TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and TikTok wants users to slide into each others’ DMs with group chats that can host a whopping 32 people at once.

Today’s News

• The YouTube community reacts to death of former CEO Susan Wojcicki

• A political crisis shakes up the global YouTube charts

• MrBeast is #1 in the Top 5 Branded Videos despite the controversy

• Netflix teases the second season of Squid Game

IN REMEMBRANCE

“Her legacy lives on in everything”: YouTube community reacts to death of former CEO Susan Wojcicki

The pioneer: Susan Wojcicki, who served as YouTube’s CEO between 2014 and 2023, passed away on August 9 after over a decade of innovation in the tech industry.

As the 16th employee to join Google—which initially set up shop in her garage under co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page—Wojcicki was an early trailblazer in social media. She was the first product manager for Google AdSense and played a pivotal role in the development of Google Video, before driving Google’s acquisition of YouTube in 2006.

• That innovative spirit saw YouTube through a turbulent period. YouTube had previously had struggled to consistently promote its creators and capitalize on a $100 million investment in original content.

• Wojcicki instituted huge marketing campaigns to make creators the site’s stars, putting them in magazines, on billboards, and in primetime television ads (at a time when a LOT more people were watching TV.)

• The Google vet navigated YouTube through bumps like the 2017 Adpocalypse, actively invested in creators, arranged programming deals with top stars, and worked to legitimize creator content as the next evolution of TV before stepping down in 2023.

Community responses: Those achievements—along with a reputation for calm and compassionate leadership—have led to an outpouring of condolences following Wojcicki’s death from lung cancer. We’ve gathered a few of those remembrances below:

• “Susan always put others first, both in her values and in the day-to-day. I’ll never forget her kindness to me as a prospective ‘Noogler’ 20 years ago.” —Sundar Pichai, Google CEO
  
  

• “She was the person I turned to for advice over and over again. And she was this person for so many others too.” —Sheryl Sandberg, Former Facebook CEO
  
  

• “She had the thankless job trying to steer YouTube through some of its toughest years…the fact that YouTube still exists today for creators is a testament to her threading an impossible needle.” —Matthew “MatPat” Patrick, Theorist Media Co-Founder
  
  

• “Her legacy lives on in everything she touched at Google and YouTube.” —Neal Mohan, YouTube CEO

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Political upheaval in Bangladesh propelled Jamuna TV to the top of last week’s seven-day YouTube charts, earning it a spot as the #1 most-viewed channel in the world. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• According to The Verge, YouTube Music’s latest test feature is a “personal radio” tool that allows users to “broadcast daily playlists” based on their favorite tunes. (The Verge)
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• Meta has expanded its agreement with Universal Music Group to bring licensed songs to Threads. (The Verge)
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• Elon Musk says a “massive DDOS [distributed denial of service] attack on X” made his livestream with Donald Trump inaccessible to a majority of users. (Engadget)

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top 3 Branded Videos: Controversy can’t slow down the MrBeast machine

Between a sexual misconduct scandal with one of its on-camera talent, allegations of unsafe filming conditions, and an internal investigation, the MrBeast team is undergoing some serious upheaval. One thing that remains unchanged, however, is the remarkable performance of MrBeast’s main YouTube channel.

🥇 MrBeast x Monster Hunter Now: Survive 100 Days In Nuclear Bunker, Win $500,000 (142.5M views)
Even scandal can’t infiltrate a nuclear bunker. Despite ongoing concerns about the work culture at MrBeast HQ, the team’s latest sponsored video—a challenge that dared competitors to brave 100 days in an isolated bunker—still managed to score more than 140 million views. That’s good news for Monster Hunter Now, which is the latest (but certainly not the first) video game to partner with MrBeast.

🥈 Danny Gonzalez x Pokémon Unite: Tech Products That Should Not Exist (5.7M views)
Monster Hunter Now isn’t the only gaming brand at the top of Gospel Stats’ Weekly Brand Report. A partnership with Danny Gonzalez helped Pokémon Unite reach nearly 6 million prospective gamers while avoiding the fate of being deemed a product “that should not exist.”

🥉 Mrwhosetheboss x JisuLife: $5 vs $50 Handheld Fan! (4.1M views)
Long-form videos may have snagged the top two spots in Gospel’s ranking, but a viral Short managed to score a position at #3. Mrwhosetheboss made the most of the format’s brief time limit by taking a less-than-subtle approach to branded content. His strategy: directly comparing JisuLife’s high-tech fan to a far less impressive $5 version.

Check out our full article here for info on two bonus videos—or head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube data and influencer marketing insights.

WATCH THIS 📺

Squid Game is (finally) making its way back to Netflix

Back for round two: After three years of anticipation, Squid Game fans finally have a sneak peek at Season 2. A teaser trailer posted to YouTube has attracted more than 2 million views in just over 24 hours—and that’s only a hint at the show’s viral potential.

• The first season of Squid Game garnered 1.65 billion hours streamed in the first four weeks of its release and quickly rose to No. 1 on the Netflix charts in over 90 countries. Not long after, the show scored several Golden Globe nominations, and spawned both a massive YouTube adaptation (courtesy of MrBeast) and a controversial reality spin-off.
  
  

• If Season 2 comes anywhere close to replicating those numbers when it debuts in December, Netflix will have something big to brag about come Q1 2025.

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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.