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It’s Friday and after a five-year legal battle with Apple, Fortnite is at last making its triumphant return to the U.S. iOS App Store.

Today’s News

MONEY MOVES

The digital economy now accounts for 18% of the total U.S. GDP

The report: Every four years or so, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) commissions a report on the current state of the digital economy. Unsurprisingly, a lot has changed between the last edition (published in 2020) and the one just released this month.

The IAB’s latest Measuring the Digital Economy report shows that there are now 28.4 million internet-dependent jobs in the U.S., an increase of nearly 11 million since 2020. That spike means internet-dependent jobs now make up 18% of the total U.S. gross domestic product.

The creator economy: According to the IAB, the creator economy alone now accounts for 1.5 million full-time equivalent jobs, a significant increase over the 200,000 creator jobs listed in 2020. Creator-centric employment is growing 5x faster than the traditional media workforce, and there are now internet-dependent jobs in all 435 U.S. Congressional districts.

The meteoric rise of ecommerce has a lot to do with that growth. Platforms like TikTok Live (which is projected to reach $77 billion in sales by 2027) have helped individuals sell products directly from home, while commerce media now accounts for 13% of total ad spend. Much of that spend is going into creators’ pockets; the IAB cites deals like Amazon’s Spotter investment and Publicis’ $500 million Influential acquisition as drivers of influencer marketing.

The growth of AI has been similarly impactful: according to the IAB, genAI firms hauled in $3.6 billion of U.S. revenue in 2024, while blockchain/cryptocurrency management accounted for approximately $6 billion of U.S. revenue over the same timeframe.

The takeaway: The growth of the digital economy has skyrocketed since 2020—and it’s likely to continue rising exponentially over the next few years. Back in 2008, the IAB reported that digital sector employment accounted for about three million jobs; sixteen years later, that number has increased more than nine times over.

🔆 PRESENTED BY MIDIA RESEARCH 🔆

Fellow creators need your input—and you could make up to $250 just by offering your POV

The creator economy is worth $250B—but there’s still no industry standard to keep creators informed about the basics, like how much they should earn from brand deals or which tools work best. For creators with established communities, the solution is as simple as consulting their peers. But many newer creators don’t have that kind of resource.

So, MIDiA Research is building them one—and to make that lifeline a reality, the analytics company needs your input.

By completing this 10-minute survey, you’ll contribute to a report on the tools creators are using today—one that will be a resource for all creators. (Plus, you’ll be entered to win $250 from a $1K prize pool.)

We at Tubefilter see this as an opportunity for creators to come together and establish an industry-standard guide on video production tools. If you’ve ever been jazzed to discover a certain camera or editing software, this is your chance to help fellow creators level up, too.

_{The details: The survey is open through May 22, after which two randomly-selected winners will receive $250 apiece and four will win $50 each (with prizes distributed via bank transfer using PayPal). Participants must be 16+ years old and should submit only one entry per person.} 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• LinkedIn is connecting brands to “top creator voices” through a new revenue-sharing program called BrandLink. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Pinterest says it will begin applying content labels to posts that “may have been generated or modified using Gen AI.” (Pinterest Newsroom)
  

  
  

• Google has announced that AdSense for Search is now available to “websites that want to show relevant ads in their conversational AI experiences” (aka chatbots). (Ars Technica)
  

  
  

• Reddit plans to integrate its AI-powered search tool, Reddit Answers, into its main search engine in order to “further streamline the path from question to answer on Reddit.” (Engadget)

METAVERSE MOVES

The studios that make branded Roblox worlds are consolidating

The acquisition: A wave of mergers could be coming to Roblox. Metaverse production company Super League has acquired Supersocial, which specializes in making branded Roblox experiences for clients like Gucci, Walmart, and Warner Bros.

Super League hasn’t disclosed financial details or specified if the Supersocial team will be thinned following the brand’s dissolution, but Super League CEO/President Matt Edelman did tell Digiday that the company will have around 50 employees post-acquisition. Edelman added that Super League and Supersocial claim a combined stable of 49 Roblox games/virtual destinations, with 390 million lifetime visits and 3 billion lifetime advertising impressions.

The wave: The Super League/Supersocial deal follows the January acquisition of 3-D store maker Obsess by media/ecommere business Infinite Reality, as well as game developer Voldex‘s February acquisition of top Roblox game Brookhaven.

According to Chris Mann (SVP of gaming marketing agency REV/XP), those deals could signal an oncoming wave of consolidation. Roblox’s dominant standing in the metaverse has made it an attractive prize for game development, marketing, and ecommerce businesses. Now that the market is crowded with 100+ companies specializing in Roblox, competitors could start swallowing each other.

The context: That Darwinian rebalancing isn’t the only thing at play here. Until recently, if a brand wanted to reach Roblox users, it had to work with a studio to create a game/experience. That changed when Roblox introduced programmatic ads.

Just last month, the platform partnered with Google to introduce offerings like “an ad on the big screen during a virtual football game.” With that update, brands no longer need to commission custom digital destinations from studios—they can just buy in-game billboards directly from Roblox. To avoid shutting down, GEEIQ CEO Charles Hambro told Digiday that studios will need to begin offering cheaper services. Or, as some companies have already demonstrated, they can merge with competitors.

20 YEARS OF YOUTUBE

In 2006, lonelygirl15 taught us that nothing is real on the internet

In February 2025, YouTube turned 20. The video site has gone through a lot over the past two decades, including an acquisition, an earnings glow-up, and multiple generations of star creators. In our weekly 20 Years of YouTube series, we examine the uploads, trends, and influencers that have defined the world’s favorite video site — one year at a time.

The unveiling: If you tuned into YouTube in 2006, you might remember the shocking reveal of lonelygirl15’s identity. You might even have caught on before the truth came out. After all, Bree’s bedroom always seemed a little too put-together for a 16-year-old girl, and her self-disclosed location didn’t quite match her on-screen setting. The facts of her life, which included religious cults and strange blood ceremonies, seemed too salacious to be real.

And they were: the “Bree” shown on the lonelygirl15 channel didn’t exist; she was a character portrayed by American-New Zealand actress Jessica Lee Rose and created by former doctor Miles Beckett and screenwriter Mesh Flinders. Greg Goodfried handled the business side of the channel, while his wife, Amanda, managed social media communications.

That reveal could have triggered public outrage—but in the nascent YouTube era, it only made lonelygirl15 more popular. Bree’s vlogging home became the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, and viewership spiked after the truth came out. By 2010, some uploads had accumulated more than 50 million views.

The aftermath: That success demonstrated the potential of indie web content and the vlog format—but these days, Bree is primarily remembered as a harbinger of all the fake internet stuff that came after her.

And to be fair, lonelygirl15 does demonstrate the often nonexistent ties between salacious online stories and reality—but the channel also reminds us that internet communities are far more accepting of that fakery and commercialism than previous generations.

The majority of Bree’s fans didn’t tune out when her identity was revealed, or when lonelygirl15 vlogs began including ads. They accepted branded partnerships as a necessity for keeping their favorite character on camera.

At the end of the day, the rise of lonelygirl15 was a sign that web 2.0 would be defined by great characters capable of fostering unshakeable fandoms.

WATCH THIS 📺

Four creator-made shows are coming to Peacock

The creator originals: NBCUniversal’s Creator Accelerator Program is about to bear fruit. On May 19, the company’s streaming platform, Peacock, will debut original series from four of the initiative’s creator alumni: TikTok star Katie Florence, actress/influencer Serena Kerrigan, musician Charlie Curtis-Beard, and YouTuber Daren Vongirdner.

Each of the originals in that “Emerging Artist Series” are the products of development deals between NBCUniversal and the shows’ creators. Check out trailers for all four series below:

• The Kouncil (created by Katie Florence)

• The Warehouse Phase (created by Charlie Curtis-Beard)

• People Like Me (created by Daren Vongirdner)

• Older Hotter Wiser (created by Serena Kerrigan)

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