It’s Thursday and Elon Musk will be portrayed on-screen in the comedic drama Artificial. Maybe Zuckerberg can offer some advice on preparing to see your life play out in theaters?

Today’s News

MONEY MOVES

AI, Shorts, and CTV push YouTube to $9.8B in ad revenue

The parent company: Alphabet’s quarterly results are in, and the future is looking bright. The YouTube parent company beat expectations by bringing in $96.4 billion in revenues (instead of the expected $94.02 billion), with a net income of $28.2 billion. That adds up to a 19% increase from Q2 last year.

Overall, CEO Sundar Pichai called the quarter a “standout,” with “robust growth” that he attributed to Google‘s embrace of generative AI:

The video platform: YouTube saw some impressive growth of its own. The platform overshot analyst expectations of $9.56 billion in ad earnings to land at $9.8 billion. That brings it up ~10% from Q1’s earnings of $8.9 billion and up 13.1% from Q2 last year.

While remarking on that “strong performance,” Pichai reiterated that YouTube is the single most-watched video destination in the U.S. According to Nielsen, the platform accounted for 12.8% of all TV usage in June. Netflix proved to be its closest competitor with 8.3%, but no other streaming service or linear/broadcast TV network reached 5%.

Pichai also gave a nod to Shorts—which now generates 200 billion daily views—and dropped in a promo in for the September 5th Chargers vs Chiefs NFL game, for which YouTube won exclusive streaming rights. While the platform plans to stream the game for free, it clearly hopes that a no-strings taste of the action will encourage fans to sign up for the NFL Sunday Ticket.

TLDR: Shorts and connected TV are continuing to grow and Alphabet’s AI moves are paying off—all of which has inspired the company to invest more over the rest of this year. According to Pichai, Alphabet is increasing its “investment in capital expenditures in 2025 to approximately $85 billion.”

That’s up from the $75 billion the company said it would spend at the beginning of the year, and way up from the $52.5 the company spent in 2024.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• YouTube is giving Premium users the chance to try out threaded comments, which resemble the multi-tiered conversations seen on Reddit. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Instagram Teen Account users now have access to a DM-focused safety feature designed to “give teens more context about the accounts they’re messaging.” (Meta)
  
  

• A new “AI Action Plan” announced by the White House says the government “should not allow AI-related Federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations.” (The Verge)
  
  

• Open-source X rival Mastadon is introducing in-app donation banners to boost funding for its nonprofit operations. (TechCrunch)

STREAMING BIG

Netflix treats YouTube like a “farm league.” How’s that going?

The report: Netflix has been upfront about its plan to add YouTube success stories to its original programming lineup. Earlier this year, Co-CEO Ted Sarandos even went so far as to call YouTube “a little bit of a farm league.”

Now, Netflix is giving analysts a chance to see how its creator-led shows measure up to their YouTube analogues. Two shows that originated on YouTube can be found in the streamer’s latest What We Watched report, which covers the first half of 2025.

Inside—a reality show engineered by the Sidemen—earned 17.5 million hours of watch time and 2.4 million total views during the first half of 2025, placing it just inside the top 1000 Netflix programs globally. On YouTube, the first episode of Inside has 15.4 million views since its June 2024 premiere, while the second episode has racked up 6.9 million views.

Another YouTube transplant, Arlette Amuli‘s Pop the Balloon, had a tougher time generating Netflix viewership. With one million hours of half-year watch time and 1.2 million views, the dating show fell short of its YouTube traffic.

The question: Those mixed results raise an open-ended question: do YouTube stars need Netflix, or does Netflix need YouTube stars? On one hand, the Sidemen said they brought Inside to Netflix because they had already hit their ceiling on YouTube. But Netflix itself needs to woo creator fanbases if it hopes to avoid falling behind streaming rivals like YouTube, which has already pulled ahead in terms of market share and consumer trust.

Sarandos has typically taken the middle ground on this subject, noting that YouTube and Netflix “feed each other pretty nicely.” Behind the scenes, however, Netflix is reportedly ramping up its overtures to creators. According to Deadline, the streamer may have already had talks with stars like Mark Rober and Dude Perfect.

THE BIZ

Do creators need traditional managers?

The rebrand: Do creators actually need traditional managers? The firm that reps Airrack and Yes Theory believes another system could be more beneficial—so it’s rebranding. Previously known as One Day Entertainment, the company is becoming Good Story Studios as it narrows its focus to brand partnerships.

That rebrand is informed by a bold assertion: in an interview with Tubefilter, Good Story Founder and CEO Zack Honarvar argued that the typical creator is much more “business-savvy than the traditional artist.” So while artists might benefit from existing types of representation, Good Story’s clients should “operate like a business that hires specific agencies for different business functions.”

The focus: Under the leadership of Honarvar, Managing Partner Benji Sudmann, Head of Partnerships Barbara Abraul, and Content Development Manager Zak Chaouki, Good Story will serve as one of the specialized cogs powering creator businesses. The firm’s laser focus on brand deals will allow it to actively seek out partnerships on behalf of its clients. The result, according to a press release, will be “original content formats, recurring series, and organic brand fits” that incorporate sponsors in noninterruptive ways while prioritizing high-quality storytelling.

The firm’s previous work offers insight into what its future partnerships might look like. When Airrack sought to break the Guinness World Record for the largest pizza, for instance, One Day reached out to chains in search of a partner. A resulting collaboration with Pizza Hut ended up being one of the most memorable YouTube sponsorships in recent years.

The vision: At the end of the day, Honarvar hopes that creators repped by Good Day will tap into “a network of companies that all help creators in different ways.” In doing so, they can “operate like a business that hires specific agencies for different business functions,” moving beyond the limitations of traditional talent houses.

WATCH THIS

In 2017, Logan Paul’s Japan trip changed everything

The series: In our 20 Years of YouTube series, we’re examining the uploads, trends, and influencers that have defined the world’s favorite video site—one year at a time. Click here for a full archive of the series.

The scandal: In December 2017, Logan Paul was collaborating with celebrities and setting YouTube records—and then he traveled to Japan. There, while filming in the forest of Aokigahara, Paul encountered an apparent suicide victim and used the body as a prop for his vlog.

What happened next transformed the relationship between creators and platforms. As Paul made his apologies (and a $1 million pledge to suicide prevention organizations), YouTube canceled the creator’s YouTube Premium show and removed him from Google Preferred. 

The switch-up: But by the end of 2018, the roles had reversed: Paul was playing the role of the victim—and YouTube was eating the brunt of the criticism. The platform ended up issuing an apology of its own, while Paul went on to introduce the influencer boxing trend, sign with the WWE, and profit from creator products.

In others words: a scandal that could have ended Paul instead boosted him to even greater heights—and so, with one ill-fated decision, he ushered in a new era of creator agency.

Check out our full 20 Years of YouTube archive here for more annual milestone stories.

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