Good morning. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has a new LinkedIn bio: “Loving husband, father to four boys, VP Product @ Meta.” That’s one way to make a statement re: Meta’s history of openly copying a host of Snap features—most notably Stories—over the years.
Business Roundup: Platforms 🤝 Creator Resources
Creator opportunities emerge from Yahoo, Uscreen, and Nebula / Illustration by Moy Zhong
The new year has brought with it more opportunities in writing, film, and TV for creators. Here’s your rundown on the latest investments and initiatives →
Yahoo has now recruited nearly 100 creators to its growing “Stories From Creators” homepage section. The details:
Yahoo launched the program last year. The publisher gives 50% of ad revenue to participating creators.
Though views can vary significantly, high-performing articles can earn some 300K views. Travel creators Brent and Michael told Bloomberg they make around $3,000 per month from articles.
Video monetization platform Uscreen just raised $150 million from PSG Equity (which took a majority stake in the company as part of the deal). Uscreen’s creator play:
Uscreen will use the money to help creators scale their businesses—the company focuses largely on content infrastructure, powering creators’ content distribution apps for mobile and streaming devices including Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV.
Keep in mind: TV recently ranked as the most-used device for YouTube viewers in the US.
Creator-owned streaming service Nebula launched a new support program for digital filmmakers. The rundown:
Nebula debuted a mentorship team stacked with Hollywood heavyweights including producer Dan Jinks, actor Geoffrey Cantor, and filmmaker Wesley Wang.
Nebula is also partnering with camera company RED to give creators training and on-set support.
“We believe the next generation of filmmakers will come from the digital world, and some of the most interesting storytellers are already making things on YouTube and TikTok,” Nebula founder Dave Wiskus said in a blog post. “We want to empower those creators and build a better system. We want to take over Hollywood.”
Who Is IanOnYouTube?
IanOnYouTube shared his life working at a 7-Eleven on his channel. / IanOnYouTube
A lot has changed for lifestyle creator IanOnYouTube in the last three weeks: His following has grown 10x to nearly 190,000, and over 4 million viewers have tuned in to watch his videos and donate to his channel.
What’s all the buzz about? IanOnYouTube went viral last month vlogging about his job at 7-Eleven and sharing personal stories of alcoholism recovery. Some channel standouts, by views:
“Why am I 30 years old working a dead end retail job?” with 2.5 million views
“Just got fired from my 3 year job working at 7/11 with no warning” with 1.7 million views
The real kicker: Ian has published close to 1,200 videos in the last 13 years. Up until this month, most have topped out at a few thousand views.
Big picture: Authentic, lo-fi content continues to win on YouTube (see also: Sam Sulek and Goobie and Doobie). So does perseverance.
TikTok Returns to US App Stores
US users can download TikTok again / Illustration by Moy Zhong
It’s been nearly one month since TikTok was (for 14 hours) banned in the US before President Donald Trump issued an executive order to delay the ban for 75 days.
Here’s TikTok’s status in the US →
Last week, Apple and Google restored TikTok on their app stores, making it available to download for US users.
Trump assigned Vice President JD Vance to lead a deal to save TikTok by arranging for it to sell to a non-Chinese company.
The president also ordered the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund to potentially purchase a controlling stake in TikTok, suggesting he could extend the 75-day deadline.
👀 Creator Moves
Tech creator Jacklyn Dallas is hiring a video editor to help with long-form storytelling.
Almost Friday Media is looking for a junior producer to work on unscripted content for its Friday Beers YouTube and Friday Beers HQ TikTok channels.
Sports creator Football Merritt is hiring a video editor to help with football breakdown videos.
Looking to bring on new team members? You can post opportunities on our (free) job board here.
🔥 Press Worthy
Spotify is opening up its LA studio space for creators affected by the California fires.
John and Hank Green raise $3.7 million during their annual Project for Awesome event.
YouTube Shorts integrates with Google DeepMind so creators can generate AI video clips.
TwitchCon EU is being held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in May.
IShowSpeed, KSI, and more creators raised over $10 million in the charity soccer “Match for Hope” in Qatar.
