TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and Instagram hopes to make non-square photos a little less wonky by rolling out a new aspect ratio that shows your image “just exactly as you shot it.”

Today’s News

FIGHT CLUB

A now-delayed Creator Clash wants to move past all that iDubbbz drama

The postponement: Creator Clash is working to stay in the ring. A month before its scheduled return to the Amalie Arena in Tampa, the influencer boxing showdown has announced a postponement and a move to Los Angeles amid drama surrounding co-founder Ian ‘iDubbbz’ Jomha.

Creator Clash 3 is now slated to take place at the Hollywood Palladium on October 25, with a new fighter lineup expected to be announced in July. Refunds will be issued for those who purchased Amalie Arena tickets, while pay-per-view purchases will be honored at the new event (although those buyers also have the option of refunding).

The context: Creator Clash’s original 2022 charity event was a success, reaching a sold-out live crowd and a 100,000-strong pay-per-view audience. In 2023, however, issues like content piracy led the second Clash to lose $250,000.

Creator Clash 3 aimed to turn things around this year with a star-studded lineup—but iDubbbz’s decision to revive his Content Cop YouTube series derailed that mission. A recent episode took a swipe at Ethan Klein of h3h3productions, who retaliated with a video that triggered blowback against iDubbbz and his wife Anisa Jomha.

That feud quickly bled into Creator Clash, with Klein openly speculating about the event’s charitable nature. (An FAQ on the Creator Clash website indicates that Stand Up To Cancer is the “exclusive beneficiary” of its fundraising.) The ensuing drama apparently led several slated fighters—including Epic Meal Time sauce boss Harley Morenstein—to back out of this year’s event.

In the interest of preventing any further damage to Creator Clash, the Jomhas have since stepped away from their organizational duties, allowing Real Good Touring to take the lead:

🔆 PRESENTED BY ARTLIST 🔆

Four artists journeyed to a disappearing island to capture its spirit. Now, you can explore Tuvalu, too.

An island in the Pacific Ocean is rapidly disappearing due to rising sea levels. One of the least visited destinations in the world, Tuvalu is a remarkable place worth capturing—which is why Artlist sent four artists to document the sights and sounds of the island. 

Filmmakers Josh Guvi and Spencer Frost recorded everyday life, while field recorder Charles Rose focused on capturing the sounds of the island and composer Tristan Barton worked with local musicians. 

That creative spirit was curated into collections of new original music, sound effects, and footage, which creators can explore exclusively on Artlist.

As a leading creative platform, Artlist has empowered 26M creators and brands with over 2.5M royalty-free digital assets and AI tools. Now, you can visit Artlist to use the music, sound effects and footage captured on Tuvalu in your own videos—and help keep the creative spirit of the island alive forever. 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Sydney Sweeney has teamed up with body care company Dr. Squatch to sell a men’s medium grit soap bar that the seller swears is made with her actual bathwater. (Tubefilter)

• Disney+’s new subscriber-only Perks program offers a collection of digital pins that emerged from a collaboration with Web3 company Dapper Labs. (VentureBeat)
  

  
  

• A new report from Meta has revealed that the company removed “nearly one third less content on Facebook and Instagram globally…from January to March of this year than it did in the previous quarter.” (Wired)
  
  

• DreamPark has secured $1.1 million in funding to support the development of “the world’s largest downloadable mixed reality (XR) theme park.” (VentureBeat)

SETTING BOUNDARIES

Kick isn’t interested in paying streamers who get themselves banned on Twitch

The context: Three years ago, Kick launched with one main goal: to be cooler than Twitch.

The upstart hub didn’t just allow gambling and hot tub streams (both of which are restricted on Twitch). It dedicated front-page categories to them, and paid controversial Twitch stars like Amouranth big money to stream on its platform. As for streamers like Adin Ross, who were booted off Twitch for serious offenses? Kick welcomed them with open arms.

Thanks to that early approach, some creators seem to believe that if they’re banned from Twitch, they’ll have a guaranteed big-money spot on Kick. Now, however, co-founder/CEO Ed Craven is making it clear that’s no longer the case.

The inciting incident: Earlier this month, creator SoLLUMINATI returned to streaming after a five-year hiatus—and was promptly banned twice by Twitch (once for using a transphobic slur and once for an unknown reason). In response, the creator appealed to Ross and Kick, saying “it is time for y’all to spoil me…we’ve got to bring the culture and drama to Kick, y’all.”

Ross responded positively on his own stream by preemptively welcoming SoLLUMINATI to Kick. Craven…not so much. In a tweet, the CEO clarified that “Kick doesn’t offer lump sum deals,” noting that creators “can earn a fair pay…but it’s based on real output and merit.”

SoLLUMINATI doesn’t appear to have responded yet, but Ross quickly doubled-down: “I actually have to pay SoLLUMINATI out of my own pocket to stream on Kick,” he said during a stream. “Why wouldn’t I? I want him to come.”

That declaration may or may not result in SoLLUMINATI actually growing a following on Kick, but one takeaway is clear: the young platform might be the bad boy of streaming, but it doesn’t plan to reward big names for getting themselves banned on Twitch.

SHOPPING SPREE

Can brick-and-mortar stores help Meta sell devices?

The retail expansion: Move over, Apple Store: Meta is gearing up to make an impact on the world of physical retail. According to internal communications cited by Business Insider, the tech giant plans to open more brick-and-mortar stores to sell wearable devices like its Meta Quest headsets and the Orion smart glasses it launched with Ray-Ban.

While those communications didn’t specify a timeline or the planned number of openings, any expansion would increase Meta’s brick-and-mortar presence. The first (and thus far only) Meta Store opened in 2022 at the company’s campus in Burlingame, California. Some consumers also got their hands on Orion devices at a physical pop-up Meta launched in Los Angeles earlier this year—an activation that now looks like a trial run for a future slate of permanent brick-and-mortar shops.

The context: Meta made a big bet on wearable tech when it acquired Quest for $2 billion over a decade ago. It doubled down on that gamble by changing its name from Facebook in 2021—but despite that bullish attitude, the tech giant’s metaverse aspirations have largely fallen flat. Meta dialed back multiple ecommerce programs amid large-scale layoffs in 2022, and its four-year-old Horizon Worlds hub is now a virtual ghost town.

This year, however, Meta indicated a continued commitment to exploring the potential of wearables with the hire of former RealReal CEO John Koryl as VP of Retail. Several factors inform Meta’s commitment to that commercial push—but in the end, it all comes back to ecommerce.

Constructed worlds have demonstrated tremendous ecommerce potential, leading Meta to bring existing Roblox content to Quest headsets and to plan out Roblox-style experiences of its own. If the company can attract more Quest buyers with brick-and-mortar stores it has a good chance of getting more consumers hooked on the metaverse.

Or it could just sell a lot more connected eyewear. If you think those Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses look good on Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, and Kris Jenner, there might soon be a branded store where you can try them on yourself.

WATCH THIS 📺

See something cool in a Short? YouTube’s new feature will help you find it online.

“This Week at YouTube”: YouTube’s latest beta feature could give Shorts viewers a new way to snoop (or shop). As program manager Lauren explained in a recent video on YouTube’s Creator Insider channel, the platform is rolling out a beta tool that will allow viewers to use Google Lens to search for visual matches of objects they see in Shorts.

That functionality could apply to everything from the breed of a creator’s dog to a trendy tourist spot—but we won’t be surprised if YouTube ends up integrating the tool into its ongoing ecommerce push.

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