creator economy

Patreon, the paid membership platform for creators, announced Tuesday the release of new features designed to help creators monetize their non-paying followers and tap into new revenue streams. This includes…

Patreon introduces a gifting feature and other creator tools

Twitch has come up with a solution for the ongoing copyright issues that DJs encounter on the platform. The company announced Thursday a new program that enables DJs to stream…

Twitch DJs will now have to pay music labels to play songs in livestreams

With Plannin, creators can tell their audience about their latest trip, which hotels they liked and post photos of their travels.

Former Priceline execs debut Plannin, a booking platform that uses travel influencers to help plan trips

Sanil Chawla remembers the meetings he had with countless artists in college. Those creatives were looking for one thing: sustainable economic infrastructure that could help them scale rather than drown…

Slingshot raises $2.2 million to provide financial services to artists

Link-in-bio startup Linktree has crossed 50 million users and is rolling out the beta of its social commerce program.

Linktree surpasses 50M users, rolls out its social commerce program to more creators

Featured Article

Will a TikTok ban impact creator economy startups? Not really, founders say

President Joe Biden signed a bill on Wednesday that could ban TikTok — for real this time. After so many false starts and stops, some creator economy founders and their clients are rolling their eyes. They’ve been through this before. “I think two years ago, this would have been devastating,��…

Will a TikTok ban impact creator economy startups? Not really, founders say

Featured Article

Gen Z is losing its political voice on social media

President Joe Biden signed the bill this week that could ban TikTok from the U.S. if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform. According to young political content creators, the ban could decimate Gen Z’s access to political news and information. “An unfortunately large amount of 18- to 24-year-olds…

Gen Z is losing its political voice on social media

Bump allows creators to track income and market value, which can help them negotiate better deals and see how much money they are owed from partners.

Bump raises $3M seed to help creators manage finances

What does Taylor Swift have in common with a group of improv comedians pretending to be wizards? They can both sell out Madison Square Garden (… and also, their fans…

A Dungeons & Dragons actual play show is going to sell out Madison Square Garden

If you haven’t been seeing much political content on Instagram lately, there’s a reason for that. Since March, Instagram and Threads have instituted a new default setting that limits political…

Hundreds of creators sign letter slamming Meta’s limit on political content

The launch of the new features come as TikTok Shop is seeking to take on YouTube Shopping and other competitors in the space.

YouTube launches new Shopping features to help creators market products and grow their earnings

Gumroad, an e-commerce company for creators, updated its rules to more strictly limit NSFW content, citing restrictions from payment processors like Stripe and PayPal. For creators who sell adult art,…

Gumroad no longer allows most NSFW art, leaving its adult creators panicked

ShopMy, a marketing platform for content creators to connect with brands and monetize their content, announced that it raised $18.5 million. The company will use the money to help scale…

ShopMy lands $18.5M to help influencers earn more money from promoting products

Featured Article

Creators are frustrated but energized as TikTok ban gains momentum

The bill that could ban TikTok took one step closer to becoming a law on Wednesday. After being introduced just last week, the bill was fast-tracked through the House of Representatives and will now head to the Senate. V Spehar, the TikTok creator behind UnderTheDeskNews, has been a staunch critic…

Creators are frustrated but energized as TikTok ban gains momentum

Instagram said today that it is expanding its marketplace tool to connect brands with creators for paid partnerships or ads in eight new countries. The new markets that will get…

Instagram launches its marketplace to connect brands and creators in 8 new countries

TikTok’s latest viral superstar is Reesa Teesa, a Georgia woman who posted 50 videos — just under 10 minutes long apiece — chronicling her tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband. That’s…

Reesa Teesa’s ‘Who TF did I marry?’ TikToks are like an audiobook

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has finally set up shop on TikTok. Despite controversy in Congress over the app, TikTok is an indispensable tool for presidential candidates to reach young…

President Biden has a meme strategy, and it’s leaning on Dark Brandon

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Meta, commented in today’s Senate hearing on children’s online safety that teenagers should be able to be creators and share their content widely. Senator…

Mark Zuckerberg defends teenage creators’ right to public Instagram accounts

Update, 1/31/23 at 1:15 PM ET: Pokimane has now confirmed she left Twitch to stream on YouTube. One of the most popular streamers on Twitch, Pokimane announced today that she…

Iconic streamer Pokimane is leaving Twitch for YouTube

Twitch is introducing a new tier to its premium revenue share program — currently known as the “Partner Plus Program” — that would grant a 60/40 revenue split and has…

Twitch announces 60/40 revenue split in expanded Plus Program

MrBeast made over $263,000 in ad revenue from posting his latest video on X, but the YouTube icon says he thinks this number is “a bit of a facade.” “Advertisers…

MrBeast made $263K from a video on X, but calls the payout ‘a bit of a facade’

Lindsey Lee Lugrin took an unconventional route to becoming a founder, so it’s only fitting that her fundraising strategies are just as unique. Her company Fuck You Pay Me (FYPM),…

How FYPM used Instagram Stories and thirst traps to raise $275K

Featured Article

The creator economy is ready for a workers’ movement

Erin McGoff has 3 million followers on social media, but with the money she gets from Instagram and TikTok, she wouldn’t be able to pay for the plate of mozzarella sticks we’re sharing in a Baltimore bar. “On Instagram, I’ll have a video hit 900,000 views and make six dollars,”…

The creator economy is ready for a workers’ movement

Tim Schaecker, a TikToker with 8.8 million followers and a member of the German boy band Elevator Boys, officially launched today a new social networking app in an effort to…

CNDO is a new ‘challenge-based’ social networking app for creators and fans

“New characters unlocked on the nine-month Ultimate World Cruise TikTok channel!” says an older man as pink letters fly across the screen to form a kooky subtitle. “Who are they?”…

The World Cruise on TikTok is an unintentional online reality show

Another round of layoffs is hitting Twitch. The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform will cut 35% of its staff, or roughly 500 employees, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Twitch publicly confirmed the layoffs in…

Twitch is laying off another 500 employees

Can you believe that it was only this summer when Baby Gronk rizzed up Livvy Dunne? Sometimes, the internet’s most viral memes may seem entirely incomprehensible (like when Baby Gronk…

The internet moments that defined 2023

A woman in a blue tracksuit is on the floor of a bright asylum-like room, stretching in a pigeon yoga pose when she turns to the stranger she plans to…

The new American Dream is to get MrBeast to pay off your debt

We last wrote about Breakr — a platform that connects record labels, artists and brands with social media influencers to run mass campaigns in a programmatic way — when it closed…

Startup Breakr raises more capital, pays $3.5M to creators

Welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups. This is the first of a two-part series that we built for you going back…

Startup shutdowns and AI showdowns: The 2023 chronicles