Good morning. 50,000 people run the New York City marathon each year, but one creator is telling their story.
Documentary creator and Emmy winner New York Nico just released his film 26.2 with fitness nonprofit New York Road Runners, following four participants and telling their marathon stories. No chafing or blisters required for viewing, but tears guaranteed.
YouTube Rolls Out TV Redesign
YouTube updates its TV app to allow users to flip through previews of their favorite creators' channels / YouTube
YouTube’s TV app is starting to look a lot like competitor streaming platforms Netflix and Prime.
Last week, the platform rolled out several updates for creators tailoring their content to TV viewing. Here’s what creators need to know →
Higher-resolution thumbnails and video. YouTube is expanding the thumbnail file limit from 2MB to 50MB, allowing creators to upload 4K-resolution thumbnails. A new AI-powered feature generates higher video resolution.
Revised channel pages. Viewers will now see video channel previews on YouTube’s homepage and can browse “Shows,” a new feature that lets creators organize content into video collections.
Contextual search. When viewers search from a creator’s channel page, relevant videos from the channel will appear first. Before, other channel’s videos would appear at the top of search results.
Worth noting: While TV is YouTube’s fastest-growing medium, its live TV product, YouTubeTV, is facing some trials. Disney recently pulled ESPN, FX, and ABC from the platform’s service after Disney and YouTube failed to reach an agreement on carriage fees.
How This Creator Went from 0 to 10M Followers in Two Years
Streamer Chen Ruei “Ray” Hsu, aka Rayasianboy, just inked a major partnership with Adidas, joining the likes of Beyoncé, Lionel Messi, and Patrick Mahomes.
As one comment on the partnership announcement read: “He can’t even play basketball.”
So how did he get here?
Hsu was discovered by Kai Cenat in a random encounter at a 7-Eleven in Japan, where Cenat featured him on his stream.
Shortly after, Hsu began streaming and rapidly gained a following with Cenat’s support—often showing up on his streams.
Two years in, Hsu has gained over 10 million followers across platforms, sold out a clothing line, and collabed with streamers like Tota Mc, IShowSpeed, and Agent00.
Zoom out: Hsu has taken his moment in the spotlight and turned it into a fully fledged business. He is part of streamer group Clover House with six other creators, and recently launched a new channel documenting where they live and work. His partnership with Adidas marks his second major athletic sponsorship in the past week following his participation in NASCAR’s e-racing series.
Sponsored by Shopify
The Smartest Way to Manage a Product Business
Creators don’t start product businesses to stare at spreadsheets. But understanding the numbers is what turns a good idea into a real business.
That’s where Shopify Sidekick comes in. Shopify Sidekick is an AI business partner that makes it simple to run your store smarter. You can ask it questions like “What’s my best-selling product?” or “Do I have enough inventory for Black Friday?”
You can chat with it like a teammate, or hand off tasks. Ask it to create discount codes instantly, write product descriptions, analyze what’s selling, or even explain your metrics in plain English. It’s like having a co-founder who knows your store and sales inside and out and is always one step ahead.
So if you’ve got a product or even just an idea for one, Sidekick takes the work of building and maintaining a store off of your shoulders. Check it out now at shopify.com.
Roblox Pays Out $1 Billion to Creators
Since January, Roblox has paid over $1 billion to creators for designing games on their platform / Roblox
Is Roblox incubating the next wave of game development talent? Creators in Roblox’s Developer Exchange (the in-platform creator analytic program) have earned over $1 billion in the last nine months, surpassing Roblox’s total annual payout of $923 million in 2024. For reference, Epic Games paid Fortnite creators and developers $320 million last year.
Context: Last month, Roblox increased DevEx rates, giving creators a 8.5% increase in conversion rate when exchanging Robux for cash. For example, 10,000 earned Robux now converts to $38 instead of $35.
DevEx, by the numbers:
$1.1 million → The average earnings from Roblox’s top creators, up 40% from last year.
$70,000 → How much design creators Cole and Ian Tucker report making per month in the program. FYI: 74% of Roblox creators work solo.
$427 million → DevEx creator earnings from Q3, growing 85% year-over-year.
Big picture: After a 2020 surge in popularity, Roblox has become a leader in user-generated gaming with over 300 million monthly active users.
👀 Creator Moves
Cleo Abram is hiring a remote short-form editor for her show, Huge If True.
Vibecoding creator Riley Brown is looking for an experienced thumbnail designer.
Airrack is hiring an idea machine to develop viral YouTube video ideas.
🔥 Press Worthy
MrBeast’s Feastables chocolate is releasing a sparkling water in partnership with Liquid Death.
Political creator and congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh was federally indicted by President Donald Trump’s DOJ for protesting outside of an ICE facility.
We’re hosting a fireside chat with stationary creator Amanda Rach Lee in LA on Wednesday. RSVP here.
Creator banking platform Karat is paying 10% (up to $100K) of a creator’s platform earnings to creators who connect their platform payouts to the banking service.
Lifestyle creator Kendall Vertes is launching a podcast with Unwell.
Photo creator Peter McKinnon celebrates reaching 6 million YouTube subscribers.
