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, an A-lister is getting jiggy with streaming, a major platform is getting a makeover, and a creator group is putting the skincare game on watch.

Creator commotion

Will Smith made a surprise cameo on xQc’s stream. The Twitch ironman walked away from his monitor for a minute, and all of a sudden Will Smith was there. Luckily for xQc, this collab went a lot smoother than the last time Will Smith made a surprising move.

IanOnYouTube made videos set at his 7-11 job. So they fired him. You might think it’s bad PR to let an employee go for giving your brand free advertising on YouTube, and yes, you’re right, it is.

The NBA All-Star Game was interrupted by a MrBeast video. A fan won $100,000 in the middle of the NBA’s new all-star tournament. Kai Cenat and Druski headlined the celebrity game, and Jesser was a judge from the dunk contest. Are creators starting to overshadow basketball stars at the NBA’s annual bash?

Platform headlines

Does YouTube have a Valentine’s Day crush? It’s blushing. After reaching the 20th anniversary of its founding, YouTube announced a new logo that’s slightly less red than the previous one. The new hue will clear up some display issues and make YouTube’s iconography less jarring overall.

TikTok’s reprieve is causing RedNote to fade in the U.S. The Instagram-style app known in China as Xiaohongshu has seen its user numbers wane since the Apple and Android App Stores restored access to TikTok. Despite that dip, RedNote’s IPO still looks like a go.

TikTok announced automotive ads. TikTok is already in the car. Now the car is on TikTok.

The biz

AMP is setting the Tone. The creator group whose members include Kai Cenat and Fanum launched a skincare brand on February 20. Skincare is a popular area for creator products, with Jake Paul’s W also edging its way into a category dominated by name brands.

Tinx is joining forces with the duo behind Nobody Wants This. The creator known as “TikTok’s older sister” has struck a deal with the sisters who developed a talked-about Kristen Bell/Adam Brody romance for Netflix. The upcoming project will be an adaptation of Tinx’s 2024 novel Hotter in the Hamptons.

Moose Toys sets its sights on The Amazing Digital Circus. The company that teamed up with MrBeast for a universe of kids’ toys has now set its sights on a Gen Alpha cultural touchstone. Bet on the Amazing Digital Circus line to end up as a bestseller.

Movers and shakers

Loren Piretra leaves Fanfix for role at Passes. The well-traveled influencer marketing exec is now the CMO at Passes. The creator marketing platform will look to level up with help from a seasoned decision-maker who has also spent time at Red Bull, the NFL, and Twitch.

LunarX shoots for the moon with Spotter vet. The startup that acquired Theorist Media in 2022 has named Kevin Daigle as its new COO. Daigle will oversee LunarX’s growing portfolio of brands, which also includes some “unannounced investments,” according to a press release shared with Tubefilter.

Colby Mann is the new General Manager of Donut Media. Mann will steer the automotive brand after previously working on one of its first original programs. He helped produce Up To Speed, which ran for more than 130 episodes.

Outloud Talent acquires two agencies. The talent arm of Outloud Group will manage the creators formerly repped by Bowie Agency and has acquired NanoZebra, a firm known for its influencer marketing strategies.

The internet is a strange place

RIP, Howie the Crab. A crustacean who got more than a million followers on TikTok has passed away. He enjoyed demonstrating his manners on leash and communicating with his owner via sign language.

A beloved virtual idol is coming to McDonald’s. The chain has a new menu item launched in partnership with the singer Hatsune Miku. Don’t worry; Miku might not exist IRL, but the McDonald’s items are still consumable.

A typo in a YouTube search led an Indian farmer to a new profession. Rajasthani man Narenda Kumar Girwa wanted to see videos about terrace farming, but a slip of the finger led him to search for pearl farming instead. Surprise, surprise: He’s now a freshwater pearl fisherman.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Have you heard? Will Smith meets xQc, YouTube changes color, and AMP gets into skincare

Brits are keeping up with their favorite shows by moving from the telly to YouTube. As broadcasters like Channel 4 see strong viewership on social media, Netflix is moving in with a development deal for a show that got its start on YouTube.

According to Deadline, Netflix has started casting for its version of Blue Therapy, which began three years ago on the Trend Centrl YouTube channel. An initial run of episodes followed multiple U.K. couples as the sought relationship help through therapy. The first of those videos has accumulated 3.2 million views on YouTube.

Channel 4 was quick to recognize Blue Therapy‘s potential. It teamed up with producer Luti Fagbenle for an adaptation that aired on platforms like BET+ under the name In Love & Toxic: Blue Therapy. The Netflix version comes from Fagbenle’s Osun Group, according to Deadline.

Blue Therapy is not Channel 4’s only inroad to YouTube. The 42-year-old public broadcaster has garnered millions of views with salacious documentaries and content on the Channel 4.0 hub, which adapts formats made famous by creators like Beta Squad.

Netflix’s dealings with the YouTube superstars known as the Sidemen gave it its own connections to creator culture. Since Inside became a hit on Netflix, other players in British television have rushed in to make deals with creators. Channel 4 is looking to stay on top by bringing a YouTube star into one of its best-known panel shows. The new host of Countdown is Dr. Tom Crawford, who will look to provide an updated look for a classic program.

The biggest U.K. broadcast TV channel on YouTube is still the digital home of BBC News, which reaches more than 17 million subscribers.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on British TV is blowing up online thanks to YouTube and Netflix

At the third annual 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai, the organizers behind it unveiled Creators HQ, a creative and business development workspace it describes as “the ultimate go-to space for pioneers in the content creator economy worldwide.”

Located in the Emirates Towers in Dubai, Creators HQ is backed by the $40.8 million fund Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, announced around this time last year. Dubai has been open about the fact that it wants more creators to move there and make content, and Creators HQ is aimed at facilitating that, with a goal of bringing 10,000 new creators (and people involved in the content industry) to live and work in Dubai.

One hundred of those 10,000 people will become Founding Members at Creators HQ. Organizers say it’s not just digital/social media content creators who qualify for Founding Membership. It’s also filmmakers, photographers, musicians, designers, journalists, entrepreneurs, investors, government and policy experts, and “cultural and community leaders.”

Creators HQ says it also accepts “tech innovators” who work on projects linked to creative media; it specifically cites AI developers and web/blockchain developers as examples.

While all Creators HQ members will get perks like help securing a Golden Visa, relocation support, and access to 300+ biz dev events per year, Founding Members get additional exclusive perks, including…

• 24/7 access to Creators HQ facilities, including coworking spaces and meeting rooms
• a guaranteed speaking slot at 1 Billion Followers Summit, with flight and accommodations paid for by Creators HQ
• priority access to participate in the Dubai government’s influencer marketing campaigns
• introductions to and opportunities with companies and other partners that work with Creators HQ
• 24/7 concierge services
• exclusive access to private events
• use of Creators HQ space for hosting paid workshops and meetups (from which creators will get 70% of revenue generated)
• and finally, they’ll be part of Creators HQ’s Affiliate Program, where, if a creator they refer signs up for membership, the Founding Member will receive 30% of their membership cost for the first year as a reward.

Creators HQ says it has already selected 80 Founding Members, and is in the midst of selecting 20 more from the general public (so long as they fit the qualification criteria). 

Interested applicants were asked to record a short video explaining what kind of content they make, how they feel becoming a Founding Member will benefit them, and how they would contribute to the Creators HQ community.

Attendees at the 2026 1 Billion Followers Summit can expect to see these Founding Members in action.

Creators HQ is a Tubefilter partner.

Filed under: 1 Billion Followers Summit, Homepage Feature by Tubefilter Staff
Comments Off on Creators HQ picks 100 Founding Members to jump-start its Dubai makerspace

Meta wants Facebook to be as hip as it was during its 2000s glory days, so it’s reaching out to people who know what’s hip in the 2020s: Creators. According to The Information, Meta has consulted with big names like MrBeast and Mark Rober to learn what it can do to attract more creators to its original platform.

Facebook, once the foremost social media platform, has seen another Meta-owned property eclipse it in terms of cultural influence. Instagram is now the epicenter of Meta’s creator community, a truth the company pointed out during its Q4 2024 earnings call. Mark Zuckerberg also took time during that presentation to call for a return to the “OG Facebook” experience. “I think that there are a lot of opportunities to make it way more culturally influential than it is today,” Zuckerberg said.

Rober told The Information that Facebook has a “big hill to climb” if it wants to reach the level of cultural influence Zuckerberg covets. “Instagram is culturally relevant,” said the engineer-turned-creator. “Facebook is not.”

In its quest to add creators to its Facebook friends list, Meta is starting with the most obvious strategy: Cash money. The Information reported that a “New Year’s Bonus” promised creators up to $15,000 if they post photos or carousels on Facebook.

If that sounds like a familiar move for Meta, it’s because a similar offer was just put into place on Instagram. Amidst regulatory uncertainty, Meta has offered top TikTokers up to $50,000 to take their talents to Instagram Reels.

The idea behind these direct payments is to build a bigger library of video content, which creators can monetize thanks to Facebook’s newly-united revenue streams. But Rober said Facebook has more work to do before it sheds its label as being “unattractive compared to YouTube.” He cited potential features like detailed analytics and translation tools, which have fueled his growth on YouTube.

Meta may be serious about Facebook’s creator-forward future, as that would be the simplest way for the platform to regain the sense of community that defined it during its heyday. It’s worth noting, however, Meta’s long history of questionable pivots. Its mid-2010s embrace of video content led to an earnings crash for creators, and it has mostly failed to fulfill the promise of its 2021 name change, even if it is still investing in metaverse projects like Horizon Worlds.

For its latest pivot, Meta seems to be heading back toward its initial business model. I’m sure creators and users would love to see a social media experience that resembles old-school Facebook, but unfortunately for them, it’s compilcated.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Can creators make Facebook cool again?

YouTube is on a multiyear crusade against ad blockers. In an effort to stop people from using browser plugins to get rid of ads, it’s escalated from sending “Hey, stop using those” nudges to completely shutting off their ability to see videos unless and until they disabled the blockers. And, most recently, we’ve seen reports that Chrome (the browser owned by YouTube parent Google) has apparently stopped supporting uBlock Origin, one of the most popular ad blockers on the market.

So what’s the deal? Well, YouTube relies on the ~$40 billion of ad revenue it earns each year. Creators get paid because YouTube gives them a portion of the revenue from ads run on their videos. We get it. But, at the same time, YouTube has been steadily increasing the amount of advertising across its platform, including 60-second unskippable ads and ads that pop up when you pause a video.

Viewers are getting ad fatigue–and YouTube seems to know that, because as it’s been increasing ads, it’s also been promoting Premium, its $13/month ad-free service. Premium started as a way for users to access YouTube’s in-house-produced originals like Cobra Kai, but after YouTube decided to stop pursing originals, its biggest draw is that subscribers will not see a single ad while they’re watching videos. It also lets people play videos in the background on mobile, download videos to watch offline, test experimental features, and use YouTube Music.

YouTube has pushed the price of Premium up a couple times (and it’s a whopping $19 if you subscribe via mobile), but now seems to realize more people might pay for it if there was a cheaper option.

Bloomberg reports YouTube plants to introduce “Premium Lite,” a lower-cost tier that will still let people watch ad-free. A person familiar with the matter said the tier will debut soon in the U.S., Australia, Germany, and Thailand, and will target people “who primarily want to watch programs other than music videos.”

That’s because Premium Lite apparently will not remove ads from music videos; only the full YouTube Premium will do that.

“As part of our commitment to provide our users with more choice and flexibility, we’ve been testing a new YouTube Premium offering with most videos ad-free in several of our markets,” a YouTube spokesperson confirmed in a statement. “We’re hoping to expand this offering to even more users in the future with our partners’ support.”

While, yes, YouTube is clearly angling to get more people onboarded to Premium instead of using ad blockers, there may be another component to this.

As Bloomberg points out, this new tier also comes as YouTube and Spotify are increasingly battling for podcast dominance. If the new tier is priced lower or equal to Spotify’s subscription, people may be more likely to subscribe for ad-free listening to podcasts on YouTube (and YouTube would really dig that, judging by recent statements from CEO Neal Mohan).

There’s no official information yet about how much Premium Lite might cost, but Dexerto reports Australian users with access to the tier are paying around $7.50 USD a month.

Filed under: Homepage Feature, YouTube by James Hale
Comments Off on YouTube’s next anti-ad blocker move? Introduce cheaper Premium

Twitch‘s junk food battle royale is dropping into The Glitch. That’s the name of the Fortnite island that will host Battle of the Brands, a DoorDash-sponsored tournament that will be contested by a dozen top streamers.

Battle of the Brands features $20,000 of prizes, which will be distributed via DoorDash gift cards. The participating streamers, including DrLupo, Alixxa, and Sparkles_QT, will team up in pairs for a Fortnite deathmatch that will include a variety of bonus objectives. Ultimately, one pair will emerge victorious — and they’ll be able to show affection for chat by doling out 200 DoorDash gift codes.

In past years, Battle of the Brands has served as an opportunity to buy into current trends in the streaming space. In 2022, FaZe Mew celebrated the golden age of creator dining concepts by playing for FaZe Subs in Doordash’s competition.

These days, metaverse-style experiences developed through Roblox and Fortnite are what’s hip. Brands as diverse as Topgolf and Manchester City are sending marketing dollars to Fortnite islands, and agencies have emerged to build those experiences. JOGO, a Fortnite studio led by creator Typical Gamer, turned heads by earning $7 million from its custom islands.

Twitch’s Fortnite forays happen on The Glitch, which launched last year as a hub for branded gameplay. Within The Glitch — which was developed by Halo co-creator Alexander Seropian‘s studio Look North Worth — sponsors design power-ups that turn real-world offerings into playable items.

That specific product will play a crucial role in Battle of the Brands. Each pair has selected a food and drink brand to play for, and the in-game power-ups will change from duo to duo. I can only imagine that the Ruffles power-up used by KhleoThomas and Goatr2 will make the other teams very salty.

Battle of the Brands will bring spectacle to The Glitch, showing that Twitch’s branded hub has a lot to offer its sponsors. The tournament will kick off on March 14 at 3 PM ET.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Twitch is using its “Battle of the Brands” to demonstrate the potential of its ‘Fortnite’ island

Social media is a growing source of financial advice for Gen Z and Millennials, but not all experiences in communities like #FinTok are positive. A survey published by Intuit Credit Karma found that most people in those cohorts have consulted creators on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram for help with their finances, but some of them have since vowed to never trust #FinTok again.

Qualtrics conducted the study on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma by surveying 1,510 respondents over the age of 18. Though less than half of Americans seek financial advice through social media, 77% of Gen Z and 61% of Millennials are searching online to make sense of their dollars.

As demonstrated through previous studies, #FinTok is not the top source for financial creator content. YouTube remains #1 in that ranking, attracting 71% of Gen Z respondents. Instagram (50%) and TikTok (49%) are the next-most frequented destinations.

But #FinTok has come to represent a rising group of creators who have gained favor with Gen Z and Millennials by providing common sense financial advice for free. That community has been a dose of fresh air for young people who are concerned about topics like budgeting, taxes, and investing, but it contains a darker side as well. Poor advice and shills for scams are all too common on #FinTok, and Intuit Credit Karma’s survey shows that some viewers are fed up.

39% of Gen Z and 33% of Millennials reported that bad outcomes convinced them to swear off social media financial advice for good. In many cases, that decision was motivated by an IRS audit. 37% of Gen Z and 25% of Millennials said they have gotten into some form of trouble after taking advice from a financial creator.

TikTok has urged its users to #BeCyberSmart by scanning for bad advice as they watch #FinTok content, but it’s not always easy to suss out crypto scams and risky investments. For most of Intuit Credit Karma’s Gen Z and Millennial respondents, financial social content is a nice asset, but it’s not valued as highly as the most trusted sources for money help: Family and friends.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Financial advice on TikTok is a volatile market

Twitch wants to cut down on the amount of money it spends letting creators store stuff on its platform. It automatically deletes all VOD recordings of streamers’ broadcasts after 60 days, a move that undercuts its ability to compete–if it wanted to–with the viewership generated by VOD monsters like YouTube. We sort of get it; by deleting VODs, Twitch pushes that FOMO feeling, where viewers might miss a peak moment on a streamer’s channel if they don’t tune in live right now.

But streamers aren’t happy with auto-VOD deletion–and some of them are about to be even more unhappy, because Twitch is further cutting storage space by auto-deleting Highlights once a creator has reached 100 hours of storage time.

We’re implementing a 100 hr storage limit for Highlights & Uploads starting 4/19. This won’t apply to Past Broadcasts (VODs) or clips.

Less than 0.5% of streamers exceed 100hrs & this content accounts for <0.1% of hours watched. Users will be notified.https://t.co/RoDIAEzBV5 pic.twitter.com/zN7iKHpSqm

— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) February 19, 2025

The Highlights feature allows creators to scrub through a VOD and pull together some of their best moments into one reel. This, as you can probably imagine, is a valuable tool for gamers. Creators can use it to compile their top shots from an Apex Legends or Marvel Rivals stream, or all their daring escapes during a session of Dead by Daylight.

And, as The Verge points out, Highlights are specifically important to the speedrunning community, because they stay on Twitch’s platform even after the full stream VOD has been deleted. Because so many speedrunning records are set live, Highlights has effectively made Twitch a library for top speedrunning moments, capturing the second they were set as well as the streamer and audience’s reactions.

You might be thinking, Can’t people just use Clips?

Well, not really. Clips, another Twitch tool, has some limits. It lets anyone–not just the streamer–pull out up to 60 seconds of consecutive footage from one stream, and turn that footage into its own short-form video. Since Clips are crowdsourced, people who aren’t the creator have the the control to delete them.

With Highlights, footage doesn’t have to be consecutive; it can be sewn together from across the entire VOD. There’s also no limit to how long they can be. And, as we mentioned above, they remain on Twitch’s platform after the source VOD has been deleted. One last perk: They also permanently show what chatters were saying during the highlighted moments, while chat records disappear from Clips once the source VOD has been deleted.

Now, to be clear, streamers can download their VODs, make a highlights reel manually, and upload that reel to YouTube or another platform. That’s what the vast majority of Twitch streamers with YouTube channels do.

But with this change, anyone who does use Highlights consistently will have to be sure they keep their total recording time below 100 hours. If they go over, Twitch will auto-delete Highlights until the channel is back under 100 hours. (This change also affects Uploads, aka content that’s created with a third-party site and uploaded to Twitch.)

“Introducing this 100-hour storage limit, which impacts less than 0.5 percent of active channels on Twitch and accounts for less than 0.1 percent of hours watched, helps us manage resources more efficiently, maintain support of highlights and uploads, and continue to invest in new features and improvements to more effective viewer engagement tools like Clips and the mobile feed,” Twitch said.

Again, while this change will only impact 0.5% of active channels, it may disproportionately impact creator communities like speedrunners.

“Not just world records, but most every run submitted that was on Twitch is stored as a highlight on speedrun.com. That includes users who no longer run, no longer stream, no longer have an online presence, or may even not be alive anymore,” user FKAsocks noted on Twitch’s ‘User Voice’ forum. “Crippling the highlights feature is going to be an unmitigated disaster for speedrun history.”

Other commenters pointed out that while 100 hours seems like a lot of storage time, it may be smaller than you think. “The last full playthrough of a game I have saved on my channel as highlights was just over 200 hours,” streamer MissingMeshTV wrote. “I’ll be starting my 6th year on Twitch shortly and have over 2600 hours of all my playthroughs, complete with chat history here. And you’re just going to take it away without even having the decency to offer me the option to keep any of it beyond 100 hours.”

Based on Twitch’s statement, it seems to want people to shift toward using short-form, lower-storage-lift Clips. We’re not surprised, because though Clips has fewer features than Highlights, it’s what Twitch uses to populate its TikTok-esque Discovery feed.

This change kicks in April 19. Anyone with over 100 hours of Highlights and/or Uploads on their channel after that date will see their content deleted until they’re back under the limit.

Filed under: Homepage Feature, Twitch by James Hale
Comments Off on Twitch is limiting streamers to 100 hours of Highlights. They’re not happy.

MrBeast already has the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, and he regularly finishes first in our weekly Top 50 rankings. Now, he’s adding another record to his list of accomplishments: An unassuming YouTube Shorts clip he uploaded more than two years ago has become the most-liked video on the platform.

For all of MrBeast’s social media star power, he isn’t even the primary star in his record-setting Short. Instead, the video depicts an American student’s trip to Paris, where he fulfills MrBeast’s desire to purchase a French baguette. Spoiler alert: The kid ends up earning much more than the $300 he was initially offered.

On a channel noted for its blockbuster long-form videos, the baguette Short has become the most-watched and most-liked upload. Its 1.4 billion views don’t amount to a record-setting sum for the entire platform, but its 54 million likes are enough to surpass the music video for “Despacito,” the previous title holder in that category.

MrBeast officially eclipsed “Despacito” in January 2025. Amazingly, his two-year-old Short is still doing big numbers now. According to ViewStats, the video’s traffic averages out to 75,000 views per hour.

MrBeast’s unprecedented success is part of a wider trend that has brought many notable creators — such as Justin Flom — to the top rung of the YouTube Shorts ladder. The baguette video ups the ante by cutting across multiple categories that perform well on Shorts, including food, travel, and challenges.

Ultimately, MrBeast’s strongest asset is larger-than-life persona. He’s not just a Shorts creator, but also one of the format’s most popular memes. That duality allows him to generate viewership at a rate few (if any) channels can match.

His world-beating exploits aren’t limited to YouTube, either. The first season of his Prime Video original series Beast Games set new high marks across 44 categories tracked by Guinness World Record. He offered the largest physical cash prize for a reality competition series ($5 million) and the used the largest number of cardboard cutouts of a single character (50,000), among many other achievements.

At this point, it feels as if it’s only a matter of time before MrBeast covers all the digital media record books. He even has another Short among the top ten most-liked YouTube videos, and the numbers just keep going up as we speak.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on With 54 million thumbs up, MrBeast’s YouTube Shorts hit becomes YouTube’s most-liked video

In a rapidly shifting social media world, where do users’ priorities lie? Patreon surveyed 1,000 creators and 2,000 fans to find out.

The monetization platform’s State of Create report is full of insights for anyone who feels lost amidst a sea of algorithms and brainrot content. Patreon is revealing its findings during a transitional moment in the creator world. As a colorful infographic explains, we are now in a post-follower landscape. 57% of fans’ time on TikTok is spent watching creators they don’t follow, and most of the content those fans see is short-form in nature — even though longer videos are more desired and more likely to induce payment, according to Patreon’s data.

The shift to a social media structure completely dictated by algorithms has left creators feeling stuck, with 78% of them saying citing the algorithm as an influence in their content decisions and 75% of them claiming that platforms punish creators who fail to upload constantly.

That rat race has led to an ecosystem in which 78% of creators are affected by burnout, but Patreon’s takeaways aren’t entirely pessimistic. While the State of Create report depicts a social media industry that is increasingly controlled by top platforms, it also shows the opportunities creators have to interact directly with their biggest admirers.

As you might expect, the move toward direct fan interactions is a boon for Patreon, which has rolled out features that help creators become more discoverable. But the company led by Jack Conte isn’t alone in those efforts. The State of Create report cites upstarts like Bluesky, OnlyFans, and Nebula as tools creators can use to forge direct links with supporters.

81% of creators want a direct channel of communication with their fans, according to State of Create. So-called “core fans,” who represent creators’ most passionate audience segments, are also interested in that type of experience. 86% of them expressed interest in dedicated fan communities, while 80% claimed they are likely to pay their favorite creators.

Over the past five years, those desires have led to massive revenue upticks in fields like subscriptions (up 67%) and direct sales (up 29%). In the creator economy as a whole, 56% of all value comes from direct-to-fan interactions, Patreon noted.

“I’ve seen creators with huge audiences come and go,” creator Amanda Rach Lee said in the State of Create report. “The ones who have longevity in the space are the ones who deeply connect with their fans.”

As both creators and fans seek those connections, Patreon has a role to play. The platform’s development are informed by the needs of its users; to see where their proclivities lie these days, check out the full State of Create report.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on In “State of Create” report, Patreon shows how “the TikTokification of the internet” is a double-edged sword

Amazon‘s attempt to copy TikTok‘s signature feed is coming to an end. Less than three years after its initial launch, the Inspire tab will be discontinued.

Inspire first emerged in 2022 as an infinitely scrolling feed filled with product recommendations from partnered influencers. When it went live for all U.S. users a year later, Inspire looked like an appealing mix of affiliate marketing and short-form video, but it struggled to catch on as a shoppable hub.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to The Information that Inspire will be shuttered. “We regularly evaluate various features to better align with what customers tell us matters most, and as part of that, Inspire is no longer available,” the spokesperson said.

For users interested in social shopping experiences, Amazon offers a few products that could serve as de facto replacements for what Inspire offered. Its in-feed integrations on TikTok are still available. Elsewhere in the world of ecommerce, Amazon has supported creators through an investment in Spotter.

Though TikTok clones are a dime a dozen these days, the timing of the Inspire shutdown is still a bit strange. As TikTok’s operational future in the U.S. hangs in the balance, rival platforms have concocted their versions of the For You Page to appeal to any TikTokers who may be displaced by federal restrictions. Inspire could have been Amazon’s take on that strategy, but it won’t be the case.

Even if Amazon isn’t destined to become the next TikTok, its powerful status in the affiliate marketing world makes it an attractive home for shoppable creator content. Experiments like Buy It Now — a bite-sized take on Shark Tank — show us what Amazon’s approach to ecommerce could look like moving forward.

Success stories like TikTok Shop reveal that the U.S. creator economy is due for further increases in 2025. Amazon could be a big part of that swell. All it needs is a bit of inspiration.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Amazon shutters TikTok-style feed as it seeks new direction in ecommerce business

With its upcoming release, the franchise that introduced many players to open-world gaming is facilitating a new type of freedom. Rockstar Games wants the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI to serve as its answer to Roblox and Fortnite by offering players the tools they need to create customized games and metaverse-style experiences.

According to Digiday, Rockstar has held discussions with Roblox and Fortnite creators about their potential uses for GTA VI‘s sandbox tools. The idea is to populate servers with player-created worlds that will offer a variety of experiences once GTA VI debuts this fall.

Rockstar’s efforts to build a base of user-generated content for its new game would also involve creators who have previous activity within the GTA franchise. The link between GTA and in-game creativity dates back to 2001, when Grand Theft Auto III debuted an open-world map that let players explore to a degree that was then unprecedented. Endless “GTA clones” followed, as well as multiple new installments in Rockstar’s AAA franchise.

By the time GTA V arrived in 2013, Rockstar had its sights set on a different type of player freedom. On multiplayer servers, players used GTA assets to develop a sprawling library of multiplayer minigames, roleplays, and other custom experiences. Channels like Rooster Teeth turned those games into blockbuster entertainment, creators copied one another endlessly, and GTA V endured as the internet’s most-streamed game for years.

The worlds built within GTA V a decade ago resemble the UGC that thrives today through platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. With players becoming accustomed to immersive metaverse experiences, developers on Roblox and Fortnite are reaping the rewards, earning hundreds of millions of dollars over the past year.

The vast sums flowing through game creation platforms explains why Rockstar is interested in following suit. GTA VI may include some work from Roblox devs, but its economic setup could be different from its rivals. Digiday noted that FiveM — the Rockstar-owned mod that facilitates multiplayer GTA V servers — requires users to pay subscription fees. There’s no equivalent revenue stream in Roblox and Fortnite, where branded content experiences have become the norm. Rockstar has historically avoided brand tie-ins within the GTA franchise, but the lucrative nature of those partnerships could change the developer’s thinking.

Though user-generated content feels like a no-brainer for GTA VI, Rockstar still has to work out the specifics of its creator ecosystem. Gamers have joked for years about how long it’s taken for GTA VI to see release, but Rockstar is out to prove that the next installment of its flagship title will be worth the wait.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Move over, Roblox: Rockstar wants ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ to be the next big creator platform