TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and in St. Louis, internet users are complicating a real-life case of monkeys on the loose by monkeying around with AI images.

Today’s News

CREATOR COMMOTION

Dubai is teaming up with Amazon to woo creators

The partnership: Dubai is determined to put itself at the center of the creator economy. In 2024, the United Arab Emirates announced a $40.8 million governmental initiative dedicated to incentivizing international content creators to live and work in the region. Part of the initiative includes offering creators fast-track access to Golden Visas, which will allow them, their families, and their employees to reside in the UAE long-term with tax benefits.

Now, that initiative has secured a partnership with Amazon.

Under the newly formed Amazon Creators Foundry, UAE-based content creators who join the Creators HQ program (a Dubai-centered membership/workspace included in the $40.8 million initiative) will be able to “launch and scale their own products” for sale on Amazon.ae and worldwide (per Entrepreneur).

The perks: Participating Creators HQ members will receive education and mentorship around production ideation, digital marketing, and Amazon-specific customer acquisition strategies, along with tips on brand-building and “entertainment commerce opportunities.”

Creators will also build their own Amazon.ae storefronts and get Amazon Ads credits to boost their products in search.

Creators HQ and Amazon didn’t specify exactly what sorts of products creators will be developing, but we’re guessing they won’t be the standard T-shirts-and-mugs fare. Given Amazon’s already robust affiliate sales market, where thousands of creators around the world plug products that tie directly into their content niches (such as a beauty creator linking eyeshadow or a booktuber linking their new favorite read), we’re thinking it will nudge creators to build unique products tailored to their audiences.

🌟 SPONSORED 🌟

With Made, you don’t have to be a solo creator anymore

The appeal of being a "solopreneur" wears off quickly when you realize what it actually means that you’re the CEO, the director, the producer, the distributor, and the community manager all at once.

Wearing every hat isn't a flex. It’s a fast track to burnout.

Made gives you the infrastructure of your very own team without the overhead.

With the world’s first ecosystem of AI agents built specifically for creators, you’ll have a digital org chart that slots directly into your workflow.

• Instead of juggling every creative role yourself, you’ll have Milo acting as your Creative Director to ensure every concept is viral-ready and your thumbnails are clicking.
  
  

• Once you film, Remi serves as your Head of Production, instantly turning raw footage into a stream of platform-ready assets so you never miss another deadline.
  
  

• As you scale, Zara manages your Community by identifying and engaging your VIP fans to keep your audience loyal.
  
  

• Meanwhile, Lila acts as your Distribution Manager, handling complex rights management and monetization to ensure you get paid for your work.

Think of what you could accomplish with your very own team behind the scenes.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Three couple channels topped our latest YouTube Top 50 chart, with Cadel and Mia claiming the #1 spot by pulling in a whopping 3.07 billion weekly views. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Meta has tapped former Republican White House official Dina Powell McCormick to serve as its new president and vice-chairman. (Engadget)
  
  

• According to Paramount CEO David Ellison, the company has filed a suit aimed at compelling Warner Bros. Discovery to provide more financial details about its acquisition by Netflix. (Paramount)
  
  

• Meta reportedly plans to lay off 10% of the workers in its Reality Labs division, a number that adds up to roughly 1,500 people. (Gizmodo)

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top Branded Videos of the Week: Spicy mustard, tiny cars, and haunted houses

There’s always a lull in the digital ads biz after the big splash of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the following week or two. But when it comes to YouTube sponsorships, creators didn’t seem to be having an uneventful Christmas. Stars like Jordan Matter have continued to snag spots from brands laser-targeting key consumers, and MrBeast certainly hasn’t taken a break from promoting his own brands.

🥇 #1. MrBeast 2 x Feastables: Don’t Drink The Spicy Mustard (27.6M views)
Feastables did a lot of work leading into the holidays, sponsoring at least one MrBeast video per week and launching a new product, the Hot Cocoa Crunch bar. That trend continued well into the end of the festive season with MrBeast shining a Shorts light on his new chocolate milk with 23 grams of protein per bottle.

🥈 #2. Jordan Matter x Sephora: My Daughter Survives WORLD’S TINIEST CAR (11.7M views)
For their latest video, father/daughter duo Jordan and Salish Matter leveraged a classic YouTube formula: specific time period + small space + challenges = prize. Like several other Matter videos in the past few months, this one is sponsored by Sephora, the cosmetics shop that partnered with Salish to launch her line Sincerely Yours.

🎰 #1,569. Querxes x ZenMarket: Dokis Survive a Haunted House (DDLC Voiced Animation) (61.6K views)
This week’s wildcard clip is the product of a bunch of passionate people who got together to group write, animate, and voice-act a fan video for the visual novel game Doki Doki Literature Club! The gang’s sponsor is ZenMarket, a digital marketplace selling Japanese products. That partnership seems like a solid fit, especially since Doki Doki Literature Club! follows the flamboyant style and conventions of Japanese high school anime.

Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

TIKTOK TALK

Can TikTok’s new calendar help parents moderate kids’ screen time?

The calendar: TikTok has debuted what it calls the For You Calendar: a printable weekly planner designed to help families find balance between offline activities and mindless scrolling.

With its simple format, the For You Calendar provides plenty of space to map out weekly routines. Each day’s tasks can be checked off upon completion, while a meal tracker ensures proper nutrition and a “time for you” section ensures that leisure is more than a footnote.

This isn’t TikTok’s first calendar of 2026 (it also recently mapped out key events through its “2026 Small Business Marketing Calendar”), but in this case, the app is working hand-in-hand with creators to promote healthy habits. The designer of the For You Calendar is Linda Tong, who reaches over a quarter-million followers with her “stimulating and artsy stationery.”

Parents interested in sharing Tong’s calendar with their kids can pick up a free copy via the Linda Tong Planners website, although supplies are limited.

Tong is not the only creator involved in TikTok’s organizational effort. According to a TikTok Newsroom post, the platform has also joined forces with “parent creators” @mrandmrsgrit, @mrshannonlanier, @oh.henrys, and @lyndseystamper1 to bring “videos directly into ‘For You’ feeds to share how they approach organization, connection, and balance.”

The impact: Compared to other time management tools co-developed by social media platforms, a printable calendar feels like a quaint solution. In a world where apps can tell you to go to bed or put a hard cap on screen time, can such a low-tech parenting tool really move the needle for overstimulated kids?

Research suggests that the answer is ‘yes.’ One study found that kids who have consistent, positive interactions with their parents are at a lower risk for physical and mental health issues. Another group of researchers concluded that “consistent routines matter” when it comes to developing kids’ school readiness.

WATCH THIS 👀

Shorts is the epicenter of the 2026 soccer boom 

The sports buzz: Soccer content is already shaping up to be one of 2026’s most notable social video trends, with the impending arrival of the 2026 World Cup turning platforms like TikTok and Roblox into official FIFA partners. Those deals will likely pay off in a big way, but at the end of the day, platforms aren’t the power source behind the online soccer boom—creators are.

At the start of 2026, tastemakers on YouTube Shorts are still leading the way. Channels led by soccer fans are some of the most-subscribed hubs of the current moment. Even a fan account hosted by a kid (aka BR2) is high on the charts.

Though he doesn’t have FIFA’s official stamp of approval, BR2 regularly attracts tens of millions of views by comparing soccer stars like Real Madrid icon Kylian Mbappé and up-and-comer Lamine Yamal in short-form videos. Over the last week alone, BR2 snagged 310,000 new subscribers to reach 36th place in our Global Sub Top 50 chart. Check out one of his latest viral hits here.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.