Earlier this year, the decentralized autonomous organization CreatorDAO raised a $20 million seed round to create a new kind of digital network. Now, the startup is investing a seven-digit sum of its own. It has launched a contest called #TheSearch, which will reward “the next big content creator” with a $1 million prize.
#TheSearch will play out as a series, which will be hosted by Andrew East. The former NFL player and patriarch of The East Family announced the initiative with a video on the CreatorDAO YouTube channel. “In the age of the internet, anyone, anywhere can be famous now,” East says in the video. “You don’t have to make it big on a hit TV show or a blockbuster movie. You can become a celebrity from one single, short video, and that’s where #TheSearch comes in.”
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In this case, the “single, short video” East refers to is a one-minute clip uploaded to YouTube or TikTok. Anyone who uploads one of those videos can submit it on the CreatorDAO website to be automatically entered into #TheSearch. The entrants will be whittled down across four voting rounds before the winner is ultimately selected by the CreatorDAO community.
The $1 million prize includes contributions from social media stars as well as traditional celebrities. Creators Jake Paul and Joma Tech have pledged to mentor, fund, and/or collaborate with the winner of #TheSearch. Paris Hilton and The Chainsmokers have contributed to the contest as well.
Paul, who continues to make headlines thanks to his exploits in the boxing ring, has promised to collaborate with the creator who wins the million dollars. “This is the start of a creator revolution,” he tweeted.
CreatorDAO is looking to reinvent digital content creation through collective ownership, democratic decision-making, and blockchain-based tech. With that model, the fledgling organization wants to back creators as they “collaborate and invest in each other.” Some of the investors who contributed to CreatorDAO’s seed round, such as Hilton, Joma Tech, and The Chainsmokers, are now involved in #TheSearch.
Despite its forward-thinking attitude, not everything CreatorDAO is doing is brand new. In the past, several contests have attempted to find the next big creator. YOMYOMF’s Internet Icon highlighted up-and-comers across two seasons in the early 2010s. More recently, Ali-A looked for YouTube’s “next great gamer” with a competition called uTure.
This is CreatorDAO’s first attempt to locate the internet sensations of the future, but the decentralized autonomous organization will probably be back with another contest later on. In the introductory video, East said that this series is just the “first season” of #TheSearch.
