SPAC to the Future

Nice to meet you 👋 I’m Hannah, the newest writer for The Publish Press. I’m excited to join this talented team, serving up the freshest creator news on the internet. On that front—I’m looking for creator inspiration. Got any good follows I should check out? Hit reply with your recs—can’t wait to hear what you think.  

 - Hannah Doyle

In Today’s Issue 💬

→ How ‘FaZe Clan’’s $1 Billion SPAC deal makes history

→ Unpacking alternative creator income streams

→ What ‘SNL’’s ‘Please Don’t Destroy’ hire means for talent discovery

‘FaZe Clan’ Plans to Go Public in $1 Billion SPAC Deal

Creator history was made yesterday, when gaming and lifestyle group “FaZe Clan” announced they’ll go public next year via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), valued at $1 billion. They made the deal with B. Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp., a SPAC backed by B. Riley Financial Inc.

“FaZe Clan” started in 2010 as a group of three friends playing “Call of Duty”, and has since expanded to include esports and entertainment, with a content production studio, talent management team, and e-commerce business.

The brand has a combined social reach of over 350 million fans, making them one of the biggest networks of content creators—let alone esport athletes—in the world. Going public is a tangible declaration of that, and allows FaZe to raise funds and open more channels for future income, as well as provide liquidity to their day-one employees.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, with the Nasdaq ticker symbol “FAZE.” Because it is a SPAC, those who want to buy in pre-merger can purchase shares of the merger company (BRPM) which will be converted automatically after closing.

Our Take

This is the first time we’ve seen creators take their company public, and it marks an inflection point for the creator economy and its potential. We’ll be keeping an eye on it as a test case for the stability of a creator-lead brand and how it functions as a publicly-traded company.

Report Shows Creators Are Making More Money

While many creators are transparent about how they make money, it can be tough to gauge what is “normal” in the creator economy. New research from Stripe, which indexed 50 creator monetization platforms over the last year, sheds light on the subject—

By The Numbers

• $10 billion+ → Aggregate earnings creators are expected to bring in solely on direct-to-consumer (DTC) monetization platforms by the end of this year.

• 41% → Increase in creators earning a living wage (over $69k) through monetization platforms apart from ad support year-over-year.

• 668,000 → Number of creators that have started using DTC monetization platforms over the last two years.

Stripe also found that education was the largest sector by revenue in the creator economy. Many creators started selling courses online last year, including Ali Abdaal, Nas Daily, MKBHD—even Colin and Samir. Some of their experiences validate that growth, with Abdaal’s Part-Time Youtube Academy pulling over $2 million in revenue, and Nas Daily raising $11 million in funding for Nas Academy.

Our Take

Creator income is experiencing a big shift from ad dollars to direct-to-consumer products like classes, merch, and services. The steady year-over-year growth further proves that the creator economy isn’t fleeting, but the next phase of internet entrepreneurship.

Live From New York: It’s ‘Please Don’t Destroy’ 

“Please Don’t Destroy”, a comedy trio made up of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, made their TV debut on “Saturday Night Live” earlier this month. All three signed on as writers for the show’s 47th season. 

The group formed in 2017 when Marshall, Higgins, and Herilhy were undergrads at NYU, and started uploading sketches to Youtube. They’ve amassed most of their following on TikTok and Twitter over the past year with viral sketches like "I Got Vaccinated" and "Playing the new Shailene game." At SNL they make digital shorts under their moniker, shooting in the POV-style they're known for on social.

Our Take

Social platforms are incubators for traditional entertainment, and the relationship can be mutually beneficial: algorithms help determine who is capable of connecting with the masses, and creators can grow their careers off the viewership they build on social, bolstered by traditional media experience.

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🔥 In Other News

• Graham Stephan, finance Youtuber, starts an Onlyfans

• Li Jin, creator investor, merges her VC firm with a fund for crypto startups

• TikTok launches “The Discover List”, a curated selection of creators by their community team

• Party Round awards their first creator scholarship

• Reddit looks to start its own NFT marketplace