30 Billion Reasons to ♥ YouTube

Here’s what’s new and what caught my eye this week:

20 Minute TikTok Videos Are Next! News broke this week that TikTok is testing five minute videos. Do you remember when it was just 15 seconds? It feels like just yesterday... BECAUSE IT WAS! I understand WHY they want to embrace longer videos –– heck, I remember when YouTube was all about shorties as well. But this seems like a diffusion of the core brand value, and when you add in livestreams, résumés, shopping, and all the other stuff, I worry TikTok will become just another everything app, which would be a shame. (Perhaps they’ll rebrand to TikTokTikTokTikTokTikTokTikTok.)

I ♥ YouTube (and Grand Poobah Neal)! Big red gets a lot of flak, while nimble startups keep nibbling at its edges and core. But here’s the thing: no one pays creators like YouTube. They just announced that they’ve paid “more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies” over the last three years. Who else does that? No one. Now, on the 14th anniversary of the YouTube Partner Program, it boasts more than 2 million creators. If you care about the creator economy, read Neal Mohan’s latest post about the Partner Program, the creative economy, and YouTube’s vision for the future. I can’t wait to invite Neal back to VidCon in 2022. 

Snapchat Rolls Out Trends, But It Needs Work: Everyone wants to know what the kids are up to! Pinterest famously mines its network to look into the future, TikTok provides trends to its customers, Facebook has Crowdtangle, and now Snap has its own variant. It’s definitely interesting, but it’s still a snapshot of the past –– not the future –– and it’s a bit limited. You can search for some terms, but others are conspicuously absent. YouTube’s there, as is “Tik Tok”, but not Instagram nor “TikTok.” I love the idea, and am eagerly awaiting version 2.0.

How Many People Are You? Many online social platforms are built on the premise of the monolithic you. But set and setting matter. We’re different with our buddies at the bar or spa than we are at work or with our parents. And the younger you are, the more your digital identity is fluid and abundant. Rex Woodbury leans into this multi-personality trend and explores how these different personalities are merging into a more amoeboidan and pseudopodial existence. It meanders a bit –– much like our personalities –– but is worth reading. 

QUIBIS: 

• Inside job? The mysterious marketplace for reinstating banned Instagram accounts.
• Putting your “1,000 true fans” on the Blockchain.
• OnlyFans backtracks on porn ban.
• Roblox would be perfect if it weren’t for those darn kids. 
• Could the creator economy work for fiction authors?
• Instagram experiments with topic-based searches.
• Hacking TikTok growth – lessons from e.l.f.
• Talent manager Ariadna Jacobs sues NYT reporter Taylor Lorenz.
• Anna Grigoryan pens some good thoughts on distribution and community.
• Streamlabs releases an alternative tipping model for Twitch streams.
• Matthew Ball on why Netflix is getting into gaming.
• What’s “nah he tweakin,” and why has it taken over the internet?
• OH MY GOD!! TAYLOR SWIFT IS ON TIKTOK!!
• OH MY GOD!! TIKTOK RADIO IS ON SIRIUSXM!!

This Week at VidCon Now:

• TUESDAY: Sam Parr is brilliant and you need to watch this session – he founded The Hustle, one of the best newsletters today. Sam teaches us why directly communicating with your audiences is so valuable! Watch it live at 12 PM (PT) at live.vidcon.com.
• THURSDAY: Join Zack Lugo as he stops by for this interactive Q&A session. Be sure to tune in early for your chance to ask him a question live on stage! Watch it live at 3 PM (PT) here.

Tip of the Week: This week’s Tip of the Week comes from Simon Hudson, the founder and CEO of Cheeze, Inc.! Find him on Twitter here. Also he's speaking at VidCon Abu Dhabi in December - see you there!

As an entrepreneur, I have always found new technologies interesting and tried to look for ways to incorporate them into my business. Discovering the power that NFTs have and how this new technology can open up an untouched world of opportunities has been my biggest finding to date. Entering a new space where little help is available can be challenging but is also the driving force behind what I do. In the late nineties, we saw the internet come of age, and people who understood the space became pioneers and have become legends of our time. A tip for any entrepreneurs is to always live outside of your comfort zone and never be afraid to discover new technologies. My discovery of NFTs and blockchain technology has been so influential that I have been able to build my latest company around the space. If you can wake up everyday and look forward to what you do, then you know you are on the right path!

What We’re Watching: 

I’m loving @wildlifewill95, the amazing zookeeper from Texas. Start with the Boop. TikTok user @lexyhutchinson recreated every single shot of High School Musical 2’s baseball dance scene. Small new businesses like @ggiata are using TikTok to market themselves! Have you seen the milk crate challenge take over social media (note: don’t try this at home). 

See you around the internet, and feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested, and if someone forwarded this to you, you can sign up on our website at VidCon.com — scroll down and select “VidCon Weekly Industry Highlights."

Jim