Welcome back. Shorts monetization is officially live. After months of anticipation, I'm excited to get some questions answered: Which creators will benefit most? And how will the earnings stack up to TikTok Pulse? And most of all—how long will it take ’til we find out?

–Hannah Doyle

Doug DeMuro Secures $37 Million in Funding

The creator behind auction site Cars & Bids just received a $37 million investment from The Chernin Group (TCG).

Back story: DeMuro has been reviewing cars on YouTube since 2013. Unlike JD Power or Kelly Blue Book, DeMuro takes a non-traditional approach to reviews by focusing on quirks of cars that run the gamut from the rare Autozam AZ-1 to the latest Subaru Outback.

DeMuro is known for giving the cars he reviews his “Doug Score” with cheery enthusiasm—like an auto-focused Nardwuar with 4.5 million subscribers.

DeMuro launched Cars & Bids with cofounder Blake Machado in 2020. The auction site makes money by charging a 4.5% commission for buyers. It grew quickly, starting at two auctions a day and jumping to 10 practically overnight.

So what made Cars & Bids worth the $37 million investment from TCG?

“Viewers already turn to Doug when they are making a purchase decision, so building commerce opportunities for his audiences is a very natural fit,” Billy Parks, brand and creative operating partner at TCG, told us.

How will Cars & Bids use the cash?

• TCG will take a majority stake in Cars & Bids and merge the auction site with DeMuro's YouTube channel as a single entity.

• Parks said they plan to expand the C&B team, scale auction volume, and upload more social content.

• So far, Cars & Bids has hosted over 10,000 auctions and sold over $230 million worth of special-interest cars.

Big picture: TCG’s investment in DeMuro is the latest in a wave of interest from more traditional investors seeking partnerships with creators—like Dylan Lemay for his ice cream shop and Airrack for his Creator Now YouTube education program.

QTCinderella Vows to Sue Adult Site Over Deepfakes

The Twitch streamer intends to sue a porn site that posted and sold AI-generated deepfakes portraying QTCinderella’s likeness engaging in sexual acts without her consent.

The website targeted several other creators including streamers Pokimane, Sweet Anita, and Maya Higa.

How did we get here? The deepfake porn site in question gained immediate notoriety after Twitch streamer Atrioc was caught with a tab open to the website in a recent stream. Atrioc apologized for buying and watching deepfake content on the site. A day later, the creator of the deepfake site deleted its content.

Zoom out: Most states in the U.S. have laws against non-consensual sexual material, but only California, Virginia, and Texas have specific legislation concerning deepfakes. Even with laws in place that penalize people who make and spread deepfakes, any recourse for victims can be extremely difficult.

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PRIME Inks Deal with UFC

This week, PRIME signed a sponsorship deal with UFC, only five months after the ink dried on its late-August sponsorship deal with Arsenal FC. Logan Paul and KSI’s one-year-old beverage company has wasted no time establishing itself on a global scale.

The three-year deal with UFC was reported to be in the seven figures annually. It includes global rights, “official sports drink” designation, and branding within the UFC Octagon starting later this month.

Context: Paul said that PRIME sold 100 million bottles and earned $250 million in retail sales in its first year. According to data from BevNet, PRIME is ranked as the sixth-largest brand in the sports drink category.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Art curator and creator Sarah Urist Green launches an art appreciation course.

• Louis Theroux is making a Spotify-exclusive podcast.

• Ludwig responds to the QTCinderella deepfakes (FYI, he’s dating QTCinderella and is friends with Atrioc).

• Arielle King is named one of Harvard’s C-CHANGE top climate activist creators.

• Justin Moore launches a podcast where creators debate each other.

• Fiverr is looking to team up with YouTube creators who have 5,000+ subscribers for their new influencer program—Apply here.*

*This is sponsored advertising content.

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