TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and a new TikTok theory is going viral. So, what do you think: is your FYP just like a bag of Doritos?

COVER TO COVER

MrBeast just graced the cover of Time

MrBeast’s extensive media empire has caught the attention of Time. A new cover story documents the record-breaking career of YouTube’s most-followed creator (aka Jimmy Donaldson)—and the controversies that have accompanied his “swift rise” to fame.

The interview: Time’s 4,500-word profile doesn’t stop at detailing Donaldson’s journey from a childhood in North Carolina to a career as “the most-watched person in the world.” The 101-year-old magazine also examined the YouTuber’s rapidly growing brand empire, which he hopes to capitalize on and continue expanding—including into verticals like gaming—to remove the need for sponsors.

• Donaldson may not be far from realizing that goal; his snack brand, Feastables, reportedly accounted for 70% of MrBeast revenue in its second year of activity.
  
  

• The criticisms: Time’s cover story also delved into concerns from several former MrBeast staffers, many of whom took issue with the YouTuber’s lax approach to safety. Creative producer Scott Brown, for instance, noted that Donaldson and co. “view safety as, like, being overly cautious or a weakness.”

Why it matters: Donaldson’s high-stakes videos may raise alarm bells among his colleagues, but his media empire is built to withstand both controversy and economic instability. That resilience stems in large part from the sheer size of the creator’s audience and his commitment to diversification.

• Creators seeking to remain relevant in a changing digital ecosystem should consider MrBeast’s strategies for staying on top—including reaching global audiences through localization, tapping into multiple revenue streams through the sale of physical products, and expanding brand awareness across a variety of verticals (including gaming, analytics, education, toys, sports, and more).

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• TikTok says it’s the #1 platform where gamers between the ages of 18 and 24 find mobile games to play—and it wants game companies and marketers to take full advantage of that influence. (Tubefilter)
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• Podtrac’s new Podcast Global Industry Ranking of Top Publishers and Networks will be the first of the analytics company’s podcast rankings to count YouTube views as part of its data. (Tubefilter)
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• OpenAI, Google, Meta, X, and 16 other companies have signed an agreement as part of an effort to “limit risks of deliberately deceptive AI election content being generated.” (Engadget)
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• Reddit has reportedly sealed a $60 million deal that will give an “unnamed large AI company” access to the platform’s trove of user-generated content. (The Verge)

DATA • MILLIONAIRES 📈

This gamer-loving sketch group is in it for the nerds

The stars of Viva La Dirt League aren’t exactly fresh off their first million-subscriber milestone. In fact, the group’s sketch comedy channel recently hit another marker—6 million subscribers—and has racked up more than 3 billion views since 2011.

How it started: Adam King began contributing to Viva La Dirt League in 2015. Before his arrival, founders Rowan Bettjeman and Alan Morrison primarily made videos about Starcraft II—a subject “they were starting to lose interest in.”

• It was time to branch out, so King suggested the three of them “start doing sketch comedy based around video games.” That change of pace was exactly what Viva La Dirt League needed: within a couple years, the group’s “video game logic” series and viral Epic NPC Man sketches had attracted a devoted audience. By 2017, Betjeman, Morrison, and King were creating content full-time.

How it’s going: King says Viva La Dirt League “is a much larger family now.” The sketch group has expanded to include new writers and on-screen creators (including Ben Van Lier, Britt Scott Clark, and Hamish Parkinson) and recently purchased and renovated a studio space to accommodate that growing crew.

• That expansion has given Viva La Dirt League access to bigger meeting spaces, soundproof studios, and permanent sets, meaning the group now lays claim to its own medieval tavern (for Dungeons & Dragons sessions) and a fake electronics store (for the workplace series Bored).

What’s next: Viva La Dirt League is going “bigger and beyond social media.” King says the group is “looking at doing feature films, looking at doing video games, card games. What else is there in the works? Board games. Tons of different things. Comics, books, all that stuff.”

NEXT BIG THING

OpenAI’s new text-to-video model could be just as big (or bigger) than ChatGPT

ChaptGPT’s parent company has once again debuted a platform that could transform the field of generative artificial intelligence.

The innovation: On Thursday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman introduced X users to Sora, a platform that creates realistic AI-generated videos based on text prompts provided by users.

• Sora’s homepage says the AI-based tool can generate “complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background” by understanding “how those things exist in the physical world.”

The implications: Tech reviewer Marques Brownlee summed up the impact of OpenAI’s latest tech with a recent video title: “AI Generated Videos Just Changed Forever.”

• Right now, Sora is only available to a small group of users while cybersecurity experts do a thorough sweep for any flaws in its software. But as Brownlee pointed out, the platform’s eventual launch could have significant consequences for both the artistic community and the wider public—especially during an election year.
  
  

• The YouTuber believes that Sora’s creations “will pass as real videos to people who are not looking for AI-generated videos.” In addition to potentially generating highly realistic deepfaked political content amid U.S. elections, OpenAI’s latest tech could have a major economic impact on fields like animation, film, videography, and stock footage production.
  
  

• In preparation for those and similar consequences, OpenAI says it will be “engaging policymakers, educators, and artists around the world to understand their concerns and to identify positive use cases for this new technology,”

WATCH THIS 📺

The 2024 Met Gala has a controversial new chair: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew

The big reveal: Shou Zi Chew is more than just the head of a multi-billion-dollar platform. Thanks to his viral Congressional appearances and the apparent approval of Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, the TikTok CEO is also a U.S. fashion icon (and a sex symbol in China, but we won’t get into that).

• According to a recent announcement from Vogue, Chew will be one of two honorary chairs for the upcoming Met Gala (alongside Jonathan Anderson of fashion house Loewe).
  
  

• That reveal has already ruffled feathers among U.S. legislators, but Chew’s position is only the start of TikTok’s involvement in the Met Gala. The platform is also the title sponsor for Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, the spring exhibit put on by the Met’s Costume Institute.

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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.