more like an OnlyFans competitor?
- Pika and ElevenLabs launch an a 3-minute AI film competition over the weekend. This one’s my favorite so far.
TIPS – Hey LinkedIn users, check out your profile view analytics. A new “Interesting Viewers” tab lets you view just LinkedIn Influencers or Senior Leaders in your industry, making it easier to follow or connect with them. HT @Lindsey Gamble and @Matt Navara.
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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.
Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.
