TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and Temu is today what toilet paper was in 2020. As tariffs against China rise, some unboxing creators are taking a Doomsday Preppers approach by stocking up on as many Temu and Shein products as possible.

Today’s News

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Trump gave TikTok 75 more days to find a U.S. buyer. Here are 5 suitors eager to make a deal:

The context: Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has been adamant about his plan to “save TikTok” by securing a U.S. buyer—but so far, negotiations haven’t been as straightforward as the president might have hoped. Amidst broader trade disputes, China has not made clear whether it will allow a U.S.-backed firm to control TikTok.

The candidates: Now that negotiations have outlasted the initial extension staving off a U.S. TikTok ban., Trump has signed a new executive order granting the app’s parent company, ByteDance, nearly three more months to find a U.S. steward. Here are five of the potential buyers lining up to snag ownership of a divested TikTok:

1. Amazon: Amazon submitted a late bid just before Trump ordered the latest deal extension. Jeff Bezos can certainly afford TikTok’s massive price tag, but Amazon gaining control of both TikTok and Twitch could raise concerns over a social monopoly.
   
   

2. Tim Stokley: OnlyFans founder Tim Stokley has joined forces with a crypto firm in the hopes of pulling off a TikTok acquisition.
   
   

3. Perplexity: Unlike other buyers, AI company Perplexity’s “vision for rebuilding TikTok in America” involves an open-source version of the platform’s algorithm. Are users ready for a democratized TikTok?
   
   

4. Reid Rasner: Reid Rasner, a Wyoming billionaire, has assembled a $47.5 billion “people’s bid” for TikTok. Numbers-wise, that’s one of the highest proposals.
   
   

5. Oracle: Tech company Oracle has long been floated as a potential TikTok steward, but it seems to have gained momentum in recent negotiations. With Andreessen Horowitz reportedly looking to enter the Oracle bid, it looks like we might end up with a deal resembling Project Texas. Even after years of negotiations, the original plan to safeguard U.S. TikTok data is apparently still relevant in 2025.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Artlist just unveiled the AI video generator—and it’s designed specifically for you

From high-quality SFX to royalty-free assets, Artlist is the ultimate catalog for creators. That catalog expanded over the summer with the launch of Artlist’s AI voiceover generator—a technological innovation that’s been embraced by creators.

Now, Artlist has launched yet another cutting-edge tool: a high-quality video and image generator designed specifically for video creators.

Artlist’s AI video generator is designed to accommodate the way creators think and work, and all generated assets are already cleared for use in commercial projects.

With curated models, Artlist’s AI video generator allows creators to generate stunning videos using specific visual styles personalized to video creation. The result: you’ll create content faster than ever while unlocking new storytelling possibilities in stunning HD resolution. 

Ready to bring your vision to life? Artlist’s AI Video Generator is available through the ‘Max’ plan—alongside Artlist’s entire catalog—and the new AI Suite plan, which includes Artlist’s AI voiceover generator. 

Start creating with Artlist →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• For the first time ever, a YouTube channel has gotten over 2 billion views in a single week. The twist: two different channels managed to surpass that milestone over the same seven-day period. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• A dramatic stock market fluctuation on Monday demonstrated the impact of social media after a false headline related to tariffs was reposted by one of most popular news aggregator accounts on X. (TechCrunch)
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• Meta has received backlash from the tech community after reportedly customizing an unreleased variant of its Maverick AI model to net a higher score during benchmark testing. (TechCrunch)
  
  

• Meta exec Joel Kaplan confirmed that the fact-checking program previously deployed on Threads, Facebook, and Instagram “officially” ended in the U.S. on Monday, meaning “no new fact checks and no fact checkers." (Joel Kaplan via X)

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top Branded Videos of the Week: MrBeast, marital drama, and more MrBeast

The week of Shorts domination is in full swing. YouTube’s decision to record a view when a short-form video is played for any amount of time—an update from its previous measuring system—is already having a big impact on the branded charts. Three Shorts led Gospel Stats’ latest weekly ranking of most-viewed sponsored videos, with one clocking in at just 17 seconds.

🥇 #1. MrBeast x .store: Could You Win This Obstacle Course?  (51.3M views)
MrBeast’s latest Ninja Warrior-style video features two contestants and a color-coded obstacle course. While the competitors went head-to-head for 30 seconds, MrBeast ran through a lightning-quick ad read for digital domain marketplace .store.

🥈 #2. MrBeast x T-Mobile: Baseball Tic Tac Toe vs MLB Pro (5.2M views)
An obstacle course was only the start of MrBeast’s athletic endeavors this week. The creator’s second top-performing branded Short follows his performance in a tee-ball competition against New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge. The 26-second video is sponsored by T-Mobile.

🥉 #3. The Ramsey Show Highlights x Zander Insurance: “I Don’t Care What My Husband’s Dreams and Aspirations Are” (11.2M views)
A 17-second clip from The Ramsey Show rounds out Gospel’s latest Top 3 ranking. Nearly 4,000 comments have been posted in response to the segment (in which a woman says she doesn’t care what her husband wants as long as he gets a better job), with romantic partners of all kinds sharing their POVs. That’s a lot of eyeballs on Zander Insurance, a company Dave Ramsey has officially endorsed.

Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

CREATOR SPACES

Nas Daily’s Dubai hotel has maker spaces for creators—and lets some share in its revenue

The case: Over the last decade, an entire support industry has sprung up around creators—but dedicated coworking spaces are still few and far between. For a while, the demand for a collaborative network was met by YouTube Spaces, a global initiative offering production and post-production rooms, video equipment rental, networking events, and educational workshops. But those spaces closed in 2021, leaving creators only a handful of places to both work and socialize.

Among those are Whalar‘s Lighthouse—where creators pay a membership fee to access a coworking space, biz dev + educational programming, and networking/social events—and professional production studios opened by creators like Alan Chikin Chow and EYstreem. Dude Perfect also plans to add creator/maker spaces to its upcoming Dallas headquarters.

The hotel: Now, another creator is stepping up to the plate. Israeli-Palestinian Facebook travel vlogger-turned-YouTuber Nas Daily (aka Nuseir Yassin) is opening hotels that offer regular guest stays while simultaneously fostering creative collaboration. That business, called Nas House, is centered in Dubai, where Yassin has lived for several years. (The YouTuber is also involved in 1 Billion Followers Summit, a convention that—alongside other creator-focused initiatives—is backed by a whopping $40.8 billion grant from the UAE government.)

According to Yassin, Nas House’s first location offers six villas and 30 hotel rooms, with a gathering space, pools, gym, and cat-petting room open to regular guests. Renting a whole villa will run you around $1,200 USD/night; a regular hotel room is about $100/night. Creators who stay at Nas House will receive access to a filming/production studio and coworking space.

Nas House also has another selling point. For around $10,000 USD/year, up to 50 creators and entrepreneurs can become “founding members” who share in Nas House’s future earnings (with 10% of the hotel’s profit split between them), attend quarterly board meetings, and get permanent discounts on stays.

WATCH THIS 📺

This week on the podcast…

“The Boy Who Cried TikTok Ban”: It’s been an eventful few months for TikTok and a period of extended whiplash for the platform’s creator community. On the latest episode of Creator Upload, hosts Joshua Cohen and Lauren Schnipper put their heads together to break down the possibilities ahead for TikTok in the United States.

Also on the discussion list: Spotter’s first creator upfront, QVC’s 24/7 TikTok shopping hub, and a $550B estimate of YouTube’s value. Check it all out on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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