Zuckerberg’s Next Big Swings

This Week: Ads Without Creators. Content Without Humans. Inside Zuckerberg’s vision for an AI-powered, creator-optional future.

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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TOP STORIES

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM ZUCKERBERG’S STRATECHERY INTERVIEW

A fascinating conversation between Mark Zuckerberg and @Ben Thompson lays out how Meta plans to reinvent discovery, commerce, and social interaction—for both consumers and businesses. No surprise: AI is at the center of it all.

Who Needs Marketing? Businesses will soon plug in goals and budgets, and Meta’s AI will handle everything else—from creative to targeting to conversions. Just connect your bank account and let the algorithm go to work.
AI Slop Rules: AI-generated content is about to flood your feed, edging out both creators and friend-generated posts. But that’s fine, Zuckerberg says—we’ll all be working less and spending more time with Meta.
Too Many Friends: Social platforms lump everyone together, but real life happens in smaller circles. Private spaces, where we can show different sides of ourselves, are the future.
Messaging Will Kill LinkedIn: Whatsapp, DM and other messaging apps will become the new storefronts. Business messaging—already massive in Asia—will replace public networking and reshape how small businesses operate globally.
AI-Fueled Growth: With a billion users already on Meta AI, Zuckerberg sees future monetization through subscriptions, affiliate sales, and omnipresent virtual assistants woven into daily life.

Creator Economy Takeaways: Time spent with creators will decline. To stay relevant, lean into what makes you truly human, while also experimenting with your digital twins. Double down on your community by building private social spaces where your biggest fans can connect with you and each other. I’ve started using WhatsApp groups for my event speakers, and many have turned into long-lasting and high-engagement communities.

And become a student of how AI recommends content, products and experiences. SEO shaped the early web. The AI version of that will be just as critical (if not more) over the next decade.

Finally, don’t be too discouraged. Some of Zuckerberg’s predictions sound like an AI-infused rehash of Google’s sponsored search—and we all know how that turned out. In the coming agentic era, it’s unlikely any one company will dominate. Just as creators toppled aging media gatekeepers, trusted agents may prove just as decentralizing.

LINKEDIN’S TIRED OLD MEDIA PLAYBOOK

The power of creator-first media is that anyone, anywhere can participate. LinkedIn seems to have forgotten that with its new “Brandlink” program, which will serve video ads only to a tiny, handpicked group of “top creator voices”. It’s part of a broader push that includes LinkedIn Shows, more “exclusive content from top creators”.

Instead of embracing the democratization that made the creator economy thrive, LinkedIn is leaning into an old-school gatekeeper model – the same one that’s failing at legacy media companies. They tell creators to niche down, offer value, and show up consistently. So why is monetization still reserved for the top 0.00001%? C’mon LinkedIn, you can do better.

IT’S ALL CREATORS NOW

Remember when brands treated creators as just an ad format (OK, some still do, but it’s getting better). That same wrongheadedness is still how they treat video game activations. It’s not about the ad unit. It’s not about just showing up. It’s about embracing the community and the creators there – and providing long-term value. Maybe it’s time for the creator marketing teams to start coaching their video-game counterparts.

FORMER EMPLOYER GETS CREATOR BANNED ON YOUTUBE

This cautionary tale will make your stomach churn. I mentioned the growing tension between Digital Trends and its longtime in-house creator Caleb Denison last week. But it’s gotten worse. Digital Trends has used YouTube’s DMCA takedown to essentially destroy Denison’s new company, even targeting his personal channel.

Note to Digital Trends: you don’t own your employees. Moves like this only accelerate defections and resentment. But this isn’t a one-sided story—there are lessons on both ends, as @Tyler Chou outlines in her excellent post. One thing’s clear: we’ll see a lot more of these conflicts as in-house creators try to build something of their own.

INDIA ASCENDENT

The Indian government and YouTube are both making big bets on creators. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan just announced a $100M investment in India, revealing that Big Red paid $2.5 billion to Indian creators over the past three years. Sounds impressive, but it’s less than 4% of the $70B YouTube paid out globally from 2021 to 2023.

Meanwhile, the Indian government plans to invest $1 billion to support the country’s growing creator ecosystem. But not everyone is 100% on board. When I checked in with creator economy experts in India, they were cautiously optimistic. One pointed out that creators are still often seen as an extension of Bollywood rather than a standalone force. Exhibit A: Traditional Bollywood film stars – not YouTube or Instagram-native talent – fronted many of the announcements. Another pointed to previous government initiatives that made a big splash… and then quietly disappeared.

Still, the momentum is real. I flagged India’s rise as one of my top 10 creator economy predictions for 2025, and with over 15,000 channels topping 1 million subs—and billions in new investment—that moment is clearly here.

KISS THE APPLE TAX GOODBYE

Apple doesn’t rule the universe, said a judge, as it reiterated its appstore ruling and threatened criminal charges. This means that creator monetization platforms focused on digital goods and subscriptions can now bypass Apple’s 30% transaction tax. Props to Patreon for moving quickly to update its app to soon allow patrons to bypass the Apple Tax – thus hopefully putting more money in creators’ pockets. Stripe also just released a how-to guide if you’re looking to circumvent Apple’s tax today. This is great news for creators building digital products and paid communities, as more money will flow to them and less to big, bad Apple.

SPONSOR

How are the world’s most creative minds using AI? In collaboration with Whalar Group, Fast Company polled their “Most Creative People in Business” honorees finding that AI is now a routine part of the creative process, with a return to AI-free work almost unfathomable. Learn more about how Creators are unlocking the possibilities of AI through the full results: https://www.fastcompany.com/91285651/most-creative-people-in-business-survey-2025.

PLATFORMS

YOUTUBE

Return of the Son of Elsagate: YouTube has a new kiddie cartoon problem, according to a recent report from Wired. It’s an AI-supercharged version of the 2017 YouTube kids scandal that used popular animated characters doing inappropriate and disturbing things.
TV Tops the Charts: Striking when the biggest news from YouTube is around an improved TV viewing experience from Big Red.

TIKTOK

Massive Fine Levied: The EU just slapped a $600M fine on DoubleT for sending users’ data to China, violating GDPR. TikTok has 6 months to fix the problem… OR ELSE! Fun fact: Last fall they fined Linkedin $350M and Meta $390M for GDPR violations as well.
Live Success: TikTokers earn $10M daily livestreaming.
Shop Success: Fascinating case study from TikTok showing how Topicals partnered with TikTok TasteMakers to grow GMV by 177% and affiliate sales over 1,500%. Mid 2024 execution, but the results are impressive.
Fashion Primer: TikTok EU releases a downloadable playbook for Fashion SMBs in Europe – interesting insight for creators and brands globally.
TikTok Sponsors HBR: Must be the playbook season, as TikTok also sponsored The Harvard Business Review to promote its “Discovery Commerce: A playbook for enterprise”.

OTHER PLATFORMS

Streaming By the Numbers: Twitch still leads in game-related streaming, but YouTube and TikTok dominate in overall time spent.
It’s a Start: Spotify paid $100m to podcasters in the first quarter of 2025, but at a $400M run rate, it’s still just a drop in the proverbial bucket.
Pinterest Visual Search Rules: An Adobe study found that Pinterest is also disrupting search with its visual tools – but I can’t trust their overall results as the methodology statement seems to imply that only people using search on Pinterest Search were included in the study.

QUIBIS

MEDIA DISRUPTION

Disruption Isn’t All Bad: @Doug Shapiro explores how GenAI will disrupt creators and media – but unearths a few silver linings too. I specifically liked his advice for strategic and scenario planning at traditional media.
Day Late and Dollars Short: SAG AFTRA appoints a committee to explore this whole dang “digital creator” thingie.
TikTokers Get TV Shows: I was skeptical last year when NBC announced its creator accelerator program. But I was wrong. Four of the eleven participants have new shows launching on Peacock May 19th. So cool!

CREATOR MONETIZATION

Shopping Surges: Whatnot says its users spend 80 minutes a day on average on the app, selling $3B+ of products in the last year. Don’t miss KPMG’s consumer research below for another take.
Fixing The Music Black Box: Epidemic Sound just bought AI music-detection company Song Sleuth. “It’s like a complimentary Content ID”, CEO Oscar Höglund told me, and they plan to launch a new service focused on helping musicians get paid from remixes, covers, and live recordings and other UGC content.
NIL Training: UNC will train its student athletes on how to become a successful creator. It starts with Freshman orientation and extends beyond just the school standouts – with a goal of developing up all 850 athletes into micro creators. UNC’s partner agency Article 41 will both train and sell brand deals, taking 20% off the top. That’s a bit high, but it’s a good start. No word as to whether Bill Belichick’s girlfriend will also go through the program. Congrats to @vickie Segar for making this happen!

MARKETING AND BRANDS

SEO – – > GEO: All about how to optimize for “Generative Engine Optimization”, the AI successor to SEO. Valuable for brands and creators too.
Authenticity and AI: Another good read on how to optimize your brand in the age of AI and social algorithms.
Sea Moss Gel FTW: Interesting new product from Linqia, called “Creator Ads”, lets you take creators broadly across your marketing channels, including out of home, TV, CTV and beyond. Congrats to @Keith Bendes and everyone at Linqia!
Yes, Yes They Do: Why Singapore needs to take its local creators more seriously. Good to see @soh wan wei championing UGC as a brand engagement driver in SG and SE Asia as well.
Smart Connection: Expedia partners up with creators at Beautiful Destinations to supercharge its brand campaigns. Congrats to @Jeremy Jauncey!

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

Sage Advice: What to do when the algorithm hates you.
Hall of Fame: VidCon will launch a Creator Hall of Fame at its June show. Such a great idea!
Robot Duo? Duolingo is going AI first with everything they do. I hope the mascots won’t get fired. Related, some call “AI First” a fleeting management fad.
There’s an App for That: Old friend @Shira Lizar launches CreatorCare to provide therapy specifically tailored to the unique needs of creators.
Taking Events Seriously: As event season kicks in (wow will June be crazy), this “how and why” for getting the most out of creator economy events is worth reading.
The Forrest Era is Over at SouthBy: Big disruption at SXSW, as Jay Penske takes full control, fires Hugh Forrest and 8 other top execs.
My Soapbox: Let’s stop glorifying and promoting creator economy companies built on exploitation or deception, OK?

Cartoon of a cartoon of a person walking in a bar with a group of people

AI-generated content may be incorrect.

CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE

It’s Big, Big, Big! Linkedin releases a Generative AI economic impact report.
Rewiring Engagement: I’ve been trying to rewire how we create meaningful interactions at events. This post from @Phil Mershon shares some great strategies that I’ll try to incorporate at Open Sauce and other events this fall.
Lies, Damn Lies: We need an independent lab to create LLM benchmarks, as a recent paper found extreme cheating from OpenAI, Google and Meta. Sort of like the “Ziff Davis Benchmark Operation” we had back when I ran testing at PC Week Labs. Hint, Hint, @Mark Van Name and @Bill Catchings.

RESEARCH

The Creator Economy Is Now THE Economy: According to the IAB’s new digital economy report, creators now make up over 1 in 10 full-time internet-dependent jobs in the U.S.—a staggering 1.5 million FTE creators, growing 7.5x since 2020 and 5x faster than traditional media. The shift of ad dollars, the rise of powerful and inexpensive tools, and the creator-to-consumer business boom disrupting not just media, but the US GDP too. So why can’t creators get a loan?
Social Shopping and AI Speedbumps: KPMG’s Spring/Summer 2025 consumer sentiment study shows that nearly two-thirds of U.S. shoppers are uncomfortable with AI’s intrusiveness, and don’t want its help while shopping. Social shopping isn’t faring much better: over half of consumers say they’re not interested in buying through those channels either. The bigger issue? About 50% plan to buy less overall and are actively hunting for deals in today’s thriftier, tariff-driven economy. The full study has much, much more. It’s hard to find the full download link, so here it is.

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AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Where’s Jim? Enjoying a May at home but looking forward to a June of travel!

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).

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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.

Let me know what you think – email me at jim@louderback.com. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.