Good morning. Did you know there’s a reason why all of your favorite brands take a He Who Must Not Be Named approach to the words “Super Bowl?” It’s because the NFL owns the trademark, and only brands that pay the league get to say Voldemort Super Bowl.
Big Game, Kendrick Lamar concert, whatever you want to call it—we’d love to know: Are you rooting for the Chiefs, the Eagles, or the commercials?
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel on TikTok, AR, and More
Evan Spiegel joins the Colin and Samir Show to discuss the future of social media and tech / Photography by Jesse Leon
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel joined The Colin & Samir Show this week for a candid conversation about the future of creator media, technology, and more. Here are some highlights →
On TikTok’s uncertain future: TikTok’s influence on the US government is no longer a hypothetical, according to Spiegel. And last month’s will-they-won’t-they TikTok ban offers “concrete evidence that there’s a problem,” he said.
Catch up quick:
After briefly going dark on January 18, TikTok came back online the following day with a message: “As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the US!”
Immediately after being sworn in, President Trump signed an executive order delaying enforcement of a TikTok ban, which previously passed Congress with bipartisan support given widespread concerns that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, presents a national security threat.
“Essentially all of [the national security community’s] concerns came true,” Spiegel said. “TikTok actually was able to influence the president of the United States to issue an executive order that, you know, essentially undermines Congress and the Supreme Court.”
On the future of creator tech: It’s all about augmented reality, Spiegel said—content experiences that “transcend the screen.”
“I do think in many ways screens are very limiting, so I do think content creators in the future are going to spend more time on more immersive experiences in augmented reality,” Spiegel said. “I think that will become an important form of entertainment but also learning, productivity, and those sorts of things.”
Wondering when that future will come to pass? Spiegel expects more widespread, everyday AR adoption by the end of this decade.
We’re curious: Are you expecting augmented reality to play a significant role in the future for creators?
Want to hear more about Spiegel’s perspective on authentic connections and Snap’s approach to creator revenue? Check out Colin & Samir’s full interview right here.
Rooster Teeth Is Back
Founder Burnie Burns is bringing the channel “back to its roots” after buying it back / Rooster Teeth
Last March, production company Rooster Teeth shut down after 21 years of making gaming-centric content across platforms. This week, its founder is bringing it back.
The news: Rooster Teeth founder Burnie Burns has acquired the brand, including its website, YouTube channel, and some associated shows, as part of his Box Canyon Productions.
Burns started Rooster Teeth in 2003. Over the next two decades, the company grew to over 400 employees, 225,000 paying members, and 45 million combined YouTube subscribers across its channels.
But a series of disappointing mergers and a drop-off in paid subs forced Rooster Teeth to call it quits last spring.
Fast forward nearly a year: Burns’s one-minute video announcing the acquisition topped 400K views in a day and landed on YouTube’s trending page.
Looking ahead: Burns and Box Canyon plan to bring Rooster Teeth “back to its roots” by relaunching production of some of its classic shows and introducing a new production slate.
YouTube Revenue Growth Outpaces Alphabet’s
YouTube’s revenue is growing faster than its parent company’s / Illustration by Moy Zhong
A 13.8% increase to top $10 billion in global ad revenue last quarter and revenue growth outpacing its parent company? YouTube is having a banner year and it’s only February.
Driving the increase in Q4: In an earnings call on Wednesday, Sundar Pichai, CEO of YouTube parent company Alphabet, credited YouTube’s revenue spike to the election →
North of 45 million US viewers watched election-related content on YouTube on the first Tuesday in November.
Both political parties nearly doubled their spending from 2020.
And creators played a role, too. Following YouTube’s recent investment in podcast talent…1) YouTube is now the most popular service for podcast listening in the US and 2) people watched over 400 million hours of podcasts each month on living room devices alone last year.
🔥 Press Worthy
Amelia Dimoldenberg will return as the Oscars' red carpet correspondent.
The Try Guys’ Zach Kornfeld is releasing a short film on chronic pain.
Tech reporter Kat Tenbarge is going solo with a beehiiv newsletter.
Hank Green launches a new interview show, Ask Hank Anything.
Good Good Golf’s Desert Knockout is the first YouTube golf format to broadcast live on the Golf Channel.
🎥 From the Studio
Big news: We’re taking Publish on the road next month.
The team will be at SXSW in Austin, hosting events, meeting creators, and chasing stories. Planning to head to Texas for South By Southwest? We’d love to connect.
Let us know if you’re planning to attend by filling out this (super short) form. See you there.
📚 Thank You For Pressing Publish
The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.
Read: What happens to content after it disappears from the internet? Writer s.e. smith unpacks the complexity of digital storage for The Verge.
Watch: Food travel creator Michael Ligier explores what goes into the music, architecture, and style choices of chef Jordan Kahn’s immersive restaurants in LA.
Listen: We recently listened to this episode of You’re Wrong About recounting (in impressive detail) the cola wars between Coke and Pepsi, and we were immediately re-hooked on the show. 10/10.
