Good morning. If you live online as much as we do, it’s likely Twitter’s been the topic of the day. So we’re giving a little more real estate than usual to the story sweeping the internet to help us figure out: what does this all mean for creators?

–Hannah Doyle

Elon Musk Buys Twitter

The Tesla CEO and prolific meme poster purchased the text-based social platform yesterday for around $44 billion. 

The deal follows weeks of speculation centered around Musk purchasing Twitter, sparked by him joining the board and becoming the company’s biggest shareholder earlier this month. Musk bought the platform for $54.20 a share so he could take it private—it’s one of the largest deals to take a company private in the last decade. 

The agreement was unanimously approved by Twitter’s board and is expected to close this year, subject to a vote of Twitter shareholders and regulatory approvals.

According to Forbes, Musk is worth $271 billion. He has 83 million followers on Twitter—more than the platform’s current and ex-CEO combined—and has earned a reputation for not shying away from controversy.

"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," Musk said in a statement. "I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans."

We opened up the conversation on Twitter to see what changes creators would like to see on the platform, with users suggesting a short-form video creator fund and making YouTube redirects more seamless. 

Our Take

Musk isn’t the first billionaire to buy an influential media company, with Jeff Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post in 2013 and Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of The Wall Street Journal in 2007 preceding him. But he is the first to have a large social influence separate from his business dealings. How will that first-hand experience as an active user shape how he runs the company? It could mean Twitter will become more creator-friendly.

Also, with creators beginning to create empires of their own, it leads us to wonder—could a creator buy a social platform in the future? Or build one themselves? What if MrBeast bought YouTube or the D’Amelio family bought TikTok?

High Schooler Signs $8 Million NIL Deal

California HS junior Nico Iamaleava committed to the University of Tennessee football team for the position of quarterback last month under the terms that he stays with the college through his junior year, according to The Athletic. 

Iamaleava reportedly signed a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with “a school’s NIL collective” for $8 million. School-specific collectives are independent and donor-led. They pool funds from a wide range of donors to help create NIL opportunities for student-athletes through a variety of opportunities, and have been growing rapidly since the approval of the NIL law last year. As of last week, collectives are allowed to interact with university coaches directly in the state of Tennessee.

Iamaleava should get about $350,000 almost immediately because he plays in California, one of the eight states in the country whose high school association allows NIL deals. That would increase to more than $2 million a year when he becomes a Tennessee student. 

In exchange, he would make public appearances and play a role in social media promotions as well as participate in other NIL events.

Our Take

Though this deal says more about college recruiting than it does about branding opportunities, money like this all but guarantees that Iamaleava’s name will soon be splashed across all manner of branding platforms when he finally enrolls in college in 2023, if not sooner. 

And if more deals happen at this level, it can give talented recruits and their families resources and opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have in crucial developmental years.

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TikToker Kat Wellington Starts a Podcast

The creator known for her lifestyle and comedy videos recently launched a podcast with her longtime friend Emily Proctor.

Wellington started on TikTok in 2019, going viral a handful of times in 2020 from her observations on professional workwear and life with her family. She currently has over 400,000 followers between TikTok and Instagram. 

The podcast, Impossible To Say, is an extension of Wellington’s TikTok storytelling where she and Proctor swap funny stories and advice.

Our Take

To make a career in content today, you need to create a sustainable format—for many, that’s longform as it keeps audiences coming back week to week. Podcasting is on the rise because of this and Wellington’s show will be a test to see if the audience she built on TikTok can convert to habitual podcast listeners. 

🔥 Press Worthy

• Daniel Thrasher joins Rhett and Link’s Mythical Accelerator program.

• Alex Warren starts a podcast.

• A new way to record your podcasts and publish straight to Spotify.*

• Bella Poarch appears in Rolling Stone. 

• MKBHD hosts David Blaine on his YouTube channel.

• Instagram is testing a templates tool.

• These are the most popular kids in NYC.

*This is sponsored advertising content.

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