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Happy Birthday YouTube! And thanks for literally being the reason I have a career!

I mean, maybe. Before I uploaded on YouTube, I uploaded onto Newgrounds, Ebaums World, MySpace Video, Revver, Google Video, and every .com where I could afford the hosting costs.

But YouTube won!

Let’s dive into what’s working, what isn’t, and what’s next.

Also in this edition:

• The $300m Influencer Company I’ve Never Heard Of

• Social Media Goals vs. Tactics

• India’s $1 Billion Creator Fund Update

• Live Streaming’s Boom

• Job ops from Meta, Wonder Projects, and Red Bull Records

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

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

YouTube Leaves Its Teens

I’ve seen so many beautiful tributes to YouTube this week, from 200 OG Googlers meeting up for a party to teary ‘thank yous’ for sparking a revolution to people complaining about how the digital party is over.

I’m not going to do any of that.

You know YouTube is awesome. If you don’t, I’m not sure why you would have subscribed to this newsletter.

Instead, I’m going to highlight some signals YouTube is showing around where it stands today and which direction it’s building.

Like everyone leaving their teens, YouTube needs to grow the f*ck up. And it’s already done a pretty good job.

Revenue pathways are pretty clear. Terms of service are relatively fairly enforced. And they seem to be out of the regulatory crosshairs and PR disasters of some of their counterparts.

However, the past few weeks have been eventful for Google.

For the third time, Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company and owners of Google, were slapped with an anti-trust suit. This time around something that hits home for YouTube: adtech.

And it makes sense.

Google makes up almost 27% of the digital ad market in the U.S.

Meta has about 22%. Amazon is around 13%.

All-in, that’s a handful of trillion-dollar+ companies who are able to control the most powerful revolution in advertising since Egyptians painted vases on clay walls.

And there’s another anti-trust lawsuit against Alphabet brewing in AI.

So YouTube will be impacted in the near future by all of this scrutiny. I don’t think Alphabet will have to sell off YouTube, but there may be some relaxed practices around pricing control for ads, which could be very good for creators.

But let’s talk YouTube specifically.

Recently, they came out in support of the NO FAKES Act, which puts guardrails around AI creation and consumption (i.e. deepfake bullying or trying to ‘fool’ people in general). This comes at a time when other platforms (looking at you Meta) are filled to the brim with AI slop.

This, yet again, shows their commitment to creators.

There’s a huge elephant still in the room (for now): TikTok.

But as someone who uploads all shorts content to all platforms, YouTube has the most transparent payments for Shorts ad revenue than anyone.

Not huge mind you. Just transparent.

On all other platforms, you don’t know if 10 million views is going to make you $100,000 or zero dollars, but on YouTube you know it’s going to be around $1,000 (give or take, depending on genre).

And it’s an exceptionally clean funnel to get followers to become longform viewers.

In a world where most savvy creators understand short form is marketing and longform is where the money is made, YouTube is most powerfully keeping this all on one platform.

I can’t talk about the current state of YouTube without talking about MrBeast.

Now that he’s shown his ability to make a cross-over premium streamer hit with Beast Games, studios are starting to knock on our doors again.

And who are they going to? Not TikTokkers. It’s all YouTubers.

They’ve proven their ability to hold attention for longer periods of time. It’s a natural jump.

And now that YouTube has taken the crown as the most streamed OTT channel, above Netflix, Disney, and Amazon, they’re clearly setting their sights on the bigger screen.

Maybe a return to funded longform like they did in the YouTube Premium days? You know, the one that gave us Cobra Kai?

Probably not. That’s ground they’re probably not excited to re-tread. But creators will continue doing it themselves.

In the meantime, YouTube is in a great position to continue its dominance.

TikTok still may go away, depending on how much Trump wants to make China mad about the trade war.

Meta is still struggling to figure out how to make their program understandable to creators with a beta that’s dragged on far too long.

And all other platforms are interesting, but nowhere nearly as built out or comprehensive.

So YouTube has: clearest monetization, biggest stars, most aspirational fandom.

YouTube needs: to continue winning longform, to uplevel content to take care of its TV audience, to stay clear of regulatory roadblocks.

And could be challenged by: AI slop, losing search to AI engines, the loss of U.S. trust on a global scale due to challenges with international relations.

Trust me: YouTube isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And for anyone who wants to build a career on the internet, it’s the default.

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GROW 1%:

Phil Ranta’s weekly social media growth newsletter with one actionable tip to grow.

This week’s ‘Grow 1%’ is titled Goals vs Tactics and discusses how a viewer learns about a brand from a profile page.

Here’s an excerpt, and you can read the entire edition in the link above:

I met with a creator this week with over 6m Instagram followers and discussed goals.

Her first thought was, "I want to hit 7m followers by the end of the year."

Great! That's a fantastic goal.

But I find it very hard for creators to set a goal and achieve it.

Why?

Because goals often have so many factors that it can feel very far away, which can be discouraging if you don't know what to do next.

And I only want creators to set goals that they control.

That's why I separate goals and tactics. While they can still reach for something massive, they have daily actionable tactics to help them get there.

For example, let's look at this creator: large Instagram following, model, wants to become more of a personality, is less concerned with revenue as building a sustainable business, eventually wants to build infrastructure so they aren't in front of the camera forever.

So we broke it down--

GOALS:

• 7m followers on Instagram by December 31, 2025

• Have a business that does not require her participation by December 31, 2026

• Make $100,000 monthly from content outside brand deals by December 31, 2025.

TACTICS:…

Continue reading here.

FAME & FORTUNE:

Influsense, the AI-driven influencer marketing company that has completely eluded my radar, and the radars of everyone I’ve asked about it this week, is apparently going to reach a $30m ARR in it’s first year and aim for a $300m valuation. Like all AI, I’m both skeptical and intrigued. If you use it, let me know what you think!

Creator funds are getting out of control. Now India has officially released details on their $1 Billion Creator Fund as a way to not only encourage creation in India, but set a stated goal of moving content from India to global markets. Honestly, I don’t even know how they would spend that much money, and I don’t think they do either.

Live streaming viewership was up 9% in Q1 2025, but Twitch shouldn’t pop the bubbly yet. A lot of that growth comes from non-Twitch platforms, including explosive growth from 1:1 competitor Kick and strong showings from South Korean platforms SOOP and Chzzk. The top streaming category: IRL. I’m looking at you, Kai Cenat.

Selfish post: are you looking for more ways to monetize your YouTube Shorts? At Fixated, we have a great program for that. If you want to learn more details, fill out this form and we’ll reach out!

INDUSTRY HIRING:

Meta needs a Head of Industry, Specialty & Disruptors. Though after this week in DC, I’m sure it’s just to get them to advertise, not to try to buy them.

Wonder Project is looking for a VP, Film Marketing because not every movie can have a ‘Chicken Jockey’ scene.

Red Bull Records wants a VP, Digital Marketing. Step one: launch the video game Tony Red Bull’s Pro Skater.

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.