This Week: The evolution of social video platforms: From WHO you follow, to WHAT you watch, to YOU in every frame.
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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Once again writing to you from the business class lounge on Emirates, 30,000 feet over the North Sea.
TOP STORIES
FROM WHO to WHAT to YOU, or STOP FREAKING OUT OVER SORA “SLOP”
Two weeks ago, Sora launched, proving that we all love being the main character. The inevitable AI backlash followed. But let’s face it this is just the next step in a long progression: from WHO (YouTube’s creator graph) to WHAT (TikTok’s topic graph) to YOU (Sora’s personal graph).
YouTube built a system around who you follow. TikTok innovated around what you watch. Now Sora lets you generate videos starring you, your friends, or AI cameos with the living and dead. It’s a social video stream centered on you.
TikTok’s already full of AI-generated content, and Sora-style videos are flooding in. Shorts will follow. If I were Meta, I’d add a “post as prompt” feature to Facebook that creates AI-enhanced companion videos. That might actually get me to log in again.
Some creators will lose views as audiences split attention with AI content—but disruption has been a constant since YouTube launched. This isn’t the end of creativity; it’s another format to compete with or master.
My advice? Be like Jake Paul, iJustine and xQc. They’ve embraced Sora, let anyone duets with them, and have become even more popular than they were a week ago.
PS: We call it slop today, but I remember when most media execs used a similarly slur for YouTubers (UGC).
PPS: iJustine’s pig hack is brilliant. It’s how you know it’s an AI-generated Cameo. I copied it with a wombat, and then a koala.
- AI Freak-Out of the Week: Casey Neistat reacts to Sora slop. (Net Influencers)
- AI Freak-Out of the Week 2: Mr Beast calls Sora “apocalyptic” for creators. (TechCrunch)
- Related: @Megan Lightcap has an adjacent take and inspired me to write this. Her Boss @Sam Lessin has his own thought-provoking take too. (Slow Upload, Slow Ventures)
HOW PREDICTION MARKETS IMPACT THE CREATOR ECONOMY
Fascinating essay from a16z partner @alex danco. He rehashes the last 100 years of progress, from Modernism to Innovation and argues we’re entering the Era of Prediction. We all synthesize what’s happening and make a kind of parlay bet on where we think the world is headed. The best creators do this intuitively, weaving trends from seemingly unrelated ideas, while most of us just follow what looks like “a better place to go.”
Money quote: “Are you predicting it, or is it predicting you?”
The most interesting implication comes when trusted micro-communities meet prediction economies: the aggregate “parlay bet” of their members could generate predictive value around emerging themes. It’s also a useful framework for spotting the next big creator—or the next big thing. (Alex Danco)
ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL
Ask me how I feel about awards and Top 100 lists sometime. I find them inherently biased, judged by people with more Q-score than taste. At best a fleeting snapshot, at worst a sponsor-influenced stack of slop. Now Instagram wants in. Its new “Ring” awards will crown 25 creators out of its 3 billion users. Winners can flaunt their “ring of power” both physically and on their profile.
Compared to YouTube’s Play Button, it’s a sop to creators and a slap to the other 2,999,999,975 who’d rather see the Reels Play bonus program return. Yes, I know the irony. I just agreed to judge the Shorty Awards. I hope to be proven wrong about awards in general. Still down on Rings in particular. (Instagram)
PRODUCT/COMMUNITY FAIL
We talk about product/community and creator/product fit here occasionally. @Sara Wilson digs into how Taylor Swift’s latest drop let down her fandom—both as a product and a community moment. It also triggered yet another AI panic. No mass rage quitting yet, though. I still remember the Grateful Dead’s disco era. That didn’t spark a shakedown either. (Community Catalysts, Futurism)
CREATOR WEEK – GATEWAY TO CHINA!
Come join me at the first Creator Week in Macao October 24-28. It’s a creator and music festival over the weekend and a Creator/Industry conference, and academy, Monday and Tuesday. I’ll be leading a bunch of sessions and enjoying the insights from Chinese and western creators and business leaders. It’s free – but you need to request a ticket here. Tell ‘em you’re a reader of Inside the Creator Economy and I’m sure you’ll get in!
See you there!
PLATFORMS
Instagram goes back to its roots with the new collage feature. @Lia Haberman calls it “The best thing they’ve launched this year” (which is saying a lot). (ICYMI)
TikTok: President Trump reignites the trade war with China. I haven’t heard anything, but I wonder if this will put the deal on hold – yet again. (CNN)
TikTok: How often should you post? A new study finds that 2-5 posts a week give the best view jump when time spent is factored in, but 11+ is better overall. (Buffer)
TikTok shares up to 90% of subscription revenue with creators (Social media Today)
LinkedIn: Sues company accused of LinkedIn scraping at scale. If only there were an API for that. (The Record)
QUIBIS
PLATFORMS
GenA and GenZ Are Different: New predictions from @Abby Ho about the microdramas, the next generation, ritual marketing and more (Fellow Kids)
Super Video Distribution Comes to Podcasting: @Rox Codes launches Flightcast to help podcasters distribute their videos across a variety of platforms. Can you do this for newsletters next Rox? (Podnews)
Embracing EGC: Storyarb tested the power of employee generated content. The results? 7M impressions, a 55% increase in web sessions, 54% increase in LinkedIn followers and much more. (Storyarb)
Another Studio Expands: Spy Ninjas gets a non-endemic president to help scale their videos, theme park and more.
Fall In to the Gap: Gap adds a new creator influence and advocacy program. Congrats to @Damon Berger who will be chatting about Gap and creators at 1BFS in January (NoGood)
The Carcinization of Video: Everything is turning into Television. (Derek Thompson)
Possibly You: @Mike Sheilds on the controversial debate over who should own the creator brand relationship. (Next in Media).
#WeHardlyKnewYe: @Adam Aleksic mourns the impending loss of the Hashtag. (Etymology Nerd) Why platforms are killing the hashtag
Map My Life: @evan Shapiro calls creators “the most powerful marketing platform on the planet, and releases his first map of the Creator Economy. Cool! (Media War and Peace)
CREATOR TECH – AI, AR, VR, MORE
Nilly Fallout: Dan Costa explores what happens to creators and celebs when AI takes over. (Machined)
Hollywood It’s Not: Indonesia embraces AI filmmaking – (Rest of World)
Google SEO chief opens up on GenAI search. LINK
Get Paid Quickly: The stablecoin duopoly is ending. Why should creators care? Because it lets brands and creators around the world work together without usurious currency conversion fees and excruciating delays. (Murmurations II)
RESEARCH
CreatorIQ dubs 2025 “the Age of Efficiency” in its latest *State of Creator Marketing* report. Influencer spend jumped an eye-popping 171% year over year, mostly pulled from digital and paid media budgets. But abundance brings new headaches. Measuring performance is now the industry’s top challenge, as brands still struggle to prove what’s working. The study echoes many themes we’ve covered here: follower counts and engagement metrics matter less than ever, while gifting and seeding are losing steam. It’s also packed with insight into what creators expect and worry about next. (CreatorIQ).
Expect to hear a lot more about this at CreatorIQ’s annual LA event. I went last year—it was stellar. I’ll miss it this time, but CMO Brit Starr will dive into these trends at the event I’m helping produce, the *One Billion Followers Summit* in Dubai this January. (1BFS)
Where’s Jim? Off on vacation for a week, which means no issue next week! See you on the 27th!
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Shout out to reader Sarah Early, who was super generous last week. THANKS Sarah!
100% written by me. AI used very sparingly for edits.
I’ve built and sold multiple creator economy startups to top media companies – including an MCN to Discovery and VidCon to 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.
