It’s Friday and Microsoft is rethinking its employee AI usage policies after one staff member reportedly blew through a cool $28,000 in just 28 days.

PLATFORM PARTNERS

The partnership: YouTube and Amazon have officially joined forces. As part of a new partnership, the duo will allow U.S.-based creators who are enrolled in both the YouTube Partner Program and the Amazon Influencer Program (or Amazon Associate Program) to sell Amazon products directly within their videos.

Anytime viewers purchase products tagged in their videos, creators will get their standard Amazon commission cut (a number that reportedly averages between 2% and 4% of the sale price). This cut will be paid out by YouTube, bundled in with the creator’s usual AdSense check.

The fine print: It’s worth noting that creators can’t link just any product. Instead, as Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie explained, Amazon “provides YouTube with a curated catalog of highly requested and trending products” for creators to link in their videos.

Clearly, the goal here is for YouTube and Amazon to compete with TikTok Shop—without encountering the numerous issues with shady sellers that have plagued the ByteDance-owned behemoth.

The context: All of this marks a significant step in YouTube’s mission to become (as CEO Neal Mohan put it) “a premier shopping destination.” The platform has already established partnerships with online marketplaces and social shopping hubs like TalkShopLive and Rakuten Ichiba. In March, it also expanded access to the YouTube Shopping affiliate program to anyone in the YPP with 500+ subscribers.

That push seems to be paying off. YouTube says there are now over 1 million creators signed up for Shopping, and the gross merchandise value of products sold through Shopping grew 13x from Q1 2024 to Q1 2026.

Perhaps most notably, YouTube has achieved all this without actually touching products itself, since (unlike TikTok Shop) it relies entirely on outside brands, vendors, and marketplaces to handle everything after a purchase is made.

KEEPING IT REEL

The campaign: For Meta, the Instagram for TV app is the key to unlocking more viewership in the living room. Reels, however, have typically been consumed in a solitary manner. So, how do you bring that experience to a communal space?

According to a new slate of ads, the answer is Reels watch parties. Instagram teamed up with the L.A.-based agency Special U.S. to launch Watch While, a campaign that reimagines Reels as the foundation of vertical video watch parties broadcast through connected TVs.

Creators are prominently featured throughout the campaign, with one spot featuring Ameya Okamoto, Vikram Thanigaivelan, and Carson Gillaspia as they find different uses for the Instagram for TV app. Okamoto turns it on to entertain a nail art client, Thanigaivelan uses it as background noise for a cooking lesson, and Gillaspia plays stretching Reels to prepare his parents for a long walk.

Those creator spots echo the first Instagram for TV campaign, which was also executed alongside Special and similarly promoted Reels viewership as a shared social experience akin to YouTube’s UGC playlists of yesteryear.

The context: Meta’s efforts to secure a bigger slice of living room traffic stretch all the way back to the days of IGTV. Instagram for TV, which launched late last year, is its latest attempt to increase that market share—and it’s easy to see why the tech giant is doubling down now.

YouTube’s dominance on TV screens has allowed it to attract more ad dollars while positioning its creators as alternatives to mainstream television. Instagram is eager to achieve similar gains—and it’s betting that a few well-timed campaigns will help pave the way forward.

SHOP TALK

The K-culture boom: If you thought the KPop Demon Hunters hype of 2025 represented the peak of Korean culture on the world stage…well, think again.

According to TikTok Korea and consulting firm Kearney, the sealing of the honmoon was just the beginning. After surveying 3,300 consumers between the ages of 16 and 49 across 10 countries (the U.S., the U.K., the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil, France, Japan, Indonesia, and Vietnam), the duo found clear connections between in-app behaviors and purchases.

Currently, the global economic impact of K-culture on TikTok is estimated at $23.5 billion. By 2030, that figure is expected to jump to $30.1 billion.

The United States is the biggest K-culture market among the surveyed countries, and it is expected to maintain that status. By 2030, the direct economic impact of TikTok K-culture in the U.S. is projected to approach $1.5 billion.

The eras: The size of that industry isn’t the only thing that’s changing; the delivery mechanisms that bring K-culture to the rest of the world have evolved, too. The study claims that “K-culture 1.0” spread primarily through TV, while “K-culture 2.0” brought fandoms online. During the era of “K-culture 3.0,” over-the-top streaming services gave us hits like KPop Demon Hunters.

According to TikTok Korea and Kearney, we’re currently in the midst of “K-culture 4.0.” Through platforms like TikTok, global consumers now seek snippets of everyday Korean life in addition to K-pop and K-dramas.

That shift explains the rise of K-beauty, which is a winner on TikTok Shop and the Korean category with the broadest global economic impact, according to the report. TikTok is also a major player in the world of travel, and K-tourism is the fastest-growing sector measured by the report.

WATCH THIS 👀

The gameplay trailer: An extended look at Grand Theft Auto VI hit Netflix yesterday—and promptly set the gaming world ablaze. Every streamer from Jynxzi to Kai Cenat to penguinz0 has since posted their reactions to the trailer, with most seeming to echo Cenat’s enthusiastic response (“Take my money, take my money!”).

We can’t say yet whether GTA VI will be worth the wait—mostly because players have waited so long that it’s become a literal meme—but it’s clear fans are hyped about the half hour of gameplay Rockstar has shared so far. Check out the extended trailer here.

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