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, a TikTok icon is getting real, YouTube legends are getting a new deal, and speedrunners are getting even more charitable than usual.
Creator commotion
Alix Earle launches a new type of GRWM: Get Real With Me. The TikTok star’s new interview series is live. As she builds up her presence on YouTube, Earle is asking tough questions to some of her creator colleagues, starting with comedian Jake Shane. It’s all a little more down-to-earth than a typical “get ready with me” clip.
Subscribe for daily Tubefilter Top Stories
France’s #1 streamer is cooking up some new formats. Since breaking out on Twitch a decade ago, Kameto has captivated viewers in his home country. His deal with Webedia will align him with a company that is exploring the link between creator content and traditional entertainment formats.
Agency dealings
Smosh has a new deal with WME. More than 20 years after its inception, the digital comedy brand founded by Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla has new representation. WME will look to guide Smosh as the venerated outfit looks to venture into film, TV, and other entertainment categories.
Becca Bloom links up with UTA. Bloom is a lifestyle creator who thrills more than two million TikTok followers with updates from her luxurious life. She’ll be right at home on the UTA roster; the agency reps a number of stylish creators, including Emma Chamberlain, Alix Earle, and Charli D’Amelio.
Fixated puts funding to work with Ellify acquisition. Fixated, a rising creator representation firm, has $50 million of VC behind it. Now, it’s deploying some of that capital with a seven-figure deal that will see it scoop up Ellify, a company that reps creators in the game space.
Scalable gets CAA deal for creator economy coverage. The outlet led by veteran journalists Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg is ready to scale up (pardon the pun) after securing representation. You can check out Yurieff and Enberg on the official Scalable podcast.
The biz
Awesome Games Done Quick 2026 raises $2.4 million for charity. By letting viewers buy their way into skilled speedruns, each year’s AGDQ main event brightens dark January days by raising massive sums of money to support charitable endeavors. The 2026 edition of the annual tradition was no exception.
Bradley Martyn’s Prime Protein drink will get you so swole. The high-protein diet is already looking like one of the major marketing trends of 2026. Amid that landscape, why wouldn’t Prime join in with help from a buff guy like Martyn? Perhaps Prime’s bottom line can get as buff as its brand spokespeople.
Gen Z may love TikTok, but Millennials love TikTok Shop. According to eMarketer, more than half of consumers between the ages of 25 and 44 have looked up more info about a product after discovering it on TikTok. Us Millennials may never get over our collective online shopping addiction.
Platform headlines
Digg has officially reopened its doors to the public. After being revived by founder Kevin Rose and his onetime rival Alexis Ohanian, Digg is now out of closed beta and ready to aggregate links from across the internet. 2026 is shaping up to be the year of discovery, so the timing of this relaunch is perfect. The only question left is, can you Digg it?
TikTok takes on union-busting lawsuit in the U.K. Did the popular app break the law when it laid off 400 moderators right before Christmas? No matter the outcome of this case, one thing is clear: TikTok’s divestiture of its U.S. business won’t be the end of its incessant regulatory issues.
YouTube is how to get to Sesame Street. With more than 100 full episodes, YouTube now boasts the largest library of Sesame Street content on streaming. If that’s not enough edutainment for you and your kids, Elmo’s YouTube special makes things even more lovable.
Partiful is the event planning app that lets you flirt with your crush. Is there a party you want to go to because you really want to flirt with one of the attendees? Well, maybe they have a crush on you too, and thanks to Partiful’s Tinder-style matching feature, you can get the chemistry tests started before you even walk in the door.
The internet is a strange place
The 140-year-long YouTube video has the internet confused. I would tell you what happens at the end, but I only started watching during the Teddy Roosevelt administration, so you’re going to have to give me a few more years.
Let’s keep “car horn that scrolls to the next TikTok video” in the realm of “theoretical invention” for now. On one hand, as a New Jersey native, I would love to turn the roads into a symphony of honking. On the flipside, I know how quickly people tend to scroll through their For You Pages, so the idea of this innovation makes me tremble
