TOGETHER WITH

It's Monday and Amazon’s offer to pay influencers $25 for each video uploaded to its “Inspire” shopping feed is getting thoroughly roasted on X.

HEAD IN THE GAME

One of Instagram Live’s biggest stars is breaking into sports representation

Drew Desbordes—aka Druski—is launching his very own sports agency. According to the comedian, streamer, and podcast host, 4Lifers will provide “athletes with the resources, support, and marketing opportunities to grow on and off the field.”

The agency’s clientele will benefit from some seriously powerful connections.

Desbordes’ reach extends beyond his 6 million Instagram followers to include both fans of his satirical label, Coulda Been Records, and listeners of The Dew Zone. The latter venture—a Mountain Dew-branded podcast hosted by Druski—helped producer Blue Wire claim $10 million in yearly ad revenue.

Now, Desbordes plans to lend his impressive influence to 4Lifers’ burgeoning athletic roster:

The first athlete to team up with 4Lifers is Princely Umanmielen, a University of Florida football player who’s taken advantage of the NCAA’s landmark 2021 NIL decision by selling goods that feature his name, image, and likeness. Umanmielen’s social media following is relatively modest, but his potential is undeniable: as one of the top edge rushers in the college game, he’s proven to be a serious NFL prospect.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• A U.S. district judge has dismissed a 2020 lawsuit from nine creators who argued that YouTube’s recommendation algorithm discriminated against their videos on the basis of race. (Tubefilter)
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• Activist website DeSmog has called out more than 100 creators for promoting gas giants and “big oil” firms like Shell, BP, and Conoco. (Tubefilter)
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• TikTok has reportedly laid off seven members of its TikTok Music team in the name of “efficiency.” (Tubefilter)
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• A new class action lawsuit accuses Roblox of earning millions in profit by failing to prohibit “illegal gambling” schemes centered around its digital currency. (TechCrunch)

DATA • MILLIONAIRES 📈

From French Polynesia to the moon, this adventurer is ready to see and do it all

Adam Boro has always dreamed about going to space. In fact, before the onset of COVID-19, Boro was an aerospace engineering student immersed in assignments and internships.

Then he decided to go on an adventure.

Boro gave traveling the old college try in 2019 (a time he describes as “the best year of my life”) and returned with concrete doubts about his academic lifestyle. By the time the pandemic hit, the creator had realized that engineering wasn’t for him. He still wanted to explore outer space, of course, but not just to study it.

Instead, the TikTok star aims to “make a full movie on the moon.”

That might seem like an unlikely filming locale, but Boro isn’t exactly a novice when it comes to shooting videos in unexpected destinations. The full-time creator is currently on a road trip from Florida to Alaska, and has already embarked on adventures to New York, French Polynesia, and Kenya—not to mention the time he “lived with 20 strangers on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.”

Luckily, Boro’s audience is always up for an adventure—meaning there will be plenty of viewers on hand whenever his moon-based movie enters our atmosphere. The creator recently hit one million followers on TikTok, and has growing fanbases on both Instagram and YouTube. For Boro, though, making videos isn’t about gaining followers or “seeking fame.” Instead, he wants to create content (and eventually a movie) “that inspires people and impacts people to want to live their lives to the fullest.”

THREADS UNRAVELING?

Threads’ daily active user count is down 80%. Is Meta’s “Twitter killer” sinking?

Threads has hit a snag. According to Time, the number of daily active users (DAUs) on Meta’s new app has dropped by 80% since its peak. Daily engagement has plummeted at the same rate: per Sensor Tower, the average user now spends only around 2.4 minutes per day on the app.

Of course, that drop doesn’t necessarily mean that Threads is doomed.

The platform hit 30 million users during its first 24 hours and reached 50 million DAUs on Android not long after. That momentum didn’t fade right away, either—meaning even after an 80% drop, Threads is still attracting roughly 10 million active users per day on Android (per Similarweb).

As far as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is concerned, that’s a win:

Growing a stable community may be easier said than done—especially since many users seem to find Threads boring. Kevin Driscoll, an Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, told Time that his Threads feed feels “generic.” Financial influencer Kyla Scanlon said that she “mostly forgot” about the platform, in part because of its delayed desktop launch. She isn’t the only creator forgetting to post on Threads; top-followed stars like MrBeast and Pokimane have also been silent for weeks.

To recapture the attention of that star-studded user base, Threads will need to up its game—especially if it still aims to become a true “Twitter killer.”

LISTEN UP 🎙️

This week on the podcast…

YouTube doubles down on its short-form success with the launch of Samples, while Visa and Karat build bridges between the financial sector and the creator economy. Plus, tune in to hear the latest details on Gospel Stats and this year’s Streamy Awards (going live August 27!).

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.