Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry. This week, creators are popping up on your flight, making acquisitions, and starting intercultural disputes.
Creator commotion
MrBeast “wouldn’t mind” if you reposted his content. In response to a poll on Marques Brownlee’s X feed, Jimmy Donaldson gave his fans permission to reupload and react to his videos. He seems to see it as free promotion, though creators with fewer than 300 million subscribers might not agree.
Vexbolts lost five million subscribers and still came out a winner. According to social media discourse, the creator behind the “let him cook” was supposed to be left in 2024. That’s why millions of people followed him on TikTok just to unfollow him on January 1. Jokes on them, as Vexbolts’ follower count is more than twice as high as it was in mid-December.
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Ja-son De-ru-lo will host TikTok’s next global music event. The Global Live Fest is moving to London and passing emcee duties to TikTok’s favorite pop star-turned-memelord. Swedish singer-songwriter Zara Larsson has been announced as the headliner.
Movers and shakers
Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network goes sleuthing. The Call Her Daddy star has already launched original shows helmed by social media stars like Alix Earle and Harry Jowsey. Now she is turning her gaze to the world of true crime, where Unwell has found its first two podcast acquisitions.
Brat TV acquires, renames Electric Monster. The video brand “supercharger” that acquired React Media (formerly Fine Bros Entertainment) is now owned by the studio behind Gen Z-facing hits like Chicken Girls. Electric Monster will now be known as ZATV, and we may be headed for a different kind of Brat summer in 2025.
TikTok’s U.S. Agency Lead reads the writing on the wall. Brand wrangler Jack Bamberger left TikTok on January 3, 16 days before the app will likely be shut down in the United States. All those agencies will have to go elsewhere; the question is where?
The biz
YouTube hunts for live shopping dollars in Southeast Asia. ByteDance makes billions from ecommerce sales in nations like Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam. YouTube is hoping that its partnership with Shopee will help it cut into TikTok’s dominant market share.
TV is chasing YouTube now. While YouTube goes to Asia in search of ecommerce revenue, everyone else back home is trying to be the next YouTube. Long gone are the days when we wondered if YouTube would be the next TV; instead, the legacy media giants of today are trying to figure out how to reverse the forces that are sending advertisers to YouTube’s TV apps.
Amazon is back at the upfronts. The tech giant previously made its debut at the digital-oriented NewFronts in 2021. Its return to upfronts week comes as it chases traditional media buys for its now-ad-supported Prime Video service.
The latest tech
YouTube is on your seatback screen on Delta flights. The airline announced at CES that it will soup up its in-flight entertainment experience with help from YouTube’s vast video library. Delta even shelled out to give its fliers YouTube Premium. I wonder if it paid for the deal with SkyMiles.
Music publishers settle with AI company Anthropic. The publishers, including Universal Music Group, don’t want Anthropic’s AI bot Claude to provide users with song lyrics from their artists. In Claude’s defense, today’s pop lyrics are not too hard to think up on your own.
Keyboard modders are showing off tricked-out setups on YouTube. Videos related to mechanical keyboards got more than one billion views in 2024, according to YouTube. Come for the detailed build tutorials, stay for the keyboard ASMR.
The internet is a strange place
Nelk decided that remote Fijian villagers deserve vapes. The rambunctious creator group visited a community that has only had one Western visitor in 30 years, and Nelk immediately brought the tribe into the present day by giving them vapes. Now that they’ve started vaping, the villagers will have a competitive esports team in no time.
Interactive YouTube video games are back. Who needs the Playables hub? Clever creators have been making playable YouTube videos since 2008, and the latest example of that curiosity is a rhythm game set to Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.” Make sure to set your playback speed to 1.8x for the best experience.
Want to make a TikTok hit your campaign song? Read the lyrics first. The U.K. Labour Party came under fire for posting a TikTok that featured a song with wildly explicit lyrics (in Portuguese). Somehow, the AI-generated law enforcement officials aren’t the most horrifying part of that video.
