TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and TikTok wants users to get some zen and some Zzz’s. Its new feature nudges people—especially teens—to get off the app and get some sleep (with a little help from a guided meditation) after 10 p.m.

Today’s News

YOUTUBE CHART-TOPPERS

Move over, Spotify and Apple. YouTube has its own podcast charts now.

The competition: For years, Spotify and Apple have published their own charts showing best-performing podcasts. As a result, when new podcasts debut or older podcasts see a notable spike in listenership, those companies get recognition from marketers and cred in articles, the industry, and popular culture simply because they’re the ones providing the data.

YouTube, it seems, is no longer willing to be left out--especially with 1 billion people listening to podcast content on its platform each month.

The hits: Its new chart is Weekly Top Podcast Shows, which’ll update each Wednesday, showing the top 100 podcasts on YouTube by U.S. watch time (because video views aren’t always what they used to be).

YouTube dropped the first week’s chart today, and to no one’s surprise, The Joe Rogan Experience proved to be the platform’s most-watched show. JRE’s YouTube traffic helped it scoop up a $100 million Spotify deal and frequently lands its episodes in the top 5 most-watched videos of our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Reports.

The Experience was followed by Kill Tony, Rotten Mango, 48 Hours, The MeidasTouch Podcast, and H3 Show. (We run down all 100 shows on the chart here.)

The future: YouTube says it plans to introduce more features and expand charts to regions outside the U.S. We hope for one of those updates, it’ll consider publicly releasing shows' watch times so we can get a hard number look at their performance the same way we can with video views (and the same way Netflix discloses the numbers in its biannual What We Watched reports).

🔆 PRESENTED BY POINTIFY 🔆

With Pointify’s Shopify plugin, it only takes 3 clicks to turn casual visitors into paying fans

Pointify makes it easy to add a loyalty program to your online store, allowing fans to start earning points the second they arrive. 

In fact, Pointify’s Shopify plug-in greets each visitor with +10 points as soon as they land in your shop. One tap on Pointify’s icon opens a hub where fans can trade in their points for rewards or put them towards purchases. 

You set the rewards and Pointify handles everything else.

Fans are already cashing in on:

• 🗝 Discord VIP – 100 pts (private server access)
  
  

• 🎬 Behind-the-Scenes – 50 pts (1 hour of exclusive content)
  
  

• 🔴 Live Q&A Reaction – 150 pts (guaranteed shout-out)

Creators who use Pointify score 20% more repeat visits and sales than those who use other incentives.

Best of all? Pointify is free to install, takes just 3 clicks to set up, and works on every Shopify plan.

🪽 Early bird offer: The first 250 Tubefilter readers who activate before May 18th will get Pointify free for 30 days.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Grok gone wild. X’s AI has been interrupting conversations with users to tell them about “white genocide” in South Africa. When quizzed, it said it was “instructed” to bring up the topic, “even in responses to unrelated queries.” Hmm. (CNBC)

• It took Instagram years to let users add multiple links to their bios. Thankfully, Threads users won’t have to wait quite so long. (Digital Trends)

• TikTok’s in trouble with the EU again. The European Union has famously strict rules for social media companies—and TikTok hasn’t published a list of its advertisers, meaning it could be fined up to 6% of its global revenue. (CNET)

SIDEMEN SUPERINVESTORS?

The Sidemen make bank on YouTube. Now they’re funneling that dough into venture capital.

The biz: The Sidemen are one of YouTube’s most-watched creator groups. Their next move? Pouring the cash they’ve earned into funding startups with Upside, their very own venture capital firm.

Upside was born out of a partnership between the Sidemen and General Partner Jamie Elliott, who met the U.K.-based septet in 2023. Since then, Upside has already made 12 investments ranging between £100,000 and £500,000 (~$133,00-$665,000). Who’s gotten a slice of the dough? We don’t know everyone yet, but the roster definitely includes social calendar app called Howbout and plastic-free razor company Nimbi.

Keeping a close eye: As we mentioned, the Sidemen — who have benefitted from VC backing of their own—are putting their own personal money into Upside. But their work with the firm doesn’t end there. Elliott said his creator partners are “involved in every step” of the investment process, including helping to identify startups and other opportunities.

Then, once the deals are sealed, the Sidemen are tapping the creative side of what they do. Getting a financial injection from KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123, and W2S is one thing; getting the chance to appear in one of their videos—and reach their 22 million YouTube subscribers—is a whole different kind of opportunity.

The context: As the $250 billion creator industry booms, more and more creators making serious money through content are getting wise and using that cash to launch long-term businesses, diversifying their income outside of screentime, brand deals, and video uploads. While MrBeast is building a multi-billion dollar empire of chocolate, snacks, toys, and more, other top creators are trying to expand their financial horizons through investments into startups and fellow creators.

Jake Paul’s Anti Fund has been active since 2021. Rhett and Link’s Mythical Accelerator has been putting cash into creators since 2022. The Sidemen’s Upside is the latest example of big creators exploring more ways to deploy their increasing amount of excess capital.

ROBLOX GETS REAL-WORLD

Roblox is already the metaverse king. Is it taking things one step further?

The ecommerce experience: Roblox envisions a world where brick-and-mortar shops are made of pixels—and it wants in.

The current king of the metaverse paid out nearly $1 billion to its creator community in 2024, and its latest product will ensure that 2025’s final tally is even higher. Thanks to new Commerce APIs, Roblox world-builders can sell real-life items within the virtual experiences they create.

An Approved Merchandiser Program, which is launching alongside the new APIs, will let sellers sync up their physical goods with in-game items. That program will also put badges on products so that buyers know they are getting legitimate goods. Basically, Roblox players can walk up to a creator-, studio-, or company-made shop within the game, browse its wares, and get IRL versions of whatever they buy delivered directly to their doorstep.

What in the Ready Player One?: Want that cool dress? This new gadget? What about a watch? Spin the virtual wheel to see it from all angles, try it on your avatar’s wrist, and pick the color you like best. Buy with real money, and it’ll be on your wrist in two days flat. Bonus—your digital self gets one, too!

Honestly, we’re wondering just how far it’ll go. In a couple years, will we be buying cars on Roblox?

Roblox probably hopes so. Its breakout has cemented it as a potent vehicle for marketing and sales—especially for brands that want to reach its audience of Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers. Previous ecommerce experiments on the platform have included a Shopify integration launched last year and a campaign that let players buy movie tickets directly from an in-game experience.

These new Commerce APIs unite Roblox’s sales and marketing, and it’s already recruited brands to try them out. Fenty is launching an experience that will offer an exclusive gloss shade called Grape Splash. So if you want to get your lip game on point, your avatar can do the shopping for you.

WATCH THIS 📺

The internet is driving to Canada

The project: Last week, developer Neal Agarwal launched Infinite Roadtrip, where denizens of the internet can get together and “drive” a virtual car using Google Maps Street View. He plunked the car down in Boston and opened driving permissions, letting the internet choose its next destination. The car can move along Google Maps’ road once every 10 seconds, giving drivers enough time to take in their surroundings before moving on—just like a real roadtrip.

As for how driving works…You ever hear those jokes that are like “I am not a human, I am 500 moths in a trenchcoat”? Yeah, it’s like that. Right now, there are around ~1300 people collectively controlling the car by voting which roads it should take, which turns it should make, and whether it should stop by any roadside attractions. The car is currently cruising through Maine, and drivers’ loose goal is to make it Canada.

Join in the journey here.

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