Mr Beast wired the winner of Beast Games $10 million and showed the receipts, literally:

But that amount seems quaint compared to other recent announcements: Uscreen raising $150 million, Slow Ventures launching a $60 million creator fund, Creators HQ paying out $40.8 million to get creators to Dubai, and more.

Is a bubble blowing up or is this the right size for this market?

Also in this edition:

• TikTok’s Grand App Store Return

• Poppi Gets Popped in the Face

• Spotify’s Video Boom

• Yahoo! Finally Has a Creator Angle

• Job ops from NextGen Coding Company, Blizzard Entertainment, and The Farmer’s Dog.

• …and a dank creator economy meme by yours truly!

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

Is the Creator Economy Bubble Back?

2025 is just getting started, and we’re already seeing a big bucks boom in funding and payouts.

MrBeast’s Beast Games on Amazon was a hit doling out a huge $10 million prize.

VC firms are doubling down on creator funds, including a Slow Ventures $60 million fund on top of existing 8-figure funds from Night Ventures, Bessemer, and more.

And Uscreen, the boot-strapped silent giant in the creator apps space raised their first round, and it was an astounding $150 million.

Despite creator economy ventures having a slow few years post-COVID, we’re officially back.

So what did we learn from the last bubble, and are we doomed to repeat our mistakes?

My hot take: This isn’t a bubble. It’s a correction.

COVID absolutely created a bubble. Everyone was home and in the industry, we were all asking whether this is a temporary spike or a new-normal?

Turns out there were a lot of temporary spikes.

But this time, there is no real outlier.

Now that much of the uncertainty is out of the equation, projections can be more stable. And investors love stability.

This feels a heck of a lot more like ‘smart money’.

TikTok’s Back in the App Store

YouTube was banned in the US on January 18 for one horrifying, boring night (for Gen Z…I was fine).

But the next day, you could pop back on your phone and continue to enjoy fake pranks and bar street interviews.

That is, if you already had TikTok.

Apple and Google, in an abundance of caution for possible legal action for defying the original bill, did not allow new downloads of TikTok in the United States.

But this week, the app quietly returned.

What does this mean and why did they do it?

My hot take: I see this move as a final admission that there’s no longer a risk of TikTok going away.

Not to get too politically wonky, but the very controversial confirmation of RFK Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services was the ultimate litmus test of Republican Congressional loyalty.

Now there’s no question they will vote as a block for anything Trump would like passed.

Trump wants TikTok to stay (despite being the originator of the ban) so the app is unlikely to face further issues except by executive decree.

Poppi Fumbles a Super Bowl Campaign

In female-focused soda brand news—

Prebiotic Gen Z soda brand Poppi had a fun idea for a Super Bowl campaign: gift 32 full-sized vending machines to top creators who will then record their reactions.

Mission accomplished. The creators seemed to have a great time.

But the internet, per usual, found this act to be exceptionally offensive.

First, the diversity issue. Many of the creators seemed to be of the pretty, suburban white-girl aesthetic.

Second, they were incensed that such a large gift be given to already-rich creators instead of, say, an orphanage.

Poppi had to go through some brutal backlash and their competitor Ollipop took the reigns, getting to dunk on them like Poppi’s personal Kendrick Lamar.

What can brands learn from this?

My hot take: Very little. It’s more of an education about the internet.

For fun, I decided to look at a bunch of recent gifting campaigns from top brands (I will not list them, as if they in turn get dunked on I would feel bad).

They all follow the same model: give a creator a huge, crazy, audacious gift and they will talk about it.

In comparison, a soda machine is pretty small. Arguably even smaller in value than a lot of upfront cash campaigns from creators of that size.

The diversity argument is more valid (though the creators they did choose were exceptionally in-line with their brand), but the gifting backlash is insane.

It reminds of of the Bud Light controversy. Brands work with trans creators all of the time. Bud Light was simply singled out my enough major media outlets to hurt their sales.

Likewise, it appears the internet just found a target to let out their anger against a ‘rich gets richer’ culture.

If there’s one lesson to learn for brands, it’s this: you can’t make everyone happy all of the time, so best to just make sure you’re willing to defend your decisions.

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FAME & FORTUNE:

Spotify is making serious moves with creator content, growing video views 20% in their first month of their partner program. They posted their first profitable year in 2024 and seem to be angling this year with one major enemy in their sites: YouTube. If you’re a podcaster and haven’t tried out Spotify for Creators yet, it’s time to experiment!

Yahoo! And I’m not just saying the name of a company! I’m celebrating! Yahoo! has now launched a creator program that provides a revenue change for articles, including the ability to turn newsletters into posts. Definitely worth a look!

DoubleJack*, an affiliate program whose first market takes on the multi-billion dollar iGaming space, wants the next Wrexham to be saved without Ryan Reynolds. They’ve parntered with Corby Town FC, a small club in Wales, to help monetize and grow their club.

Spotter Studio, the AI-driven creative engine room for creators, is giving out $100 to sign up for a free trial. And they have a trend spotting tool I use daily. Sign up here!*

*newsletter receives affiliate commissions

INDUSTRY HIRING:

NextGen Coding Company needs a Chief Marketing Officer to turn their 1s and 0s into $s and €s.

Blizzard Entertainment is looking for a Senior Director, Social & Content Marketing. But only if you know Leroy Jenkins.

The Farmer’s Dog wants a Director of Influencer & Partnerships. But if you’re three corgis in a trenchcoat, don’t bother. They’re on to you.

MEME ZONE:

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this edition, give it a share and if you get someone to sign up, I’ll send you my ‘10 Rep-Friendly Ways to Monetize Today!’ deck!

Until next time, protect yo rep.