TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and generative AI is already changing the face of meme culture (and giving Pixar execs a massive headache in the process).

GOING LONG

Is long-form content the secret to scoring 5x more followers on TikTok?

TikTok has a clear message for creators: if you want to grow, it’s time to go long. According to The Information, the platform drove home the importance of long-form content at an October meetup, when it offered two key stats to attending creators:

1. Across TikTok’s entire userbase, viewers now spend half their time on the app watching videos that are longer than 60 seconds.
   
   

2. In the six months leading up to October, creators who posted videos longer than one minute gained 5x more followers than creators who posted videos shorter than a minute.

TikTok is already pivoting to embrace long-form content.

In addition to testing out 15-minute videos, TikTok plans to switch from its $1 billion creator fund to a monetization method that only rewards creators for content longer than a minute. Once that goes into effect in December, creators will have even more incentive to up the length of their videos.

But can long-form video survive TikTok’s rapid-fire FYP?

Matt Koval isn’t so sure. The former Creator Liaison—who worked at YouTube for nearly a decade—told The Information that TikTok’s For You Page could pose a serious problem to the platform’s long-form aspirations. After all, instant gratification is a big part of TikTok’s appeal:

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

What does it mean to fund your future with Spotter? Here’s a quick FAQ from a team of creator industry experts:

When creators partner with Spotter, they can achieve just about anything—from launching new channels to expanding their teams and building studio spaces. But how does the funding process actually work?

We caught up with the experts at Spotter to answer creators’ most-asked questions. Here’s what they had to say about Spotter’s funding process:

1. How much capital does Spotter provide? (And do I have to pay it back?) 💸​
At Spotter, deals range from $100,000 to $50 million depending on the value of your video content catalog. The funds you receive are 100% yours—meaning you’ll never have to pay anything back.

2. What can I do with funding from Spotter? 💡
With Spotter, you’ll have the freedom to spend your new capital however you choose. Here’s how top creators like MissDarcei and Airrack have leveraged their Spotter funds: 

3. Will I still have 100% ownership and control over my channel? 🤔
Absolutely: when you partner with Spotter, you’ll stay in total control of your channel and receive all earnings from future uploads—plus exclusive YouTube performance insights and support from Spotter’s community team. 

Visit Spotter’s website today to discover what your deal could look like.

Fund your future with Spotter →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• xQc’s main YouTube channel was reportedly terminated on November 25 as a result of multiple copyright infringement claims. The streamer’s response: “Ah, whatever.” (Tubefilter)
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• YouTube is giving Premium subscribers access to 37 in-app mini-games, or “Playables.” (The Verge)
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• Tumblr reportedly plans to discontinue Post Plus—which gives creators the ability to post paywalled content—by early 2024. (The Verge)
  

• Select X users will soon gain access to "Grok,” an upcoming AI chatbot from Elon Musk’s OpenAI competitor, xAI. (VentureBeat)

DATA • GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top 5 Branded Videos of the Week: What would you risk for 93 million views?

Being buried alive might not be the safest way to attract viewers—but, as MrBeast proved over last week, it is one of the fastest. The audience-building power of high-stakes content comes with an added perk for brands: companies like Verizon and Samsung don’t have to face knife-wielding robots or suffocation to cash in on millions of views.

Read on to learn more about the top-viewed videos in this week’s Gospel Stats Brand Report:

🥇  MrBeast x Verizon: I Spent 7 Days Buried Alive
MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) has taken on everything from hungry sharks to maximum security prisons. Now, the YouTube icon also knows what it’s like to live underground for an entire week (with access to interruption-free internet from Verizon, of course). Who knew 5G worked 10 feet under?

🥈 Dude Perfect x Samsung: Luckiest Dude Wins
The latest edition of Random Battle introduced the members of Dude Perfect to some seriously risky situations. From weaponized robots to diaper-filled pools, it was a rough time for the unluckiest of the dudes—but 4.6 million viewers still had a blast tuning into the Samsung-sponsored video.

🥉 I did a thing x FlexiSpot: The Mythbusters Were Wrong!
Can a falling penny kill you? Apparently, it depends on how the coin is thrown (and whether Alex Apollonov is the one doing the throwing). The YouTuber gave viewers a demonstration of his coin-tossing abilities in his latest video, which was sponsored by standing desk maker FlexiSpot.

Check out our full article to learn more about this week’s top-viewed branded videos—and then head over to Gospel Stats to discover which brands are sponsoring top creators and rising stars.

WATCH THIS 📺

China’s $1 billion dupe of Paris is a ghost town…or is it?

What if you could live in China and Paris at the same time?

That was the founding concept behind Tianducheng, a Parisian-themed city located two hours from Shanghai. The problem: despite costing a whopping $1 billion to build, Tianducheng has struggled to attract tourists and residents since its establishment in 2007.

Find out why—and take a tour of China’s very own City of Lights—in Yes Theory’s latest video.

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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.