Sponsored by RockWater

I’m so glad to be home after a summer of way too much business travel, but I still have a bit of FOMO from Macao (Is it Macau?! Someone help me!) and London this week.

It seems like every country is battling for creator dominance right now.

They’re begging for their dinners to be like:

But…why?

Why do countries want content creators to move there? In the US, they don’t even get insurance (btw…check out essentL if that’s a concern) and in other countries they’re paying millions to bring them in for a meet and greet?

I’ll break it down for you.

Also in this edition:

👯‍♂️ YouTube is Searching for Deepfakes

🇺🇸 White House Says TikTok is Selling This Week

✍🏽 Instagram Launching Drawing in DMs

🥊 Punching Kicks Kick Up a Notch

💪🏼 Jobs from Talent Law Corporation, Kuaishou Technology, and SHEIN

🎭 …and a dank meme from yours truly!

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

Why All the Global Creator Economy Fests?

TLDR:

• Creators are beacons for commerce

• Creators record the world around them, so their surroundings get free advertisement

• The United States is vulnerable on the entertainment-front, and it’s time for other countries to attack

The creator economy is huge and growing fast.

We know this.

But these global creator economy festivals aren’t very ‘business-y’.

They’re full of fans and meet and greets and gasp PANELS where creators talk about THEMSELVES!

In other words, these aren’t industry trade shows.

So why is everyone fighting for creators to come to their country?

1. Creators are Walking Tourism Ads

CreatorWeek Macao 2025 was sponsored by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).

The UAE Government Media Office sponsors the 1 Billion Follower Summit.

And we all know who paid for the Riyadh Comedy Festival, but I’m not touching that third rail in this newsletter!

To be honest, it seems like the US is the only country that has huge creator conferences that aren’t greatly paid for by some government office.

Get on it, USA!

But if you look at the creators that are invited to these conferences, they aren’t just passively attending.

They’re getting 5 star treatment, fun experiences, and they’re Snapping and Instagram Story-ing all along the way.

Massive earned media value for these tourism commissions.

Not to mention the incredible amount of hotel and restaurant revenue they’re capturing from the convention itself.

It’s a huge win on all sides.

2. No Country ‘Owns’ the Creator Economy Yet

The biggest, flashiest international digital stars are from the USA.

The last ‘most subscribed on YouTube’ chart on Tubefilter had 17 of the top 50 in the USA, far surpassing India in second place with 10.

But we’re also in the second inning with this industry.

And all signs point to ‘USA growth slowing while others are accelerating’.

The reason is simple: the USA had a population with a lot of access to devices and the internet early because they are the richest country on Earth, and now a lot of other countries are catching up.

Having devices with cameras, editing tools, and internet isn’t scarce anymore.

And I’ve seen a lot of decks cross my desk that makes it very clear that a lot of places in the world are trying to stake their claim as the most ‘creator-friendly’ market.

Because the USA is, very famously, NOT creator friendly.

Expensive to live, bad taxes, bad healthcare…you name it. If you’re not a W2 employee, it’s a hard road in the US.

So if you’re young and willing to move, why not take a free Visa somewhere that wants to support your career?

3. Brands Need Proximity to Creators

Zoom calls are great. Nevermind…they’re okay. Passable.

But deals are still faster and easier when you’re face-to-face.

“If you fly, you sign.”

If a brand in Indonesia with global reach, like a software company, is able to get a creator to come into their office, that’s huge.

We take it for granted in LA how much being in person is a benefit.

Think of how many shoots require collaborations or studio space or even access to the product itself.

I’ve done plenty of car campaigns that simply couldn’t have happened if we couldn’t easily get a dealership to drive one over.

And when the creator economy is pacing to be a $1T market by the mid 2030’s, and ecommerce is already hanging out in the $35T per annum range, that’s level of access becomes pretty dang valuable.

4. AI…It’s Always About AI

Like it or not, consumer AI is being heavily driven by content creation.

Sora’s been hanging out near the top of the app store since it launched, and I can’t open my TikTok feed without seeing one or two Sora videos in my top 10.

Most of my Facebook feed is AI slop.

When my friends and family outside of the industry call me to ask about AI, they’re not talking about how to create more efficient database workflows.

They’re asking how to keep their song on Sora from sounding too generic.

The creator economy and AI economy are inextricably tied together, whether either side likes it or not.

And most countries believe, as I do, that AI dominance is going to be the future of global economic dominance.

If you can learn to control and harness these LLMs, get an educated populace to know how to right-size their engagement with these tools, and build companies and brands around them, that’s going to account for a wild amount of value creation.

And these creator economy conferences are the tip of the spear to get AI talent and AI-forward minds to come to their country.

Right now they may be making Sam Altman memes, but tomorrow they could be curing cancer.

SPONSORED BY ROCKWATER

Have you thought about selling your creator business?

RockWater advises owners in the creator economy on the sale of their business. We have the largest buyer network, and negotiate the best deals possible for our clients. We’re proud to be the industry’s top M&A advisor.

We recently advised on the sale of Feedfeed, a social media publisher and creator network, to People Inc., a publicly traded media co. We’ve also advised Click Management (sale to GameSquare), Lionize (an IM platform, sold to gen.video), Long Haul Mgmt (sold to Wasserman), Bottle Rocket Mgmt (sold to Night), Bounty (a UGC platform, sold to gen.video), and more deals are in the works.

If you want a POV on your company’s valuation and readiness for a sale, reach out to to chris@wearerockwater.com to setup an intro call.

FAME & FORTUNE

What creators, brands, governments, and platforms are making waves this week in the name of fortune, fame, and fun?

👯‍♂️ Fans of objective truth, rejoice! YouTube is experimenting with likeness detection which, from the sound of the update, may take on the flavor of Content ID where any deepfake created may be flagged with the option of removal or monetization.

🇺🇸 The White House is claiming that a TikTok deal will FINALLY be done by the end of this week. This is well ahead of the deadline of the checks notes FOURTH extension of the ban timeline by executive order. But with new tariffs on China and no indication on China’s part that timeline is correct, I’ll believe it when I see it.

✍🏽 Instagram announced the ability to draw within your DM screens. Anyone who watched the pilot episode of Mythic Quest knows what comes next…

🥊 Creator boxing events aren’t slowing down! Kick just hit a new concurrent viewer record when 4.6m concurrent viewers tuned in for a creator boxing match in Columbia. Feels like a missed opportunity to call it ‘Kick Boxing’ but that may have just confused the participants…

JOB BOARD

SPONSORED: Fractional GM | Rob Has a Podcast, Talent Law Corporation

"Rob Has a Podcast", pictured here selling out in NYC last week, is seeking a GM to lead them into 2026.

The founder will be a celebrity cast member on Peacock's "The Traitors" and the community of 9000+ paying patron members, and 21MM annual downloads is looking for an operational leader. Is that you or someone you know?

Global Creator Community Manager运营经理, Kuaishou Technology

Don’t let the Chinese symbols in the post scare you away! This is the team behind Kling AI, a top-notch AI video generator. Not only can you bring your skills around social media and global markets into the mix, but you’ll be working with a promising team in one of the fastest growing fields within the AI space.

Creative Content Manager, SHEIN

Tariffs won’t slow SHEIN down! They’re pushing hard with their fashion brand to continue splashing all over your Instagram pages with their reasonably-priced modern day looks. This is likely a high-volume role, so you’ll get to have a lot of conversations with a lot of creators in the fashion and beauty space.