TOGETHER WITH

It’s Thursday and MrBeast is gearing up to be the next Bytedance. The YouTuber’s response to last week’s social media hullabaloo: “Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.”

Today’s News

REELING IT IN

Instagram is reportedly offering TikTokers up to $50,000 per month to post on Reels

The announcement: Donald Trump may have delayed a ban for now, but Instagram is still going all out in its mission to poach TikTok creators. In addition to announcing one of its largest incentives of all time (a Breakthrough Bonus offering up to $5,000 to new Reels creators), the platform is reportedly courting high-profile names with cash bonuses ranging as high as $50,000/month.

The incentives: According to The Information, some of those five-digit payouts—which require partners to provide Instagram with a window of exclusivity—could be worth “even more” than $50,000.

And while top stars decide whether to accept those exclusive offers, any TikTok creator who posts content to Reels on Facebook or Instagram can take advantage of the new Breakthrough Bonus program. The bonuses in question can rise as high as $5,000 over three months and, according to a press release from Instagram, Breakthrough Bonus partners will also get immediate access to Meta’s newly-united monetization program.

Instagram isn’t stopping at monetary incentives, either. In its quest to woo TikTokers, the platform has also introduced a variety of new video features, a three-minute max runtime for Reels (up from 90 seconds), and announced its own version of the popular TikTok-affiliated editing app CapCut.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Donald Trump made YouTube one of the White House’s distribution channels during his first term in office. Will YouTube play an even bigger role over the next four years he’s in office? (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Singapore-based TikTok lookalike Likee saw a sharp increase in downloads following the Bytedance-owned app’s temporary shutdown over the weekend. (Wired) 
  
  

• The NFL—which has a content partnership with X—reportedly instructed the New England Patriots to shut down its account on Bluesky due to the Twitter rival not being an “approved social media platform for the NFL.” (The Verge)
  
  

• YouTube is introducing a wave of new experimental features to Premium subscribers, including a picture-in-picture move for Shorts and the ability to download recommended Shorts for offline viewing. (The Verge)

FYP FRENZY

X and Bluesky are both launching their own takes on TikTok

The copycats: Instagram isn’t the only platform looking to benefit from a potential TikTok ban. While the Meta-owned platform targets creators, X and Bluesky are hoping to lure in viewers. Both apps have rolled out copycat versions of the For You Page, giving so-called “TikTok refugees” yet another place to go for a short-form fix.

The details: X’s vertical video feed has been under development since the app was still known as Twitter. According to an official post with Musk-ian formatting, that “immersive new home for videos” finally arrived in the United States on January 19—the same day a TikTok ban briefly went into effect for U.S. users.

Bluesky’s new trending videos tab also hit its mobile app on the 19th, but the decentralized platform’s take on the FYP offers users a more personalized experience:

That customizability could save Bluesky from many of the regulatory headaches that have plagued TikTok. While X’s video feed is a pretty standard FYP clone, Bluesky’s appeals to user choice make it immune to regulatory efforts that target addictive algorithms—including those that led TikTok to be sanctioned in Europe and ordered by the E.U. to debut a depersonalized feed.

FIGHT CLUB

The Paul vs. Tyson fight helped Netflix drive record growth—just before it stops reporting sub counts

The stats: Earlier this week, Netflix told investors that it expects live events to make up “a small percentage of our total view hours and content expense”—but one that will “result in outsized value to both our members and our business.”

That prediction is based on some hefty stats. Three Netflix-exclusive live events—two NFL games and the infamous Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight—helped the streamer clinch record viewership for December and 18.9 million new subscribers for Q4 2024. That total is more than double what analysts expected, and adds up to Netflix’s biggest single-quarter subscriber growth in history.

Netflix’s Q4 stats put it at over 300 million subscribers worldwide—a high point that will likely be the last official number we hear for a while, since the streamer has decided to switch from reporting sub counts to relying on a YouTube-esque watch time model of measuring viewer activity. Overall, Netflix reported $10.2 billion in revenue for the quarter, a 16% growth from Q3 2024 and its largest quarter-to-quarter gain since late 2021.

What’s next: Despite garnering 1.43 million signups in just three days surrounding the Paul vs. Tyson fight, however, Netflix seemed to caution investors that it doesn’t plan to significantly increase its investment in live events and sports. That’s an interesting decision, especially considering nearly two-thirds of sports content is now consumed on streaming, and platforms like YouTube are putting serious development into exclusive live sports content.

If that trend continues, Netflix might change course—but at least for now, it looks like the streamer will continue focusing on scripted and unscripted originals like Squid Game (which Bloomberg reports was also a notable contributor to Netflix’s Q4 subscriber growth).

WATCH THIS 📺

Blippi is having a moment on YouTube

The channel: Blippi is climbing the charts. The kid-friendly character portrayed by Stevin John has ties to three of the top 50 channels in this week’s ranking of most-viewed U.S. YouTube channels. The top entry in that trio is the flagship Blippi hub, which scored a whopping 201.3 million views in just seven days.

The spin-off: John’s orange-and-blue persona isn’t the only Blippi character seeing big numbers on YouTube. A video hub dedicated to Meekah—whose bubbly videos have made the Blippi brand a hit on Netflix—is also the midst of its best-ever run in the U.S. Top 50.

Check out one of Meekah’s latest videos here to see what the kids are crazy about these days.

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