creator economy
Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. Today’s episode is packed with M&A talk, how one YouTuber…
Patreon, the paid membership platform for creators, announced Tuesday the release of new features designed to help creators monetize their non-paying followers and tap into new revenue streams. This includes…
Twitch has come up with a solution for the ongoing copyright issues that DJs encounter on the platform. The company announced Thursday a new program that enables DJs to stream…
Former Priceline execs debut Plannin, a booking platform that uses travel influencers to help plan trips
With Plannin, creators can tell their audience about their latest trip, which hotels they liked and post photos of their travels.
Sanil Chawla remembers the meetings he had with countless artists in college. Those creatives were looking for one thing: sustainable economic infrastructure that could help them scale rather than drown…
Link-in-bio startup Linktree has crossed 50 million users and is rolling out the beta of its social commerce program.
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Will a TikTok ban impact creator economy startups? Not really, founders say
President Joe Biden signed a bill on Wednesday that could ban TikTok — for real this time. After so many false starts and stops, some creator economy founders and their clients are rolling their eyes. They’ve been through this before. “I think two years ago, this would have been devastating,”…
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Gen Z is losing its political voice on social media
President Joe Biden signed the bill this week that could ban TikTok from the U.S. if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform. According to young political content creators, the ban could decimate Gen Z’s access to political news and information. “An unfortunately large amount of 18- to 24-year-olds…
Bump allows creators to track income and market value, which can help them negotiate better deals and see how much money they are owed from partners.
What does Taylor Swift have in common with a group of improv comedians pretending to be wizards? They can both sell out Madison Square Garden (… and also, their fans…
If you haven’t been seeing much political content on Instagram lately, there’s a reason for that. Since March, Instagram and Threads have instituted a new default setting that limits political…
YouTube launches new Shopping features to help creators market products and grow their earnings
The launch of the new features come as TikTok Shop is seeking to take on YouTube Shopping and other competitors in the space.
Gumroad, an e-commerce company for creators, updated its rules to more strictly limit NSFW content, citing restrictions from payment processors like Stripe and PayPal. For creators who sell adult art,…
ShopMy, a marketing platform for content creators to connect with brands and monetize their content, announced that it raised $18.5 million. The company will use the money to help scale…
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Creators are frustrated but energized as TikTok ban gains momentum
The bill that could ban TikTok took one step closer to becoming a law on Wednesday. After being introduced just last week, the bill was fast-tracked through the House of Representatives and will now head to the Senate. V Spehar, the TikTok creator behind UnderTheDeskNews, has been a staunch critic…
Instagram said today that it is expanding its marketplace tool to connect brands with creators for paid partnerships or ads in eight new countries. The new markets that will get…
TikTok’s latest viral superstar is Reesa Teesa, a Georgia woman who posted 50 videos — just under 10 minutes long apiece — chronicling her tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband. That’s…
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has finally set up shop on TikTok. Despite controversy in Congress over the app, TikTok is an indispensable tool for presidential candidates to reach young…
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Meta, commented in today’s Senate hearing on children’s online safety that teenagers should be able to be creators and share their content widely. Senator…
Update, 1/31/23 at 1:15 PM ET: Pokimane has now confirmed she left Twitch to stream on YouTube. One of the most popular streamers on Twitch, Pokimane announced today that she…
Twitch is introducing a new tier to its premium revenue share program — currently known as the “Partner Plus Program” — that would grant a 60/40 revenue split and has…
MrBeast made over $263,000 in ad revenue from posting his latest video on X, but the YouTube icon says he thinks this number is “a bit of a facade.” “Advertisers…
Lindsey Lee Lugrin took an unconventional route to becoming a founder, so it’s only fitting that her fundraising strategies are just as unique. Her company Fuck You Pay Me (FYPM),…
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The creator economy is ready for a workers’ movement
Erin McGoff has 3 million followers on social media, but with the money she gets from Instagram and TikTok, she wouldn’t be able to pay for the plate of mozzarella sticks we’re sharing in a Baltimore bar. “On Instagram, I’ll have a video hit 900,000 views and make six dollars,”…
Tim Schaecker, a TikToker with 8.8 million followers and a member of the German boy band Elevator Boys, officially launched today a new social networking app in an effort to…
“New characters unlocked on the nine-month Ultimate World Cruise TikTok channel!” says an older man as pink letters fly across the screen to form a kooky subtitle. “Who are they?”…
Another round of layoffs is hitting Twitch. The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform will cut 35% of its staff, or roughly 500 employees, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Twitch publicly confirmed the layoffs in…
Can you believe that it was only this summer when Baby Gronk rizzed up Livvy Dunne? Sometimes, the internet’s most viral memes may seem entirely incomprehensible (like when Baby Gronk…
A woman in a blue tracksuit is on the floor of a bright asylum-like room, stretching in a pigeon yoga pose when she turns to the stranger she plans to…
We last wrote about Breakr — a platform that connects record labels, artists and brands with social media influencers to run mass campaigns in a programmatic way — when it closed…
