It’s Friday and if TikTok’s year-end recap is any indication, 2023 will be remembered for generations to come as “the year we embraced the culinary delicacies known as girl dinners.”

STICKER SHOCK

Twitch is officially closing up shop in South Korea

Twitch is saying goodbye to South Korea. According to a new blog post from CEO Dan Clancy, the platform plans to cease operations in the country due to the “prohibitively expensive” costs of operating there.

That departure is a significant blow to South Korea’s thriving esports and streaming communities—but it’s also not wholly unexpected. As Clancy pointed out, fees related to internet access and data transmission are 10x higher in South Korea than in other countries (in part because South Korea charges foreign content providers increased network fees).

Despite Twitch’s ongoing efforts to cut costs, those fees have forced the platform to run on “a significant loss” in South Korea.

Now, Twitch is at the end of its rope.

With no sustainable “pathway forward,” Clancy says the platform will go dark in South Korea on Feb. 27, 2024. Local streamers are already shouldering the weight of that decision. In a recent livestream, creator Yummy_2 noted that she sees only “two options”: moving to a new platform or an entirely new country.

Twitch hopes to make the first of those options as painless as possible.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• YouTube powerhouse MrBeast came in at #3 in the November edition of our Global Top 100 chart. His final monthly view count: 2.03 billion. (Tubefilter)
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• Rappers Doja Cat and Ice Spice guest star on the first installment of Instagram’s new Close Friends Only podcast. (Tubefilter)
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• YouTube’s latest channel moderation setting allows creators to disable (or “pause”) new comments without hiding pre-existing comments. (TechCrunch)
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• Spotify has announced its intention to replace current CFO Paul Vogel with “a CFO with a different mix of experiences.” Vogel will reportedly exit the company in March 2024. (The Verge)

DATA • ON THE RISE 📈

You already know MyKayla Skinner as an Olympian. Now, get to know her as a mom.

MyKayla Skinner was just twelve years old when she decided to become an Olympic athlete. By age 20, she had already devoted years of her life to training and competing: she’d joined the U.S. national team, gone to the world championships, and secured a spot as an Olympic alternate—and she really, really needed a break “from elite gymnastics.”

So, for three years, Skinner turned her attention to college. She joined the gymnastics team at the University of Utah and eventually met her now-husband, a hobbyist creator who was “really good” at making videos “just for fun for himself.”

It wasn’t long before Skinner and her new beau came up with the idea of starting a YouTube channel together. But, at the time, NCAA regulations made it difficult to monetize.

And then Skinner got another shot at the Olympics.

Recording her journey on YouTube was a no-brainer. Skinner knew she wanted to show viewers the “raw” reality of elite athletics, so she documented everything, from frustrating injuries to the moment she won a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics. And then, shortly after achieving the dream she’d pursued since childhood, Skinner retired.

Deciding where to go from there was an entirely new kind of challenge. Gymnastics, Skinner says, was “all I knew and that’s what I was good at and I was good at talking about it.” Making content about topics like “motherhood, fitness, and life” (and actually doing those things at the same time) was incredibly difficult—but it was also “really fun.”

Check out our interview with Skinner here to learn more about her journey into content creation and what she plans to do next.

#BOOKTALK

TikTok’s former COO just joined the board of Simon & Schuster

When it comes to leveraging the success of the burgeoning #BookTok community, Simon & Schuster isn’t leaving anything to chance. The publisher has tapped former TikTok exec V Pappas—who served as the platform’s Chief Operating Officer during the rise of #BookTok—to join its board of directors.

Pappas’ hiring will provide Simon & Schuster with crucial insight into an increasingly influential sector of the literary world. In addition to shining a spotlight on lesser-known authors and multiplying book sales, #BookTok has led to the establishment of creator-focused publishing startups like Bindery and captured the interest of deep-pocketed tech giants like Bytedance.

Pappas isn’t the only industry powerhouse on Simon & Schuster’s revamped board of directors.

The former TikTok COO will offer high-level input alongside five other board members: ex-Penguin Random House U.S. CEO Madeline McIntosh, Disney vet Kareem Daniel, and three representatives from KKR (aka the private equity firm that acquired Simon & Schuster in October).

WATCH THIS 📺

This Simon’s Cat stream is the purrfect combination of lo-fi beats and feline joy

The latest Simon’s Cat upload is a little less chaotic than most fans (and cat owners) are accustomed to. Instead of hyping up viewers with feline hijinks (as Simon’s Cat videos have done for the last 17 years now), “Focus Music to Work and Study to” is a 41-minute-long stream of soothing lo-fi beats meant to boost productivity.

Did we spend most of those 41 minutes distracted by adorable sleeping cats and occasional cartoon birds? Yes. Will we still have “Focus Music” playing on repeat for the rest of the day? Absolutely.

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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.