What You Missed at VidCon Baltimore
First, some breaking news: ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, is planning to buy at least $300 million in stock from current and former employees, a buyback that implies a valuation around $223.5 billion. That’s about 26% lower than the buyback ByteDance announced a year ago. In an unusual move, TikTok is buying back shares at different prices, depending on whether an employee is still working at the company and how they left. Read more here.
Now, on to today’s column.
For the first time, VidCon last week held its conference on the East Coast. It was a more muted affair than VidCon’s Anaheim, Calif. event, but it still provided plenty of insight into what creators and startups are focused on. Here are the highlights.
• Labor. Thursday kicked off with an invite-only leadership summit, which included a debate about how to effectively organize a labor movement for creators. (I’ve broken news on two different efforts this year: a project now called Creators.org and the Creators Guild of America.) The audience seemed to support the concept, but had many questions about how to effectively achieve goals like equitable pay. For example, a strike, even if it included 1 million creators, would do very little to hurt a social network’s business and force them to make changes, audience members said.
• The White House. The director of digital strategy for the Biden Administration, Christian Tom, spoke about how his 20-person team works with creators to try to reach young voters. President Joe Biden has posted videos with the Jonas Brothers, and has also invited TikTok creators to the White House for briefings. The talk left a few unanswered questions for me, including whether the White House pays creators for these partnerships.
• Short-video drawbacks. A common theme that came up in several sessions was the downsides of short-form video, including how it’s harder for creators to build a strong fan base through brief clips. As consumers of short-form video, “we usually don’t even look to see the name of the creator,” said Matt Koval, founder of consulting agency Creator Dynamics and former long-time YouTube employee during a presentation on Friday. “I don’t think the quality of those views and subscribers is the same as with long-form content. Shorts just aren’t as effective at building a loyal fan base.”
• Artificial intelligence (of course). Several of the speakers talked about AI tools being a supercharger for the sector, helping creators save time and be more productive. During a panel I moderated, Chris Williams, CEO of entertainment company Pocket.watch, said technologies that mimic creators’ voices can be especially helpful for lightening the workloads of child stars like tween YouTuber Ryan Kaji, a Pocket.watch partner. Lindsey Lee Lugrin, a creator and CEO of F*** You Pay Me, a Glassdoor-like service with data about sponsorship deals, encouraged founders building AI tools to first speak with creators about their needs and how their likeness will be used.
• Scheduling. Creators want to set and forget. The latest example: Snapchat creator Caryn Marjorie said she asked the company’s product team to allow the app to schedule disappearing Story posts at a recent visit to Snap HQ. Snap exec Jim Shepherd said the company is considering what AI tools could make sense for Snapchat creators, but didn’t offer more details.
Here’s what else is going on…
Deals & Debuts
See The Information’s Creator Economy Database for an exclusive list of private companies and their investors.
TikTok is testing a monthly subscription offering that would remove apps from the short-form video app, tech website Android Authority reported, citing code within the TikTok app. A TikTok spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Indonesia’s ban of TikTok Shop could kill nearly one-third of the online shopping service’s business, The Information reported. TikTok Shop was recently on pace to handle more than $6 billion worth of transactions in Indonesia this year, more than a third of its total for Southeast Asia, which accounts for the vast majority of TikTok Shop’s global business. (Read more on TikTok Shop’s U.S. plans.)
Teachable, best known for online courses, announced memberships so that creators can offer exclusive content such as bonus podcast episodes and video series, similar to startups such as Patreon. Creators will also be able to sell access to their Teachable communities as part of their membership tier.
Twitch streamers are asking the company to fix a hack that lets users inflate their views by embedding their streams onto other websites, tricking advertisers, Fortune reported. A Twitch spokesperson said its policies prohibit users from artificially inflating follower or live viewer stats.
Pinterest announced its first Creator Residency program with Atlanta-based photography studio Cam Kirk Studios, which selects 50 creators from historically marginalized communities who want to increase their content on Pinterest. Participants will have access to Cam Kirk Studio’s new Creator Lab, which gives them access to Microsoft Surface devices, Adobe design suites, 3D machinery and a gaming and streaming room.
ICYMI: Jasper AI, an AI-powered writing tool, cut the internal value of its common shares 20%, The Information reported. The drop in the startup’s internal valuation could indicate that the growth of its writing tool has slowed since the company raised venture funding at a $1.5 billion valuation in June.
Creator Corner
🏀MrBeast’s snack brand Feastables is partnering with the Charlotte Hornets, the first time a creator brand has partnered with an NBA franchise. The Feastables logo will appear on jerseys for the 2023-24 season.
Paris Hilton is partnering with X (formerly known as Twitter), according to a post from CEO Linda Yaccarino. The two will work together to create original video, including live shopping streams. X will be responsible for securing brand sponsorships for the projects, including for live shopping.
Dirt Media, a newsletter about entertainment and digital pop culture, announced it acquired GQ contributor Tyler Watamanuk’s design newsletter Sitting Pretty. It will be renamed to a weekly newsletter called Prune about interiors, design and other topics.
Big Number: Nearly $20 Million
That’s the amount X has paid out to creators, CEO Linda Yaccarino announced on Friday. Earlier this year, the social network started allowing creators to earn revenue from the ads appearing in replies to their posts.
However, the creator must subscribe to X Premium, the paid version of the social network, to earn ad revenue. X owner Elon Musk also posted that creators can now enable direct messages from only their paying subscribers as he tries to boost adoption of X Premium. “Being able to talk to your favorite creator is a great reason to subscribe!” Musk wrote.
People on the Move
♟️Alex Leibow, head of creator editorial at Snap is leaving the company after 8 years. He started as vice president of media and content at Chess.com on Monday.
Stephanie Latham is joining Roblox as vice president of global partnerships. Previously, she spent 12 years at Meta Platforms, most recently leading entertainment, tech and telecom sales in North America.
What We’re Reading and Watching
• The Messy Art of Posting Through It (Vox)
• A Company Wanted Creators to Promote Its Service Offering AI Clones To Do Job Interviews. Now, It’s Gone Dark Online (NBC News)
• How a Videogame CEO Became the Boss of the Weight Room (The Information)
Thank you for reading the Creator Economy Newsletter! I’d love your feedback, ideas and tips: [email protected].
If you think someone else might enjoy this newsletter, please pass it forward or they can sign up here: https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/creator-economy
