TOGETHER WITH

It’s Monday and TikTok Shop isn’t just taking on Amazon anymore—it’s also gunning to be your next grocery store.

ADBLOCKPOCALYPSE

YouTube has launched a “global effort” to combat ad blockers. So why is Google promoting them?

Viewers might not be happy about YouTube’s recent crackdown on ad blockers, but they’re following the rules. As the platform doubles down on its vendetta against the browser extensions, companies like AdGuard have seen more than 50,000 uninstalls in a single day. That phenomenon is the result of what YouTube communications manager Christopher Lawton calls a “global effort” to combat the “use of ad blockers.”

How it started:

YouTube initiated a smaller-scale version of its ad blocker crackdown in May, when some users began receiving a reminder that “ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube.” The message removed users’ access to videos until offenders whitelisted YouTube in their ad blocker preferences or subscribed to YouTube Premium (which removes pre-roll ads but costs $12.99 per month).

How it’s going:

As YouTube continues to ramp up that ad blocker crackdown, it’s placed a heavy emphasis on promoting its pre-roll ad-free service—while simultaneously hiking up the price of YouTube Premium in the U.S., Argentina, Australia, Austria, Chile, Germany, Poland, and Turkey. That strategy seems to be going well so far, but it’s not without irony: as YouTube wages war on ad blockers, its parent company, Google, has taken steps to help its own users find and install the same extensions. Most recently, the tech giant sponsored an ad-blocking conference alongside AdGuard and Adblock Plus parent Eyeo.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

This Emmy Award-winning cinematographer lives to be in the ocean—even when it tries to kill him

Alfredo Barroso always knew the ocean was his calling—he just didn’t know how to make it his career. As the BBC photographer explains in a new documentary from Artlist, access to diving equipment was nearly nonexistent during his youth in Cuba. So, Barraso made do: he turned garden hoses into snorkels, waterproofed cameras with discarded glass, and risked running out of air on a frequent basis.

The risks were worth it—so Barroso kept taking them.

Barroso moved to Mexico, where his work as a diving master brought him face-to-face with hammerhead sharks. And then, at last, the BAFTA-winning artist got his shot: a visiting production crew invited him to film in Costa Rica. 

Since then, Barroso has contributed footage to Spy in the Wild, BBC’s Blue Planet, National Geographic’s Untamed Americas—and Artlist. 

When Barroso decided to share his work with other creators, he sought out a partner who would handle everything but the diving-with-sharks part: Artlist. Subscribers to Artlist’s online catalog of music, SFX, footage, and video templates now have royalty-free access to the cinematographer’s jaw-dropping visuals, and Barroso loves that his footage appears in everything from museum exhibitions to YouTube videos. 

Watch the documentary to learn more → ​

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• The owner of the Libs of TikTok account has stirred up controversy after exerting “immense pressure” to have her name removed from the ADL’s Glossary of Extremism. (Tubefilter)
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• More and more users are turning to Snap Map in order to follow the impact of the war in Gaza. (TechCrunch)
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• Subscribers to Max’s “legacy ad-free” tier will lose access to 4K streaming and other “Ultimate” perks beginning December 5. (Gizmodo)
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• TikTok has pushed back against claims that its platform recommends “pro-Palestine content over pro-Israel content to U.S. users." (Reuters)

DATA • MILLIONAIRES 📈

From reactions to gaming, this creator is killing it across all of his YouTube channels

Caylus Cunningham always knew he would be a YouTuber. In fact, from the age of ten, YouTube was kind of “the only thing” he did. He watched every kind of creator, launched a bunch of different channels, and tried out as many trends as he could.

Eventually, one of those trends stuck.

In 2016, “top five” videos were on the rise and Cunningham had a knack for water bottle flips. He combined the two, posted a quick clip, and bam: his content went viral for the first time. Cunningham stuck with that “top five” trend for a while before branching out to reaction videos—a format he’s now known for.

Then, in 2020, the creator had an epiphany: he liked gaming a lot more than he liked making reaction videos.

In the three years since, Cunningham has turned more of his attention to gaming and gotten “back to fully loving doing YouTube and everything.” He’s also expanded his online presence in a big way. Nowadays, the creator claims six YouTube channels, including his primary channel, Infinite (22 million subscribers), a secondary channel called Caylus (13.4 million subs), and his Shorts-exclusive channel, Infinite Shorts (3.4 million).

Cunningham isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

Alongside his gaming and reaction videos, the YouTuber plans to incorporate his passion for golf into his online content. He’s also ready to expand his merch collection with the release of a new mystery box. In other words:

HOT ONES AT THE SHOP

Is this “the biggest crossover event in chicken-based interview history”?

Sean Evans just had a hot date at the chicken shop—and Amelia Dimoldenberg got a chance to up her spice tolerance in a big way. The two hosts (who respectively interview celebs on the popular YouTube shows Hot Ones and Chicken Shop Date) teamed up last week to deliver “the biggest crossover event in chicken-based interview history.”

On November 2, Evans subjected Dimoldenberg to a hard-hitting Hot Ones interview and a litany of increasingly spicy wings. The next day, the two hosts swapped places: Dimoldenberg brought Evans to a fried chicken shop to find out what it’s really like to be bald in the Windy City. (Spoiler alert: having no hair in Chicago is apparently pretty convenient.)

Those dual interviews gave Hot Ones and Chicken Shop Date fans a rare peek into the lives of two YouTube stars who usually occupy the spot across from the hot seat. So, what is like to be a “chicken-fueled talk show host”? After accumulating more than 370 million lifetime views on her personal YouTube channel, Dimoldenberg says she now turns around any time she hears the word ‘chicken.’ Evans couldn’t agree more.

Check out Dimoldenberg’s interview on the First We Feast channel to find out how she uses props to put guests at ease—and then head over to her YouTube hub to learn all bout Evans’ biggest celebrity crush.

LISTEN UP 🎙️

This week on the podcast…

Podcast brand spend is up, YouTube's blocking ad blockers, and an older generation of creators is bringing new ideas to the industry. Tune into the latest episode of Creator Upload to hear all the juicy details—and get a quick peek at YouTube’s upcoming Brandcast.

It’s all right here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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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.