What’s Next for Donut? 🏁

The YouTube channel turns a corner

Good morning. Flappy Bird, the beloved phone game where users guide a bird past narrow green tubes, is returning after a 10-year hiatus. Thanks to the Flappy Bird Foundation Group, the game is available now on Telegram, and coming to iOS and Android next year. We’ll be firing up our old iPod Touches to celebrate.

Donut Kicks Into High Gear

Steph Gutierrez (left) and Tristan Kim (right) join the cast of on-screen personalities on Donut / Donut Media

In the last few weeks, the automotive YouTube channel Donut has made some big shake-ups: Tristan Kim and Steph Gutierrez joined as new cast members, Nolan Sykes was named as the new editor-in-chief, and Kristina Felske took on the job as the new head of creative.

“I’m really excited about the projects we’re developing with [Kim and Gutierrez] specifically because we want our audience to get to know and love them as much as we do,” Felske told us.

Catch up quick: In June, cast members Jeremiah Burton and Zach Jobe announced they were leaving Donut to start a car YouTube channel together, and shortly after, editor-in-chief James Pumphrey left to start his own channel. The moves sparked conversation across the auto YouTube community about creative ownership and channel longevity.

Felske, who has worked at Donut for four years, said the staff changes were a natural part of the channel’s evolution that they were preparing for a year in advance. 

“I think we’re at this strange part of YouTube’s existence where we’ll see [channel members leave] more and more, but it’s not something we’re used to right now,” Felske told us. “As a viewer I completely understand…YouTube is so personality-driven, it feels much different than when a host leaves a TV show.” 

FYI: Creators leaving the channels they built has been a trend this year, from MatPat pivoting away from Theorist Media to Eugene Wang exiting the Try Guys.

So what’s next for Donut? It’s reprising the popular ‘HiLow’ series and making videos with higher budgets, like building a Miata lowrider.

“[The Miata lowrider] project was us doing something new and doing something we haven’t seen in the YouTube space,” Felske said. “It’s not doing numbers yet, but fundamentally that’s the thing…if we’re excited about it, surely other people will be too.”

‘Acquired’ Podcast Creators Host 6,000 in San Francisco

Hosts of the podcast “Acquired,” Ben Gilbert (center) and David Rosenthal (right), interview Mark Zuckerberg (left) live in San Fransisco / Acquired Podcast

On Tuesday, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal (the creators of the business podcast Acquired) hosted a series of live interviews in front of 6,000 fans at San Francisco’s Chase Center, the home of the Golden State Warriors.

The main attraction? An hour-and-a-half long conversation with Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

We asked an attendee, creative community builder Jesse Engle, what he observed at the event →

Long podcasts breed a feeling of familiarity. Engle said listeners were excited to be there less for “hype” and more because they knew Gilbert and Rosenthal as “incredibly smart business people and fantastic storytellers.” Worth noting: Acquired episodes regularly run two to four hours.

“You really develop a personal relationship with these guys,” Engle said.

It felt “accessible.” Acquired sold tickets for $50 to $100—for comparison, fellow business podcast All-In charged $7,500 for its live event this month. “I think charging thousands means that you’re creating much more of a velvet rope, trying to cull the most serious people from within the audience,” Engle said.

Not all events need sold-out arenas. Engle’s biggest takeaway? There’s room for creators to foster smaller, more frequent community meetups.

“I left thinking, ‘Oh man, if there was a smaller meetup that sort of emerged organically—with a little support from Ben and David—I would absolutely want to be a part of that,’” he said.

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OnlyFans Reports Record Revenue

OnlyFans’ parent company says the platform’s revenue hit a new high / Illustration by Moy Zhong

OnlyFans continues to grow rapidly as an increasing number of creators post on the platform, according to a regulatory filing by its parent company last week.

OnlyFans’ growth, by the numbers:

  • Revenue: $5.55 billion (2022) → $6.63 billion (2023)

  • Creators: 3.19 million (2022) → 4.12 million (2023)

  • Users: 238 million (2022) → 305 million (2023)

For comparison: NBA players made $4.8 billion in combined payroll during the 2022-23 season, according to trends database Statista. 

On the other hand: There’s only about 550 NBA players in a given season, meaning their average salaries are much higher. The mean average OnlyFans creator earned roughly $1,300 in platform payouts in 2023—a decrease from $1,400 in 2022.

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The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.

  • Read: Standup comedian Lucas Zelnick talks with GQ about balancing TikTok audience growth as a marketing channel vs. developing original jokes—and saving them for his set.

  • Watch: Education creator Gohar Khan explains how to cure “brain rot.”

  • Listen: Photographers and podcast creators Steven Schultz, Eric Floberg, Gene Yoon, and Chad Meeks open up on the tough decision to close their studio and IRL community hub, Creative Club Chicago.