Is Instagram Censoring us? - https://www.instagram.com/p/CRrajNYlL3f/?utm_medium=copy_link

One YouTube subscriber = 25 TikTok subscribers according to new financial services firm

YouTube releases Tip Jar - or did they update one from 7 years ago?  YouTube Intros Super Thanks, Tip-Jar Feature for Creator Channels - Variety

Facebook is finally a media company - https://www.theverge.com/21273768/section-230-explained-internet-speech-law-definition-guide-free-moderation

NFTs FTW

Why Can’t Other Platforms Pay Creators Like YouTube? VidCon founder Hank Green’s latest rant on TikTok shows – yet again – that YouTube dominates in compensating creators. In 2020 Big Red paid out about 50% of its $19 Billion in revenue to creators. Hank also notes that even though TikTok trumpets its billion-dollar creator largesse, that’s only 7% of Double T’s estimated 2020 revenue. Using Niel Robertson’s round-up of creator grants, the other platforms are also far behind.   Snap’s $365M payout is 18% of its 2B in 2020 revenue – much better but still not YouTube level. Pinterest is nowhere, with 1+% of 2020 revenue.  LinkedIn, as usual, remains a big fat 0%. These figures – more than anything else – are exactly why creators are moving from platforms to Web3-style owned connections with their communities.  They are tired of giving away their milk for free.

The future of online retail looks a lot like QVC, with live streams of influencers, including dogs, doing the hawking

PLUS:

TIKTOK's NEW JUMP FEATURE Rebuilds the Internet Inside TikTok: Now developers can connect third party tools like messaging apps, shopping, cooking, news sites (and others) directly into TikTok. This means you could watch a video, Whatsapp your friends about it, share it on Discord, book a trip to where the video was produced, view the recipe behind the video, and then buy the ingredients all without leaving TikTok. It’s the beginning of an incredible vision for the social video app, one where you’ll never need to leave TikTok to do almost anything. It might even obviate the Apple Store tax without lawsuits.

dot.LA's inaugural, in-person summer series event sought to bring some understanding to the creator economy and the myriad ways it's shifting power relationships in Hollywood.  The new model is already upending traditional advertising, spurring a slew of startups from old school talent agencies to AI-platforms aimed at boosting influencers' reach and giving once overlooked artists a bigger voice.

AVATARS: Crafting our digital persona is all about trying on different versions of ourselves  We are different "people" in different settings and to different groups.  Avatars are the gateway drugs to the "multiverse".

MATH IS HARD: Today, we live in a world where 24.3% of Instagram’s 1 billion monthly active users have over 100,000 followers, and close to 5 million accounts have over 1 million followers."

https://www.adweek.com/media/everyones-an-influencer-now-what/

GETTING TO KNOW YOU - RATHER, THEM: A Guide to Gen Z Through TikTok Trends, Emojis, & Language... There are nearly 3 billion Gen Zs alive today. In 2019, Gen Zs surpassed Millennials to become the largest generation on the planet. And with the oldest Gen Zs still only 26, the generation’s $150 billion in spending power will swell 70% over the next five years.  https://digitalnative.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-gen-z-through-tiktok-trends

Facebook Wants to be VR King: With a flurry of moves and acquisitions, Facebook is quickly becoming the leader in VR. Sure, Epic and Snap are certainly doing big things – with Epic likely to be the biggest competitor. I’m a big believer in augmented and virtual reality becoming the next big thing someday. If it happens soon, Facebook might well have it’s next Instagram. If not, well, they might well dominate anyway.

This Week:  Bickering Beekeepers and Marky Mark Trail, Hashtags Are Cool Again, BYOC, Politics on TikTok, Instagram Giveaways, CJ So Cool!

Details and Links:

This week Cassie and Jim discuss whether Facebook and Instagram dropped the ball on dropping Likes, a look at whether TikTok really is focused on promoting blandness (and hit singles) and we handicap the latest darling app Poparazzi.

Google's Cutting Edge Telepresence

Twitch Adds New Hashtags..  FINALLY!

New startup FAVE Empowers Superfans

WILDFANG comes to Nordys

Gucci comes to Roblox

Twitter, Zoom, Discord, Spotify and Facebook are selling tickets to events

Poised will make you better at Zoom

Lovingly recorded on FiresideChat

YouTube Launches Shorts Fund: Big Red is ramping up the “compete with TikTok” game with a $100M fund for creators. Payouts will be determined by engagement and views, rather than ad revenue – and you don’t even need to be an official “partner” to win! But it’ll take a lot more than cash to dethrone Big T.  

Cassie and Jim unpack that news, while also exploring how Apple is both a positive and a negative for the creator economy, details on new stuff from Koji, and what it takes to REALLY be an entertainment company today - inspired both by a Matthew Ball article and the Discovery / Warner Bros. merger.

The Epic Web3 Transition Changes Everything: If you read just one thing this week, make it Rex Woodbury's piece on Web3, creators and the metaverse. We're in the middle of a transition from Web 2.0, ruled by platforms and middlemen to Web3 - which is about direct creator to community transactions. Rex describes Web3 perfectly, but also ties so many other threads together. If you read this, you know something big is going on. This post ties it all together with a bow.

Maximizing Brand Deal Value: If you’re a creator, you’ve probably had brands approach you offering to sponsor. But how much do you charge? What’s the right way to approach the deal so that both of you win? This post from Famepick details how to respond to inbound brand requests, and helps you maximize your return while retaining rights to your content. It’s also smart for brands to understand, to build successful symbiotic relationships with creators. Scroll to the end for a TLDR response that works nearly every time!

· TikTok Expands SDK for third party developers.

· Just in time for summer – Shorts For All!

Stories this week and more!  Plus a tip of the week from Derral Eves

Super League Disaster is Another Win For Community-First Media: If you’re not a (European) football fan, you may have missed the latest scandal roiling the sport world. Rich and absent owners attempted to co-opt the community tradition of “football clubs” associated with cities and towns around Europe. This decidedly fan-unfriendly approach was roundly and soundly destroyed by fans everywhere. The hide-bound sport world has been woefully behind the creator economy curve but that’s starting to change. Fan communities unite!

· Hype House coming to Netflix. Title: “Here Comes Hype House Boo Boo” (kidding

· Influence.Co publishes list of how top platforms reward creators.

· Startup Pietra Studio launches, promises to simplify brand development for creators.