TOGETHER WITH

Happy Thursday! On the last day of April, Twitch followed through on its plan to launch its TikTok-style “Discovery” feed before the end of the month. For You Page, meet the Fortnite page.

TIKTOK SHOP ‘TIL YOU DROP 🌎

There are more than 500,000 TikTok Shop sellers in the U.S. Here’s how TikTok is protecting them:

TikTok offered some stats related to its ecommerce hub as part of the TikTok Shop Safety Report.

The lowdown: The report details activity related to TikTok Shop during the second half of 2023. That period was an important time for the social shopping venture, as it made its U.S. debut in September of that year. The rapid growth of the Stateside seller community shows TikTok Shop’s potential in the West.

• In fact, TikTok Shop has been expanding all over the world. During the period measured in the report, six million sellers worldwide joined the platform.

• Those gains brought TikTok Shop’s total user base up to 15 million sellers worldwide.

TikTok’s promise: The app has dealt with quality control issues and other snags as it has brought its Shop to new regions. It is not ignoring those complaints; the TikTok Shop Safety Report discusses the $400 million investment TikTok has made in safety and security features.

• During the second half of 2023, TikTok declined two million seller account registrations and nixed 37 million product listings in an attempt to root out fraudulent vendors.

• Over the same period, more than one million seller accounts were deactivated and 500,000 creators lost Shop privileges due to policy violations.

• TikTok also handled 68,000 takedown notices from brand owners.

Why it matters: TikTok is eager to tout its security efforts. By showing the steps it has taken to protect users, it could slow down efforts to regulate or ban the app.

In the United States, that effort may be too little, too late. President Biden has already signed a law that will force TikTok to be divested or banned in the U.S. within the next year.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Top creators are joining forces with OpusClip to lighten your workload. Here’s what they have in store:

With the world’s #1 AI video clipping platform, creators can produce viral short-form content in a single click. OpusClip uses proprietary data and GPT technology to identify the most valuable clips in long-form videos—and turn them into top-performing Shorts, TikToks, and Reels.

Now, OpusClip’s expert team is linking up with creator ambassadors Matt Wolfe, Sean Cannell, Jon Youshaei, Nicky Sanders, Nicki Nimmin, and Roberto Blake to develop even more AI-driven features. 

Here’s a closer look at those state-of-the-art analytics tools:

• Reframe Capabilities: Use OpusClip’s moving speaker auto-reframe and manual reframe capabilities to keep your face front and center at all times. 🙋‍♂️
  
  

• Keyword Highlighter: Sit back while OpusClip scans your video captions for the most valuable keywords. On average, videos with highlighted keywords see a 65% increase in watch time. 🔎
  
  

• Virality Score: Leverage analytical data from thousands of viral videos to automatically generate a virality score for each short clip. 💯
  
  

• Social Media Calendar: Connect all your socials and schedule a whole month of posts in just 10 minutes. Check out this brand-new feature below:

OpusClip creators are producing incredible results—from 70% higher revenue (Ebonie Dion) to 65% more subscribers (Ricardo Hernandez). Ready to take your content to the next level?

Get started with OpusClip →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Writer/director Wesley Wang has teamed up with Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa and TriStar Pictures for a feature adaptation of his viral short film Nothing, Except Everything. (Tubefilter)
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• LinkedIn is getting into gaming with a hub that includes three puzzle titles at launch. (The Verge)
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• A new report suggests that TikTok may have circumvented commissions on the Apple App Store. (TechCrunch)
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• Before penning the new comedy Challengers, screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes gained a cult following on YouTube.(GQ)

COLUMNS • CREATORS ON THE RISE 📈

Giulia Amato is the early bird who gets the proverbial worm on TikTok

How it started: Giulia Amato grew up in a “small hometown” in Michigan. From those humble beginnings, she’s emerged as a big draw on TikTok, where her account now reaches more than 2.7 million followers.

• A stroke of luck assisted Amato’s rise to internet prominence. It just so happens that she resembles Addison Rae, one of the most-followed TikTokers in the world. Amato posted a Duet to point out the resemblance, and about 30 million views later, her video made her a familiar face, too.
  
  

• Amato’s arrival in college gave her a chance to commit to a career in social media. It was at that point that her TikToks evolved from a pleasurable pastime to a potential lifestyle. “I just realized that it could become a job and that I could build a brand with it,” she told Tubefilter. “Then it really became more of a mindset of like, ‘Okay, this is my job, and I love doing it.’”
  
  

• By staying committed to tried-and-true TikTok formats like dances and lip syncs, Amato began to take advantage of brand partnerships. Some of her earliest deals were song promos, where she described as a “super easy” way of dipping her toes into the waters of influencer marketing.

How it’s going: Now that Amato has a strong social following, bigger brands like Sephora have come calling. Amato maintains her steady posting schedule without sacrificing quality, and she works in real estate as well. How does she pull it all off? An early wake-up time helps. Amato rises every day at 4 a.m. Now that’s what I call a work ethic.

What’s up next: Amato has a fragrance brand in the work and is continuing to up the quality of her work. She’s ready to bring a more professional feel to her videos. “I’m really trying to find how I can implement my own style and personality into more of the cinematic feel,” she told Tubefilter, “so that I can almost start a series with it.”

DATA • U.S. TOP 50 📊

*slaps roof of YouTube Shorts* this baby can fit so many Gen Alpha memes

The charts: What do a floating head stuck in a toilet, a smiling green monster, and the stars of The Amazing Digital Circus have in common? They all show up in YouTube Shorts videos posted by BBOY’S, an animation hub that cracked our most recent U.S. Top 50 ranking. It seems as if all the hot Shorts hubs are catering to Gen Alpha culture, but there’s more to the story than that:

🥇 Fun for all ages (486.8M views): The U.S.-based channel that got the most weekly views during the last week of April belongs to MrBeast. The North Carolina-based creator often surges in our charts when he releases one of his long-form spectacles, and his latest release includes a cast that ranges in age from 1 to 99. That’s one way to appeal across generational lines!

🛠️ Tool time (435.5M views): Another YouTube Shorts staple ranked second in the U.S. Top 50. MaviGadget has fallen off the pace that propelled it to the top of our charts earlier this year, but it has rebounded in recent weeks. During our latest seven-day measurement period, the tool-focused hub increased its traffic by 7% week-over-week and moved up one spot in the ranking.

🌈 Think of the children (414M views): The littlest members of Gen Alpha need content that doesn’t involve freaky toilet heads, and Toys and Colors has the hookup. Its bright, educational clips are beloved by preschool-age children around the world — even though its YouTube traffic fell by 1% week-over-week.

FYI: There’s a lot more goodies to discover in our rundown of the weekly U.S. Top 50 channels (especially if you like skibidi toilet and stuff like that). Check out the full ranking here.

WATCH THIS 📺

Cinco de Mayo came early this year thanks to 5secondfilms

An annual tradition continues: For more than 14 years, short-form masters 5secondfilms have celebrated Cinco de Mayo with videos that use a profane, four-word response to handwave the history of the holiday.

Quiet, please: 5SF’s Cinco de Mayo bit has already visited a cemetery, an animated world, and some truly strange places. Now, the comedic filmmaking group has ventured into the library for the quietest rendition of the gag they’ve ever done. Shh!!

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.