Creators hit GOLD! $2B dropped into creator startups in the 1st 6 months of '21 alone! 🤑🤳
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Creators hit GOLD! $2B dropped into creator startups in the 1st 6 months of '21 alone! 🤑🤳
Part One is all about What We Know in our two-part trend report.
WELCOME to $5.vc, your source of differentiated startup intel!
* We break down the new market indicators & behavioral consumer trends we're tracking, then figure out the unlock to growth & revenue.
** OPEN DM sessions & brainstorms? ☝️ >> Just follow our new Twitter! 👍
ICYMI in the last 10 weeks we covered:
NCAA Athletes start printing the NIL (Name Image Likeness) Dollars!
Twisting Lux Brands + Depop + Gen Z in your favor!
TikTok News or BUST! Can TikTok go after Fox, CNN, and MSNBC?!
What's on deck for Social Commerce and Gen Z Influencers?!!
"I ain't afraid of no ghosts!" GHOST KITCHENS.
Search Engines are in such a mood.…
Niche Interests make Nice Friends. addafriend.com is here!
Linkedin dropped the ball, Link-in-Bio is coming in hot!
Hyper-Casual Social Casino SMS Text Gaming is FIRE!
THIS WEEK’S DOPE NEW STARTUP IDEA COVERS:
* Creator Economy + Creator Funds + Creator Tools 🔥
WHAT WE KNOW:
* The Market Indicators & Behavioral Consumer Trends we've identified.
>> [ VCs have already pumped $2B into creator startups this year! ]
Hello, Content Creators. Silicon Valley’s Investors Want to Meet You.
- thanks taylor! https://twitter.com/taylorlorenz
The boom in the creator economy itself has renewed interest in social media among venture capitalists, who for years thought there was little point to looking for social upstarts with the likes of Facebook and Snap (which owns Snapchat) sucking all the air out of the market.
Creators are people who build audiences online and find a way to make money from those audiences. They are usually young, digital natives who are trying to make a living from their social media work. And big Silicon Valley investors increasingly see them as the next financial vein to be tapped on the internet.
The creator economy, which provides digital tools to influencers and helps them run their businesses, is a huge, largely unexplored market. The venture capital firm SignalFire estimates that 50 million people around the world consider themselves content creators, while the technology news site The Information estimates that venture capital firms have invested $2 billion into 50 creator-focused start-ups so far this year.
>> [ Tumblr makes a move with creator subscriptions! ]
Tumblr Introduces Paid Subscription Tool to Woo Younger Bloggers
- thanks katie! https://twitter.com/DollyDeighton
Microblogging stalwart Tumblr on Wednesday began a test letting some users charge their followers a monthly fee in exchange for access to exclusive content.
The feature, called Post+, offers content creators a choice of three monthly prices to charge their followers—$3.99, $5.99 or $9.99—with Tumblr taking a 5% cut of subscription fees. Users can continue to post free content as well if they want.
It isn’t just Tumblr that is acknowledging users’ desire to be validated as paid-up creators of content. Twitter Inc. in May introduced its Tip Jar feature, which lets readers directly send cash to each other via links to Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, PayPal and Venmo.
On Facebook Inc.’s Instagram, for example, users with large followings have offered access to extra content via their “close friends” lists in exchange for money sent via a payments service such as Venmo, Mr. Woodbury said.
>> [ Pinterest hedges its bet on its Idea Pins! ]
Pinterest wants in on the creator economy. Can it do it the Pinterest way?
- thanks david! https://twitter.com/pierce
Pinterest has dived headfirst into the world of creators. It introduced a feature called "Story Pins," which allowed users to make Pinterest-native, original content on the platform. Then it decided that the word "story" had come to be associated with ephemeral, low-production content, and so renamed them "Idea Pins."
As Kanai and her team began working with creators last fall, they kept reminding creators to think about instructional videos, before-and-after shots and other things that might help users come along for the journey. People come to Pinterest to find something awesome, Kanai said, "and they go to other platforms when they've purchased that thing and want to show it off."
Part of Pinterest's pitch to creators is that because the platform is so large — more than 475 million people use it every month — they'll be able to build an audience more quickly than if they were going all in on some unproven new space. It's also offering early adopters more access to the Pinterest team and platform than they'd get from TikTok or Instagram.
>> [ even Microsoft signals there might be some value to creators! ]
YouTubers are making a living on videos about Microsoft software
- thanks jordan! https://twitter.com/jordannovet
Some people make a living off of making YouTube videos about software from Microsoft and other companies.
The company tried to help employees learn how to build large subscriber bases but then began focusing on promoting third-party creators.
These outsiders are larger audiences than Microsoft’s own YouTube channels.
People often turn to YouTube when they want to get a better understanding of Microsoft software, and while Microsoft has plenty of its own videos available on YouTube, they don’t always come up at the top of the site’s search results, Atchison said. Videos from outsiders can receive higher rankings.
>> [ Zuck of course throws $1B at creators too! ]
Facebook plans to pay creators $1 billion to use its products.
- thanks taylor! https://twitter.com/taylorlorenz
Facebook is setting up a program to pay $1 billion to creators through the end of 2022, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said on Wednesday, part of an effort to woo influencers onto its platforms.
The $1 billion will be allocated among creators of all types, giving influencers an incentive for creating and posting original content to Facebook, the social network said. Influencers will be able to earn money by using specific Facebook and Instagram features or by hitting certain milestones. If creators livestream on a regular basis, for instance, they can earn cash.
In the past year, an arms race has emerged among tech companies seeking to court online content creators who can generate enormous engagement and bring their young fans and cultural relevance to a platform. TikTok and YouTube have cultivated deep relationships in the creator community by helping creators make money and by building features to serve their needs.
>> [ everyone is now jumping on the creator funds train! ]
How social network creator funds compare
- thanks matt! https://twitter.com/MattNavarra
THE DOPE IDEA & THE BRAND EXECUTION:
* Taking the idea and amplifying that into tactical action.
See you next week for the second half of our two-part report.
We’ll discuss on how to position ourselves as a new player in the Creator Economy + Creator Funds + Creator Tools space — and get into the development of the Brand IP, securing a legit Domain Name, then making it Internet LIVE.