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Photo: Wardrobe
Creator Economy

A Startup for Wardrobe Rental Sales Nabs Funding; Twitch Hack Exposes Streamers Earning Millions

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 6, 2021 2:50pm PDT
It’s become popular practice for social media influencers to sell clothes they no longer want on second-hand marketplaces like Depop and Poshmark. Such items can sell out quickly as fans rush to buy something from their favorite online personality. Wardrobe, a three-year-old New York startup, takes that idea and pairs it with renting out... It’s become popular practice for social media influencers to sell clothes they no longer want on...
Photo: Instagram
Creator Economy

Charting Instagram’s Obsession With Video; A Twist on Clubhouse From Mark Cuban

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 5, 2021 2:01pm PDT
Instagram is taking a second whack at long-form video, as competition with two video-centric rivals, YouTube and TikTok, intensifies. On Tuesday, Instagram announced a new standalone app called Instagram TV, which includes videos and livestreams from creators. The app is a do-over of its bold attempt, launched in 2018, to take on YouTube... Instagram is taking a second whack at long-form video, as competition with two video-centric...
Photo: Encantos
Creator Economy

Education Startup Encantos Takes on YouTube Kids; Why Facebook’s Outage Is a Wake-Up Call for Influencers

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 4, 2021 2:14pm PDT
Most people probably don’t think of school teachers as creators. But the edtech startup Encantos does and is rolling out a new product that lets them and other subject matter experts teach kids about topics such as Black history or life skills such as problem solving, CEO Steven Wolfe Pereira tells The Information. The new “storyteaching”... Most people probably don’t think of school teachers as creators. But the edtech startup Encantos...
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Photo: AP
Facebook Research Showed Teen Celebs Bad for Self Image, ‘The Rock’ Was Good
By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 30, 2021 3:09pm PDT
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Photo: AP
Creator Economy

Facebook Research Showed Teen Celebs Bad for Self Image, ‘The Rock’ Was Good

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 30, 2021 3:09pm PDT
A new trove of internal Facebook research on Instagram and teens showed the social network’s data scientists tried to find out whether widely followed influencers helped—or worsened—the self images of women and teen girls. The findings confirm that the most followed personalities online have tremendous influence on the app, which has more than 1... A new trove of internal Facebook research on Instagram and teens showed the social network’s data...
Whatnot CEO Grant LaFontaine Photo: Whatnot Illustration: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

Whatnot CEO Plots Live-Shopping App’s Expansion Into NFTs

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 29, 2021 2:45pm PDT
Grant LaFontaine, the CEO and co-founder of Whatnot, has big plans for the live-shopping app that is trying to become QVC for the smartphone generation. The two-year old startup just raised Series C funding that valued it at $1.5 billion. Now the company is working on selling non-fungible tokens, the one-of-a-kind digital collectibles... Grant LaFontaine, the CEO and co-founder of Whatnot, has big plans for the live-shopping app that...
Chart: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

How Creator Marketplaces From Social Networks Stack Up

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 28, 2021 2:13pm PDT
For more than a decade, when advertisers wanted to reach the young audiences of popular internet personalities, they reached out to marketing agencies to broker deals or just contacted the creators directly. In the past two years, TikTok, Snap and Instagram have stepped into the fray, rolling out tech-driven marketplaces designed to pair... For more than a decade, when advertisers wanted to reach the young audiences of popular internet...
Chart: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

How TikTok Outpaced Instagram in Rise to 1 Billion Users

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 27, 2021 3:46pm PDT · 1 comment
TikTok announced a big milestone on Monday: more than 1 billion people around the world log on to the ByteDance-owned video app every month. In the chart above, we plot just how fast it reached that level—and how that rapid ascent compares to Instagram’s earlier rise.Our analysis, which uses past company statements as well as a suit filed by... TikTok announced a big milestone on Monday: more than 1 billion people around the world log on to...
Photo of Twitter headquarters by Bloomberg, Illustration: Mike Sullivan
Twitter’s Subscription Challenge; Live Shopping App NTWRK Raises $50 Million
By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 23, 2021 3:02pm PDT · 1 comment
Photo of Twitter headquarters by Bloomberg, Illustration: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

Twitter’s Subscription Challenge; Live Shopping App NTWRK Raises $50 Million

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 23, 2021 3:02pm PDT · 1 comment
Twitter is trying hard to go after creators with new features including tipping, newsletters and Super Follows, which ask fans to pay a monthly subscription of between $3 and $10 for bonus tweets. But data from mobile app- tracking firm Sensor Tower shows a slow start to at least one of these features: Super Follows has only generated about... Twitter is trying hard to go after creators with new features including tipping, newsletters and...
A Chipotle restaurant in San Francisco. Photo: Bloomberg
Creator Economy

Why Disney and Chipotle Are Launching Creator Programs

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 22, 2021 4:32pm PDT
Disney this week joined a growing number of national chains, including Chipotle and Hollister, trying to woo internet personalities with special programs. They are taking a page from TikTok and YouTube, which set up funds paying creators to make videos for their apps. Disney’s effort doesn’t go quite that far. Its Disney Creators Lab... Disney this week joined a growing number of national chains, including Chipotle and Hollister,...
Spring CEO Chris Lamontagne Photo: Spring
Creator Economy

Custom ‘Merch’ Maker Spring Eyes $165 Million in Revenue, Future IPO

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 21, 2021 3:58pm PDT
Spring, formerly known as Teespring, was one of the first companies to offer a way for social media creators to sell custom merchandise like hoodies, phone cases and hats to their fans. Its focus on creator-customized products has been paying off. After 53% growth last year, the company expects to generate $165 million in revenue this year.CEO... Spring, formerly known as Teespring, was one of the first companies to offer a way for social...
Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal. Photo: Mythical Entertainment Illustration: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

Jellysmack Hires MTV Ex-Exec; Q&A With Rhett & Link; Discord’s Pre-Public Moves

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 15, 2021 4:22pm PDT
The explosion of interest in the creator sector has shown up in job listings data. In the past three years, job opportunities with the word creator in the title or description have soared 4,645 times, to 92,900 positions, according to data firm Thinknum. Sean Atkins, the prior president of MTV, is the latest to jump to a creator-economy... The explosion of interest in the creator sector has shown up in job listings data. In the past...
From left to right, YouTube personalities Jackie Aina, Emma Chamberlain and TikTok star Addison Rae at the Met Gala on Monday night. Photo: AP Illustration: Mike Sullivan
Influencers Blanket Met Gala; LinkedIn Launches Creator Fund
By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 14, 2021 4:00pm PDT
From left to right, YouTube personalities Jackie Aina, Emma Chamberlain and TikTok star Addison Rae at the Met Gala on Monday night. Photo: AP Illustration: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

Influencers Blanket Met Gala; LinkedIn Launches Creator Fund

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 14, 2021 4:00pm PDT
The Met Gala’s guest list was notably different than past years, with a parade of homegrown internet stars on the red carpet on Monday night. That’s a huge contrast to prior years where the exclusive guest list focused on A-list celebrities, including top actors and singers. This year, at least half a dozen social media creators attended,... The Met Gala’s guest list was notably different than past years, with a parade of homegrown...
Devin Finzer, CEO of OpenSea. Photo: OpenSea. Illustration: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

OpenSea CEO Says Era of ‘Pure Collectible NFTs’ Is Over

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 13, 2021 4:05pm PDT
Earlier this year, artists such as Beeple made headlines for earning hefty sums through the sale of digital collectibles known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume, was a beneficiary of these types of sales, handling $3.4 billion in transactions last month alone. Now Devin Finzer, CEO and... Earlier this year, artists such as Beeple made headlines for earning hefty sums through the sale...
Photo: Whatnot. Illustration: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

Live-Shopping Startup Whatnot Raising at $1.5 Billion Valuation

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 9, 2021 2:38pm PDT
Whatnot is raising new capital at a valuation of $1.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal. It’s the third round of funding this year for the live-shopping startup and triples its valuation from the last round, according to an estimate from data provider PitchBook. Existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz are... Whatnot is raising new capital at a valuation of $1.5 billion, according to a person familiar...
Koji’s Annie Morita Photo: Morita Editorial
Creator Economy

A Startup Building an App Store for Creators Hires Apple App Store Ex-Exec

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 8, 2021 4:00pm PDT
Koji, one of a group of fast-growing startups that offers landing pages that creators can connect to their social-media bios, is taking a cue from two very large companies—Apple and WeChat—by offering a web store of smaller, web-based apps created by outside developers. To further those aims, it has hired Annie Morita, a former Apple executive... Koji, one of a group of fast-growing startups that offers landing pages that creators can connect...
Illustration: Mike Sullivan
What TikTok’s Growing Threat to YouTube Means
By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 7, 2021 4:00pm PDT · 2 comments
Illustration: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

What TikTok’s Growing Threat to YouTube Means

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 7, 2021 4:00pm PDT · 2 comments
TikTok’s rise is often seen as a major threat to Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram. And for good reason. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has talked about how TikTok is ahead and he’s laid out plans for making Instagram’s home screen look a lot more like the short-form video app. But the way TikTok is rattling YouTube has generated less... TikTok’s rise is often seen as a major threat to Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram. And for...
Clubhouse host and comedian Leah Lamarr. Photo: Andrew Max Levy
Creator Economy

Where Apple Could Loosen App Store Rules Next; Clubhouse’s New Icon

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 2, 2021 2:20pm PDT
Earlier this week we quoted a creator-economy startup founder who predicted Apple would keep chipping away at its rules on in-app payments to make it easier to bypass the company’s 30% fees on digital purchases. That forecast is coming true more quickly than we expected. Late Wednesday, the iPhone maker said it would allow reader apps, such... Earlier this week we quoted a creator-economy startup founder who predicted Apple would keep...
Creator Economy

The Next Creator Economy Unicorns

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 1, 2021 4:02pm PDT · 2 comments
Our latest chart looks at the creator economy startups that have achieved unicorn status, according to our database of companies in this sector. The list is quite varied. While two focus on creator- or celebrity-run online courses (Kajabi, MasterClass), the others offer very different products, such as Patreon’s membership platform or Cameo... Our latest chart looks at the creator economy startups that have achieved unicorn status,...
Photo credit: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

Why Creator Boycotts Are Spreading; Amazon Starts Social Audio

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 31, 2021 4:00pm PDT · 1 comment
On Wednesday, some Twitch streamers plan to boycott the live-gaming service for a day in response to “hate raids,” where trolls flood chats with bots spewing harassing messages. People of color and streamers who are LGBTQ+ are often the targets. Emily Bello, who runs a video game live-streaming account on Twitch with her husband, told me... On Wednesday, some Twitch streamers plan to boycott the live-gaming service for a day in response...
Photo: Mike Sullivan
Startup Sees Apple ‘Firewall’ Lowering Over App Store Fees
By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 30, 2021 4:00pm PDT
Photo: Mike Sullivan
Creator Economy

Startup Sees Apple ‘Firewall’ Lowering Over App Store Fees

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 30, 2021 4:00pm PDT
Apple’s recent decision to allow app makers to tell customers about payment options outside its mobile App Store largely underwhelmed developers. But Sahil Lavingia, founder and CEO of Gumroad, a seller of services for creators, said there’s reason to believe Apple could eventually concede to future demands. “It feels like the narrative is... Apple’s recent decision to allow app makers to tell customers about payment options outside its...