TOGETHER WITH

It's Monday and there’s finally a (free) streaming service designed just for space fanatics. Behold: NASA+.

Q2 COMPETITION

With 200 billion daily views, could Reels be catching up to TikTok? 👀

Meta’s successful second quarter hints at a bright future for Reels. The tech giant beat Wall Street projections during Q2 2023, a triumph helped along by Reels’ impressive financial returns. According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s TikTok alternative is on track to earn $10 billion in yearly revenue.

That ambitious projection (or “annual revenue run rate”) has a lot to do with Reels’ rising viewership, which has skyrocketed thanks to its growing ad infrastructure and sophisticated recommendation algorithms. Per recent data, Meta’s answer to TikTok now brings in 200 billion daily views across Facebook and Instagram—a big increase from the numbers provided by Zuckerberg last October. (Back then, the boss man said that Reels had reached 140 billion daily views.)

So, how do Meta’s Reels compare to competitors like TikTok?

It’s a close game (and getting closer). According to Insider Intelligence, TikTok pulled in $9.9 billion of ad revenue in 2022 and is projected to reach $13.2 billion this year. Bytedance’s video platform keeps its viewership stats on the down-low, but Meta seems to be generating more views than YouTube Shorts. The latter platform reached 50 billion daily views earlier this year.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• According to StreamElements co-founder and CEO Gil Hirsch, Twitch’s daily watch time has “steadily increased, painting an optimistic picture on the momentum front.” (Tubefilter)
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• Self-proclaimed “all-in-one influencer marketing platform” JoinBrands has launched an integration with TikTok’s Spark ad format. (Tubefilter)
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• An artificial intelligence-generated version of xQc called xQc_AI has already collected 15,000 followers on Twitch. (Tubefilter)
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• CircleToonsHD animator Christian Brantley is the creative force behind Fool’s Blade, a new tabletop game seeking $10,000 on Kickstarter. (Tubefilter)

DATA • MILLIONAIRES 📈

From musical theater to TikTok, this creator couple is in it for the long-haul

Micah posted his first TikTok video out of sheer boredom. By the time his fourth clip hit the app, he’d already collected more than 8 million views. Then his wife-slash-business partner, Sarah, came aboard and things took off from there.

Of course, both creators had been performing long before TikTok came around. Sarah originally earned her degree in dance, Micah got his in musical theater, and they each scored roles in a Beauty and the Beast national tour—a moment of serendipity that ultimately brought them together.

Then COVID-19 happened, and serendipity needed a minute to catch up.

Micah was longing for a creative outlet, so he started uploading videos to TikTok. After a while, Sarah joined in, too—and Micah’s clips suddenly began gaining a lot more traction. It wasn’t long before the current iteration of the creators’ TikTok account came into being, with content focused on their combined strengths: singing, performing, and couple-themed skits. Nowadays, creating content is essentially Sarah and Micah’s 5-to-11 after their respective 9-to-5s. But the couple’s ultimate goal is to go full-time.

Sarah and Micah are well on their way to realizing that dream: their shared TikTok account now claims 1.2 million followers, and they’ve also attracted more than 260,000 followers on Instagram. At the end of the day, though, creating content and having an online platform isn’t about the numbers for either TikToker. According to Sarah, “it’s just been really cool to see how, if you steward it appropriately, you can really be a beacon of hope for people that can make them feel less alone versus feeling more alone.”

EDUTUBERS UNITE

A new YouTube accelerator is all about supporting up-and-coming EduTubers

Changer Studios and Electrify Video Partners are joining forces with YouTube to launch the EduTuber Accelerator. The six-week program will connect emerging educational creators with industry leaders like Derek Muller of Veritasium (who landed an investment from Electrify earlier this year), YouTube Creator Liasion Rene Ritchie, and YouTube’s Strategic Partner Manager for Learning, Dean Kowalski.

So, who qualifies? (And what defines an “EduTuber”?)

20 educational YouTubers will be selected to participate in the program’s first run, which Electrify says will begin “in late August.” To qualify, creators will need to be based in North America and claim between 5,000 and 150,000 subscribers. The EduTuber Accelerator’s concept of “educational” is a little more loosey-goosey than its required subscriber count:

The EduTuber Accelerator’s first cohort will gain insights from an assortment of industry experts and through a curriculum developed by Changer. (Changer regularly partners with YouTube to launch events and gatherings, including an upcoming pop-up space in Montreal; its previous accelerators claim well-known alum like the Internet Historian.) For its part, Electrify will contribute to the accelerator through its Creator Fund, a new “purpose-driven arm” that aligns with the United Nations‘ Sustainable Development Goals and aims to support emerging creators.

Interested creators can apply for the Edutuber Accelerator here.

WATCH THIS 📺

This week on the podcast...

Special guest and a capella extraordinaire Peter Hollens joins host Joshua Cohen to discuss the future of creator deals and day jobs. Plus, why is a video game publisher going to court over a viral TikTok sound? And where can we get our hands on a pair of Dream SMP-themed sneakers?

Find out on the latest episode of Creator Upload. It’s all right here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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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.