TOGETHER WITH

It’s Wednesday and yet another beloved product has found its final resting place in the Google Graveyard. RIP Google Podcasts—it was a good run.

INDUSTRY BUZZ 🐝

Beehiiv has $15 million in funding—and a plan for the future of creator newsletters

The platform: beehiiv might be a mere three years old, but the newsletter hub has already secured more than $15 million in VC funding and a prominent creator network.

• High-profile beehiiv partners include YouTube experts Colin & Samir (who send their Publish Press newsletter through beehiiv), Peloton VP of Fitness Programming Robin Arzón, and former Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  
  

• Those influential senders contribute to the one billion emails sent through beehiiv every month (a total that also includes our newsletter).

The mission: Now, beehiiv is doubling down on creator outreach through an effort led by VP of Creators Katherine Rundell. Since coming aboard at the start of the year, Twitter and Andreessen Horowitz vet has led a team that forges big-name partnerships by sourcing leads from a “tight group of strategic advisors who have great direct-to-creator relationships” and reaching out to creators and talent agents.

• That outreach is backed up by beehiiv’s user-friendly monetization structure (the platform doesn’t take a cut of newsletter revenue) and the success of its creator partners. Arzón’s The Pivot, for instance, reached 40,000 subscribers just two months after launch and currently pulls in an impressive average open rate of 71.4%.
  
  

• Brands are reaping the benefits of beehiiv’s multifaceted monetization system, too. According to Rundell, advertisers on the platform “see 12x ROI than traditional paid channels.”

Why it matters: Beehiiv is capitalizing on both a growing industry trend and a historically stable media source—one that’s become increasingly valuable to creators seeking to build sustainable companies and product lines. As Rundell told Tubefilter, “email isn’t going anywhere and being able to capture that data and contact info from followings is crucial for creators thinking about long-term business plans.”

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Looking to expand your brand? Viral Nation creators are bringing their content to OTT & FAST channels:

Only one talent agency in the world offers 360° creator representation—including OTT and Licensing services. Viral’s Nation’s OTT and Licensing experts handle the heavy lifting of bringing your content to streaming services and FAST channels, so you can grow your earnings without extra effort.

Here’s how 3 Viral Nation creators are building brand empires with OTT:

1. TurboToyTime 🚀
The father/son duo behind TurboToyTime have built a following of 2.3 million subscribers on YouTube. Now, brand-new audiences can find Andrew and Ryden’s toy reviews and unboxing videos on Happy Kids TV.

2. Andy Schrock 🛹
Andy Schrok has collected 5.1 billion YouTube views with his skateboarding videos and relatable family content. Most recently, the multiplatform star brought his videos to Pluto, TRC, and Tubi.

3. JianHao Tan of Titan Academy 🎒
JianHao Tan’s dramatic comedy series has become a worldwide YouTube sensation. Fast forward to April, and the Titan Academy creator’s addictive content will be available on its own FAST channel.

When you bring your existing content to streaming services with Viral Nation, your videos will continue to monetize even after peaking on YouTube. The secret: OTT channels reach viewers that YouTube’s algorithm doesn’t—meaning you’ll gain new fans without pulling views from your online content.

Unlock your OTT potential →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Wattpad is bringing back its educational YouTube series, Story School, for a second season of writing tips and tricks. (Tubefilter)
  ​

• X has reportedly tapped staff member Kylie McRoberts to serve as its new Head of Safety. (Engadget)
  ​

• 200 musicians—including Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj—have signed an open letter urging tech companies to “cease the use” of AI that devalues “the rights of human artists.” (TechCrunch)
  ​

• Yahoo has acquired Artifact, a news aggregation app launched by Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. (Engadget)

DATA • GLOBAL TOP 50 📈

Slime isn’t the only squishy phenomenon dominating YouTube Shorts

The context: For the last several years, slime has had a chokehold on YouTube viewers. Slime scooping videos are so widespread that they’ve spawned an entire parody genre, while DIY clips from family-friendly channels like Toys and Colors have produced hundreds of millions of views—each.

The channel: Now, another medium is moving in on slime’s target audience: make-it-yourself squishies. By tapping into the DIY element of viral slime videos and the pre-existing popularity of squishy toys, Joy Bamm has risen to become one of the most-viewed channels in world.

The stats: Since launching last year, the South Korea-based hub has collected more than 3 billion views by walking young viewers through simple squishy-making tutorials. Its top Short alone has gathered nearly 1 billion views since August 2023—and that virality isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

• Over the course of our last seven-day count, Joy Bamm reeled in a whopping 79.9 million weekly views.
  
  

• That massive total added up to an 85% week-over-week viewership increase.
  
  

• The result: Joy Bamm DIYed its way to #36 in our Global Top 50 chart.

WATCH THIS 📺

Creators don’t care about the warning label on fried chicken-flavored Prime

The prank: Like dozens of other brands, Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime energy drink brand dropped an…unusual product on April Fools’ Day. The gag in question was a fried chicken-flavored beverage, which arrived in bottles marked with a ‘not intended for consumption’ label.

The response: Unsurprisingly, creators who received Prime’s “frydration” care packages took that warning with a grain of salt (as did KSI and Paul themselves). YouTuber Kyle Krueger gamely tested out the April Fools’ flavor in a viral Short—and paid the price within seconds. Don’t try this one at home, kids.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.​

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