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Remember when the $40m Dubai creator fund felt like a ludicrous amount of money?

Enter Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, announcing a $1b government creator fund.

And this is in a country that averages 83% of the cost of living as America.

So will the next MrBeast come from India?

Also in this edition:

• Creator Economy OG Phil Ranta Releases an Ebook

• Meta Make Piracy Bucks From Llama AI

• TikTok’s Algorithm Goes Long

• Flip Flips on Revenue for Views

• Job ops from Fixated, Favored, and Dragonfruit.

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

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

India’s Billion Dollar Creator Bet

India’s entertainment industry market size is around $30 billion annually.

Not bad, but a rounding error compared to the US’s $660 billion entertainment industry market size.

But with the announcement of a $1 billion government creator fund and absolute dominance of the YouTube viewership charts, it’s clear India thinks they can win the future of internet media.

Does this mean India should be a primary focus for global creators?

My hot take: It already should be!

In fact, India is achieving these results by thinking globally.

Many of the top-viewed Indian channels aren’t Bollywood and music videos.

Most are family channels, kids channels, and ‘faceless’ channels.

India has four times as many people as the USA, but that’s not why India dominates YouTube. Their creators are just better at reaching across boundaries.

Pair that with this fund that will de-risk being a creator as a career while the U.S. actively kills all programs that could provide a social safety net to pursue ‘risky’ jobs, and it doesn’t feel like the U.S. will be the entertainment capital of the world for long.

‘Grow 1%’ Gets E-Published

Twenty-year creator economy veteran and Fixated CBO Phil Ranta, best known for his roles at Facebook, Studio71, and Fullscreen, has released his book ‘Grow 1%’ to celebrate the 100th volume of his LinkedIn newsletter.

The 217-pager consists of 100 short social media growth tactics and strategies that challenge how people should think about social media growth, not growth hacks.

And in a strange monetization gambit, it’s being offered for free in exchange for a subscription to the newsletter and a DM request for a copy from the author.

New publishing model or temporary insanity from a desperate author?

My hot take: A little of both.

Ranta’s strategy likely comes from an understanding that a strong, ongoing newsletter audience is worth more than the dollars and cents from self-publishing an Amazon book.

And seeding an ebook does not preclude an innovative publisher from picking it up as a quick airport read, like a ‘self-help’ book for social media users.

But, like most LinkedIn ‘Top Voices,’ it may just be another bid for attention from an industry where he wants to be defined as something greater than his day-to-day role.

Time will tell.

Llama Llama Piracy Drama

Haven’t we all learned by now? If Meta is offering something for free, we’re paying in other ways.

And a public filing from a piracy lawsuit looking into accusations that Meta’s Llama model trained on hundreds of terabytes of copyrighted e-books shows that Llama is sharing a percentage of revenue from companies using the model.

For a model that touted its ‘open source’ nature, this feels like a hit against the brand.

Does this mean Meta has to change directions on their AI ambitions?

My hot take: Heck no! When did Meta ever worry about strict adherence to the rules?!

The accusations were that Meta used and hosted torrents to train on this copyrighted material, which, by the nature of the technology, meant they were also distributing copyrighted works.

But every major model has been built on copyrighted works.

Remember in 2023 when Meta was fined over a billion euros for mishandling data?

The stock has nearly 3xed since then.

That billion dollars was replaced in a few weeks.

In the AI world, every company is in a war for scale: more data, more users, more applications.

And all AI companies are going to fly too close to the sun with wings of wax, knowing the importance of their technology will protect them from falling back to the ground

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FAME & FORTUNE:

A new report from Buffer analyzing 1.1 million TikTok videos shows that longer than 60 seconds achieve 43.2% more reach. Time to turn those TikTok dances into rock operas!

Social shoppable video app Flip has a creator fund that’s showing more than $30,000 payouts to top creators, and upon visiting profiles, many of these channels aren’t making shopping-specific content. Feels like another untapped revenue opportunity for distribution!

The link-in-bio space has been crowded and confusing forever, but you may have noticed a new competitor GetAllMyLinks is popping up everywhere. Why? Because, unlike other link-in-bio technologies, when you tap GAML instead of opening up a window within Instagram or TikTok, you’re taken to another web browser. This has made it a darling for OnlyFans creators looking to promote without getting shut down by these apps.

In other TikTok news, the average U.S. TikTok Shop buyer spends $700 per year on an app, according to a PartnerCentric report. And now that very few ‘pro-ban’ folks are left in the U.S. government, it feels like an excellent time for brands and creators alike to experiment with the program!

INDUSTRY HIRING:

Favored needs a Head of Creator Partnerships, but only if you buy this powdered matcha mix.

Dragonfruit is looking for a YouTube Creative Director. Then again, if you’re good enough for this role you should just be making $30k per month with faceless YouTube formats.

Fixated (Hey! That’s my company!) wants a Digital Creator Manager. Just don’t take all of the good snacks from the break room.

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.