This week – What happens to the TikTok ban, please no more MCNs, have we reached peak creator brands and much more! Plus come to my meetup in Lisbon this week at Web Summit!
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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TIKTOK BAN – WHAT NOW
With President Donald Trump returning to office on January 20th, what’s the fate of the PAFACA law, which orders TikTok to divest or shutdown in the US? The law itself goes into effect on January 19th – pending the Dec 6 findings of TikTok’s circuit court appeal. Assuming it’s enacted, it can only be invalidated by passing ANOTHER law in congress. Expect TikTok to continue the appeal to the Supreme Court, which will likely also slow things down until spring or summer. The wild card? What will President Trump do. @Rich Greenfield and his team explore the scenarios and how it might affect Meta, YouTube, Snap and others. Might have to update my TikTok Countdown Clock.
- Related: Canada kicks TikTok out of the country – but the app will still be available.
- Related: Australia will ban social platforms for kids under 16, forcing platforms to verify age – or else. TikTok, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube all likely to be affected
THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS NO
I love that my friend Mike Shields has a new newsletter called Next in Creator Media (worth a sub!). But the answer to “Is it time for the MCN to return” is no. If you didn’t know, I built one of the first MCNs (Revision3) and sold it to Discovery. If you think it’s hard to build a creator business on rented land, building a creator network on rented land is near impossible. Build a big enough network and the platforms become incented to see you fail. There are other collaborative creator models that might succeed – but even today’s “MCN” companies have realized they need to pivot to services and SAAS – or to old-school management agencies – to be successful. Also check out Mike’s new Next in Creator Media podcast featuring Whalar’s president of Measurement and Analytics. Our sponsor Whalar Group highlighted it in this issue below too (that’s called coincidental synergy folks).
CALLING IT: WE’VE REACHED PEAK CREATOR BRAND
Yes, creator brands have flooded Walmart and other places. But even the most hyped have a life-cycle shorter than many YouTubers. Walmart co-hosted a creator upfront two weeks ago, but I detect a whiff of desperation in the move. We’re all starting to get just a little sick of these overhyped, in-it-to-win-it creator brands. I’m not down on the IDEA of creators launching products, just that we may have primed the pump way too hard. Pun intended, as Prime Hydration and others seem to be fading. What’s a creator business to do? Lean into quality and build things that make sense for YOUR community (like what Mark Vins will soon launch), rather than trying to boil the ocean. Or build digital goods, SAAS, or find a traditional brand to partner with and launch things together. I fear there’s a reckoning to come – and mold on Lunchly could be just the start.
- Related: Creator commerce company Amaze merges with Fresh Vine wine to help creators launch custom alcohol brands. I’m calling it now – Drunkables will be the next big Beast brand. What could possibly go wrong?
MIXED RESULTS FROM THE “CREATOR ECONOMY ELECTION
In case you didn’t hear, the US elected a president last week. I shy away from politics here, but it’s notable that the creator economy took center stage during the lead up and on the night of the US election. Traditional TV ratings were way down, and YouTube was the big winner, streaming 67 million hours of content. Podcasts also seemed to take center stage as candidates leaned into the intimate format as part of their pivot to the creator economy. @Reed Duchscher spent election night shambling about on social, finding that news has fundamentally shifted from older media to streaming video. @peter Kafka calls it “The YouTube Election ($). And The Atlantic weighs in with a lengthy analysis concluding that we are all the media (old take but more true today than ever). There’s clearly no going back. But it turns out that the FYP feeds on TikTok, Threads and other platforms failed to deliver timely updates, causing backlash among users. And ChatGPT failed to debunk misinformation as well (unlike similar services). I hope both will be fixed before the next big contest.
- Related: Hank Green’s post-election thoughts provide good advice – no matter your political leanings. And his wife Katherine is so wise.
- Related: This week’s Inside Fandom (below) takes a close look at another community that might help you divert your attention too.
- Related: Despite last week’s focus, Pew finds that US adults are more likely to follow pop-culture and entertainment accounts than politics.
SPONSOR: On the latest episode of Next in Creator Media, Whalar’s President of Measurement and Analytics, Gaz Alushi, dives into the critical question: Are brands investing enough in Creators? Gaz discusses the underestimated ROI Creators bring, with Nielsen data revealing they can deliver a remarkable 2.4x ROI. He also explores the importance of measuring Creator impact like traditional media, the need for planning and attribution in campaign measurement, and how tailoring content to platform-specific audiences can drive results. Listen now!
QUIBIS:
YOUTUBE
- I’m LEGIT! YouTube and its creators in the UK are fighting for legitimacy and inclusion.
- MENA Spotlight: Nice profile and interview with Rima Alosta, gaming YouTuber in MENA.
- Community Upgrades: YouTube Studio mobile app gets a community-focused update.
- Protecting the Cow: What do you do when your parent’s search share is fading – thanks to AI. Add hyperlinks into other unasked for places. Like YouTube comments.
META
- Llama Taboot: Open Source AI will enhance security and improve the US’ tech position globally, says Nick Chegg.
TIKTOK
- You Still Here? Much to my surprise TikTok’s sister app Lemon8 is still around. They just did something creator friendly. All three of you can rejoice now.
- Sibling Rivalry: TikTok’s other sister app, CapCut, just released a “Commerce Pro” version that helps ecommerce companies, creators and businesses create ads and branded content.
- We’ll Do It Live: Parker Panell is the new host of TikTok’s live podcast series “TikTok LIVE: On Air”
- Sharing is Caring: TikTok partners with Apple Music and Spotify.
OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY
- Can Creators Save Hollywood: The debate rages. I still think the global creator industry doesn’t need a California-based center. But you decide!
- Doug Shapiro Predicts Huge Media Changes: One of my favorite analysts, Doug Shapiro, condenses his future of media vision into a post here – see him discuss it live in Dubai in January.
- LinkedIn Video Is a Thing: Marketers love it, the reach is astounding, and you should be doing more of it! @Brendan Gahan shares is thoughts here too. Oh, and check out the video I made featuring Luce and the Vatican – a story we covered here last week.
- Anime Rules: No surprise to regular readers – new research shows more than 2 of 5 GenZ watches Anime at least weekly.
- Luce Exposed: But there’s a dark side to the anime boom – this is why we can’t have nice things.
- Jump, Smash, Swipe: Wait, what? There’s a TikTok clone on Roblox!
- Shifting Sands At Roblox: As ad dollars move to programmatic, custom brand studios squeezed.
- I Want One: BI recently reviewed a Mr Beast pitch deck filed in NY County court as part of recent lawsuit. It’s pretty pedestrian, nothing surprising. Still, if you have a copy send it to me!
- Fanfic Shakeup: Wattpad elevates head of studios to co-president.
- Snap Cares: Snap releases its annual “Citizen Snap” report, highlighting the positive.
- Yet Another Creator vs. Influencer Debate: This is so 2018, but once again these tired labels are being bandied about for advertisers. It’s MUCH more nuanced – and I’m looking forward to chatting about it with ex TikTok exec @Kudzi Chikumbu on stage at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai in January.
- Million Dollar Prize: Related, the 1 Billion Followers Summit will give away $1M to a creator driving positive change. Nominate yourself or your favorite creator today!
- Elle India Cover Star: Congrats to Prajakta Koli, Elle India’s Cover Star of the monthv. Looking forward to chatting with her in Dubai on stage as well in January!
CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE
- Curate THIS! AI search engine Perplexity issued a call for subject matter experts to curate pages. I applied for the Creator Economy. You can too!
- Creator Sues Nvidia: YouTuber sues the chip company claiming it has been training its new model on his videos without permission. The company says it is protected by “The Copyright Act”, and then sneered, “I didn’t do it neither, coppers”.
- Messy Progress: Yet another Sora video highlighted on OpenAI’s YouTube page. Interesting visuals but lacking storytelling cohesion. Time to open Sora up to all, as the creative spark seems to have ebbed. Oh and OpenAI’s core models have hit a wall as well ($).
INSIDE THE BOOKTUBE FANDOM
by Morgan Ward
You’ve heard of #BookTok, but did you know about BookTube? Surprise, it’s YouTubers talking about books. Creators cover all genres of literature – everything from high fantasy and trashy romance to non-fiction essays and memoirs. Unlike BookTok, which revels in a never ending cycle of short-form controversy, BookTube is an easy, comforting community. Creators post hour long vlogs documenting their reading habits and participate in book related challenges, including “I read every book I saw people reading on the train” and “I read the most popular books on Goodreads”.
Creators build familiarity through friendly conversation and adopting the easy conviviality of a book club. Creators also host actual clubs on sites like Fable or on their Patreon. For brands, BookTube provides an easy way to reach a sympatico audience. Regular sponsors include Book of the Month and DR brands like Squarespace. Need to escape? BookTube has you covered.
Go Deeper by Following these top BookTubers:
- Jack Edwards covers a wide range of genres on his main channel and vlogs his reading habits on his second one.
- The witty Lexi (aka newlynova) is on BookTube and BookTok where she covers the filthiest (her words) books you don’t want to be caught reading.
- OG creator A Clockwork Reader focuses on niche book recommendations. From vague (“a book that will make me cry”) to hyper-specific (“Books that remind me of Avatar the Last Airbender”), Hannah has a book for you.
- In her own words, With Cindy is “the perfect combination of literature analysis and depression.” She’s one of the funniest BookTube creators has expanded into film and lifestyle videos as well.
- An American living in Seoul, Cari Can Read is the second channel for Cari Cakes where she offers a more international look at BookTube. Her third channel features book-related music playlists to accompany your reading sessions.
Me this week: I’m at Web Summit all this week in Lisbon. You’ll find me hosting the New Media Summit stage Tuesday, and hanging around otherwise. Ping me if you want to say hi, and come to my meetup on Thursday!
100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!). Like this free newsletter? Buy me a coffee and say thanks! Or let’s do a meetup in your town.
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.
