Good morning. Did you know that YouTube was created on Valentine’s Day? We didn’t either, but Marques Brownlee made sure to wish his favorite platform a happy birthday.

—Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

Adin Ross Joins Controversial Streaming Platform Kick

Known for playing NBA 2K live with FaZe Banks and Bronny James, one of the biggest Twitch streamers in the world just announced he’s spending more time on a controversial new platform called Kick — and the move might already have disastrous financial and legal consequences.

In a viral clip from Saturday, Adin Ross claimed that an employee at Twitch threatened to suspend him indefinitely if he didn’t make serious changes to his content.

Ross has been suspended from the platform before. Many assumed the causes were his promotion of underage gambling and the use of a homophobic slur.

On Sunday, he encouraged fans to join Kick, where he says they can watch anything from live sports and movies to prank calls and even porn alongside him.

“There is no terms of service over there,” the streamer said. “You guys can say whatever you want in my chat — nobody will get f**cking banned!”

What happened next?

• Ross and fellow streamer Trainwreck broke Kick’s viewership records by live-streaming the Super Bowl to over 125,000 people combined.

• Due to copyright infringement, the NFL can sue the streamers for “millions and millions of dollars,” according to creator and lawyer AttorneyTom.

Big picture: Alternative streaming platforms like Kick often promise lax rules and high revenue shares, which can appeal to contentious creators like Ross.

But there’s a reason why platforms end up defaulting to content moderation practices similar to Twitch and YouTube: they want to attract advertisers and avoid expensive lawsuits. 

When creators move platforms, especially to lesser-established ones, there’s always risks involved – not just financial and legal, but also the fact that companies can change their community guidelines at any moment. 

Creators Fight Against Brand Scams

Earlier this week coloring book creator Sarah Renae Clark detailed a brand partnership experience with XP Pens, where they failed to pay her for creating branded content on her YouTube channel.

Throughout the 18 tweet-long Twitter thread, Clark shares screenshots of her experience with the brand and outlines red flags creators should look for when communicating with advertisers.

Zoom out: Clark’s experience, unfortunately, isn’t rare. 

• Creators like Danielle Sabatini and Makeup Fresh recently shared how they’ve encountered missed payments and misleading pitches from brands.

• This behavior has spurred the launch of sites like F You Pay Me (FYPM) that provide transparency on what brands are like to work with.

• What’s more, agencies that connect brands to creators have also proven to have some bad actors among them—talent management group The Carter Agency was recently exposed for not paying creators their share of payment for brand deals, and Influences also came under fire.

“My biggest piece of advice for creators is to always be willing to walk away,” Clark told us. “This is really hard when you need the money, and it can help to get advice from other creators, a mentor, an agent, or someone else who can help you make decisions that aren’t led by emotion.”

Big picture: In the current economic climate, marketing budgets have tightened up. Expect to see efforts from transparency—from creators and sites like FYPM—to help keep brand-creator relationships smooth. 

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TikTok Makes Moves to Counter Audience Slowdown

After 3 years of explosive growth for TikTok, the amount of American adults using the platform has decreased.

Per The Information, from January to December of last year, the number of monthly active 18 and up decreased by 3.5%. 

Internally, the company is testing new strategies to appeal to older audiences and retain key creators, including…

Creator Fund 2.0 – a revamped approach to the platform’s revenue share program.

• Only available to creators with 100,000 followers instead of 10,000 

• Aims to dish out larger payouts in response to backlash

• Rewards longer content and watch time

Paywalled Content – a new way to capture value from superfans.

• Allows creators to charge for videos

• Similar to Instagram and Twitter’s direct subscription features

Looking ahead: While some of these features might succeed (and some might flop), if TikTok wants to stay ahead of the curve, they’ll need to ensure they’re incentivizing creators and keeping users happy.

🔥 Press Worthy

• TMG is starting a new podcast.

• How one TikTok made a book become an Amazon best-seller 14 years after publication. 

• A Joe Rogan deepfake goes viral.

• Bretman Rock releases a book.

• How would you respond to this email?

• Everbloom allows anyone to invest in YouTubers, in exchange for a share of their revenue and other perks. Their first drop with @AveryB is live.*

*This is sponsored advertising content.

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