It's Sunday and here’s a handpicked selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry.
But first, goodies like Pokémon cards can now be found in a loot box at the Pentagon food court. What happens when the Department of Defense gets its hands on a Blastoise?
CREATOR COMMOTION
Soulja Boy most likely thinking about how he gon' pass it to A-rab and he gon' crank it up f'sho.
Soulja Boy celebrated his new Kick channel with a Twitch diss track
The takedown: Up first for Soulja Boy on Kick: a Twitch diss track. The man who brought “Crank Dat” to the world launched a Kick account and wasted no time before dunking on the streaming platform’s #1 rival. Did you hear who Soulja Boy is going to go after next? My sources tell me that it’s going to be YOU!
The restaurateur: Tfue is giving back to his old stomping grounds with restaurant purchase. After operating in St. Pete Beach, Florida for 35 years, Woody’s Waterfront closed in 2024 due to hurricane damage. The eatery is now back in action thanks to its new owner: Twitch star and St. Pete area native Turner Tenney. Good for you, Tfue!
The esports upset: Don’t tell your esports teammates to respect the meta, or you might get banned. During a Marvel Rivals tournament, streamer Kingsman265 asked a teammate to switch off a subpar hero pick. That suggestion was met with so much criticism that Kingsman265 was banned from the tournament entirely, kicking off one of the silliest esports controversies in recent memory (and there’s a lot of competition for that title).
INDUSTRY BUZZ
Lots of dollar fanning from funding in the industry this week.
This week in the digital media biz…
The firm: Upright Media is expanding its recruiting tools with key hires. The Dallas-based creator economy firm started by Josh Mattingly is officially launching Upright Recruiting, which helps creator-led businesses find the right personnel for their open positions. New Upright COO Michael Chiang has arrived from Fandom to steer strategy, while Bailey Heidhues has come on board to lead Upright Recruiting.
The Series A: Fanvue announced a $22 million Series A by noting that it has 17 million monthly active users, including 250,000 creators. The London-based company has a familiar-sounding spiel—a creator monetization platform supported by generative AI products—but its growth rate has been extraordinary.
The other Series A: Statusphere’s $18 million Series A suggests that microinfluencers are the next big thing. There’s a lot of evidence supporting the theory that campaigns involving microinfluencers are more efficient than campaigns that rely on big-name creators. Statusphere has drawn interest from investors by building the infrastructure brands need to effectively scale up their microinfluencer activities.
The fresh hire: Micah Trainor is Select Management’s first manager hire for its new Toronto office. The agency is ready to venture north of the border with Select Canada, and it is building the roster it needs to execute that move. Trainor arrives at Select with her 20 Canadian clients, who collectively reach 76 million followers across social media.
The pre-seed funding: An AI learning company from Google and YouTube vets is preparing for beta launch after securing $5 million in pre-seed funding. Say hello to Sparkli, which hopes to make early education more exciting by replacing the “dry AI chatbot wall of text” with dyanmic animations.
PLATFORM POTPOURRI
Several days later, the U.S. Government has a deal.
The U.S. TikTok deal is finally official (and also, Substack is coming to TV)
The $14B deal: We can finally say it: the U.S. TikTok deal is official. The U.S. and China have at last signed off on a $14 billion agreement that will see some aspects of TikTok’s American app (such as its recommendation algorithm) come under U.S. control.
TikTok Former Head of Operations Adam Presser will run the new U.S. version of the platform. That means occupying a tricky role in between ByteDance brass and the U.S. government, but Presser has already been through several reorgs at TikTok, so he’s probably used to working in a transitional environment by now.
The TV app: Substack is headed to a television screen near you. If consumers are going to get their news from social media, why not put the social media news on the TV? That philosophy has led Substack to launch a TV app as it looks to expanding its journalistic empire beyond text-based newsletters.
The multiview madness: Move over, sports fans—YouTube TV multiview is now for everyone. YouTube TV first debuted its split-screen feature just before the start of March Madness in 2023. Watching multiple channels at once is most applicable for sports fans, but viewers of all kinds now have more freedom to build a grid of up to four YouTube TV feeds.
The new series: TikTok’s “Product Preview” is introducing more transparency for business partners. By uploading videos that preview new and upcoming features, TikTok is following the example set by its competitors. YouTube’s Creator Insider and Twitch’s Patch Notes are useful resources for creators and brands alike, so TikTokers should be cheering the app’s new series.
WATCH THIS 👀
Do we like it more or less than “Just what the Dr ordered”?
Dr Pepper used a TikToker’s jingle in an NCAA football ad
The jingle: When a creator-made jingle hits 83 million views on TikTok, how can a brand not tap into its musical influence? Luckily for fans of TikToker @romeosshow, Dr Pepper caught on quickly to the power of Romeo Bingham’s “Good & Nice” theme song and put it to good use in a new NCAA football TV ad.
Check out the commercial here. (Spoiler alert: it’s both good and nice.)
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.