This Week: No April Fools today – my “Lets Buy TikTok Together” video dropped on 3/15. That’s how I roll.
Florida Bans Social Media: It’s the law, although expect a variety of challenges to this legislation that bans social media for 13 and under, and requires parental permission for 14-15 year olds. It goes into effect 1/1/2025. I don’t often agree with Florida, but in this case I’m in favor of the bill. However, it will be almost impossible to enforce – and will likely jump-start the Fake ID market for pre-teens. I’d like to see this nationwide, as one of the ways the US can blunt TikTok, Meta and Snap’s negative effects.
The Fight for the Soul of the Internet: Another avenue in the US vs TikTok battle opened, as the FTC announced it is investigating DoubleT for data privacy violations. These bans and other legal maneuverings are just the pointy edge of a much bigger global movement to reign in social networks. Ownership, mental toxicity, data security and content all play into the larger picture. Want to know what’s really going on? My post last week lays it all out.
- Related: Jonathan Haidt’s new book “The Anxious Generation” describes exactly how smartphones are negatively rewiring kids brains.
Shorts Earnings Lack Context: YouTube says more than 25% of the creators in its partnership program are earning on Shorts – along with many of its other revenue offerings. Although the raw numbers are impressive, Big Red neglected to announce the total payout over the last year, nor did they share a list of top earners and what they made. Nice to see creators making money, but without context it’s hard to judge the success.
- Related: Great breakdown on who’s making bank from the $350M Epic paid to creators last year from @Reed Duchscher.
SORA Drips and Drabs: OpenAI drips out a few more impressive new videos created with Sora. Love the Bunny Armadillo and the Girafflamingo (say that three times fast)! I wonder how OpenAI’s charm offensive went in Hollywood last week? Must be like forcing a snow-flake to face a raging fire.
Cults are Good for Business: Media analyst and professional needler @Evan Shapiro just penned one of the better descriptions of the Creator Economy. It’s not just influencers, and it’s not just video bloggers. He calls it the “Community Economy” – and I agree. I’ve been referring to it as DTC – “Direct to Community vs. “Direct to Consumer”. Maybe I need to change that to Direct To Cult. It’s a small difference but a mighty change in mind-set.
MEETUP ALERT: I’m headed to Las Vegas on April 14th to host Creator Lab at NAB! Four days focused on building the infrastructure for the creator economy. But we’ve got more than that in the works! I’m hosting an official Inside the Creator Economy Meetup from 5p-6p (or so) on the show floor of NAB at the Creator Lab. Want a free ticket? Use code CL11 for a free exhibits pass and come to the Creator Lab for a drink! South Hall, upstairs, towards the back.
QUIBIS:
YOUTUBE
- YouTube launches a video series with (relatively) new Chief Product Officer Johanna Voolich.
META
- Meta used man-in-the-middle attacks to secretly defeat Snapchat encryption as part of its efforts to “bust the ghost”.
TIKTOK
- Is this teenwashing, or a good idea? Depends on what they can accomplish.
- TikTok rolls out a “Lead Generation Playbook” in Australia and New Zealand, although it has global relevance.
OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY
- Spotify tests the paid course business to expand time spent.
- Adobe’s Descript killer podcast editor heads to beta.
- NPR finally discovers deinfluencing.
- EU goes after Google, Meta and Apple for violating new DMA rules.
- Wondery taking a genre and franchise-extension approach to expand podcasts as MGM mines podcasting to develop new movies.
- Creators Guild announces its accreditation program. I got on the waitlist for their new Mosaic platform, you should too. Excited to connect with them at NAB Creator Lab in two weeks!
- LinkedIn starts testing a short-form video feed – but on iPhone only (no iPads). My last four posts were videos – but results so far were not impressive. Maybe my videos sucked.
- Love this interview with Alyssa McKay as she talks about her streetwear brand. I’m a huge fan of Beyond Lost NYC, their black oversized hoodie is my favorite!
- Pocket.watch will debut a Ryan’s World movie in 2,100 theaters in August!
- Great to see Gabbie Hanna back making videos – it’s a case-study worthy story of how to take a break, deal with *life* and then return to YouTube.
- The Spy Ninja team finally opened their theme park in Las Vegas! So happy for Chat and Vy!
GENERATIVE AI
- Google, Intel and Qualcomm launch open-source consortium to compete with NVIDIA’s proprietary AI architecture – feels a bit like Linux vs. Windows.
- Li Jin writes about how meme coins can be a great catalyst for launching a product – also probably a good way to launch a video series too.
- AI officially hits the trough of disillusionment, says Axios. Passionfruit goes all negative.
- OpenAI shares details on its Voice Engine speech synthesizer, and wants to jump start a discussion about responsible deployment.
RESEARCH
- Marketers love AI even more than creators – according to a new study. Roughly 80% of both groups have high hopes for AI – and are already using it to great effect. And surprisingly more than half of consumers prefer GenAI enhanced content from creators. Marketers plan to put their money to work here, with nearly 3 of 4 increasing their spend on AI enhanced creator content.
- Captiv8 analyzes 5,000 TikTok and Instagram posts from 2003 to explore engagement rates across 9 categories. Key findings: Organic engagement increases as follower count declines on Instagram, but on TikTok it’s reversed. And Finance and Beauty win with Instagram, while TikTok leads in QSR and Cars.
- Izea’s new “Trust in Influencer Marketing” US Consumer survey just dropped. Key findings: TikTok usage dropped among 18-29 year olds, more than half have bought something from a creator, influencers are trusted more than celebrities and much more!
TIPS – YouTube’s Todd Beaupre says “Don’t Delete Old Videos” – as it diminishes your audience reach.
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Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.
