The trade desk for the creator economy.
YouTube Shopping added Amazon in India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Monday, a week after signing AliExpress in four markets. Channels with 500 subscribers can now tag Amazon products in 12 countries. YouTube's own help page says creators can't see which video or product drove an Amazon sale, and the money arrives about two months later.
ForgeGUI, an AI tool for Roblox developers, has used about $280,000 of clipping and UGC budget on Whop's Content Rewards, and its agency says the clips brought in more than a million users. One clipper says he has made more than $20,000. Spread across the 3,632 creators earning on the main campaign, the budget averages about $51 each.
Meta says partnership ads, the format that runs brand spend through a creator's handle, grew more than 97% to a $15 billion annual run rate. All of the media money goes to Meta. The creator's fee is a separate deal that Meta stays out of.
An invite-only Shorts bonus pays a floor for posting 16 Shorts a month, at least in one invite creators shared. It arrives three months before YouTube cuts Shorts ad revenue for channels below 10 million views every 90 days.
Spotify's new flat 10% fee nearly doubles its cut on every new paying member versus the 5.5% Podcast Subscriptions charged through Monday. It still undercuts Patreon's new-creator pricing.
Silas Capital led the creator-founded brand's Series A six weeks into Sephora. Fohr data shows Nogueira's sponsored Instagram posts fell 60% after launch, while her sponsored TikToks went up.
Invite-only Shorts bonuses landing in Studio put caps as high as ¥300,000 a month on the table for 16 posts, while Shorts ad share still needs 10 million views in 90 days from February 2027.
LinkedIn CEO Daniel Shapero told Fortune that professionals who keep their day jobs are landing brand deals worth hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars, with creators earning six times last year's advertiser payouts.
Billion Dollar Boy Group's first acquisition is an all-cash, multimillion deal for Creator Authority, and the buyer says the combined group will clear $100 million in 2027 revenue.
Bethenny Frankel is folding BB Endeavors into Bethenny Media, a company spanning content, brands, commerce and equity, after saying brand deals alone already clear $20 million a year.
Pakistan now assumes monetized creators earn at least Rs195 (about $0.71) per 1,000 YouTube views, caps expenses at 30% and puts the burden of proof on them.
Meta stops ByteDance ads on Instagram and Facebook in seven countries — and blocks third-party Meta campaigns that send users to TikTok — as the platforms fight over creators and ad dollars.
Faceless does not equal banned. YouTube's monetization review tests originality and authenticity — inauthentic mass-production and reused material — not whether a human face appears on camera.
Roblox reclassifies DevEx as royalties on 1 November. Foreign creators face up to 30% U.S. withholding on U.S.-player earnings, 24% without valid tax forms.
Cash and stock, all three founders stay, and the Bridgepoint-backed buyer last reported €100 million in annual revenue. Get Engaged's revenue is undisclosed.
YouTube will cut Shorts reach for channels that mainly re-upload other creators' clips. For clippers paid per 1,000 views, less reach is a pay cut.
Aspire, which says it pays creators more than $100 million, picks Lumanu for tax, FX, and payouts in 180-plus countries as it pushes enterprise global campaigns.
ShopMy opens Spotlights so brands can run proven affiliate posts as Meta Partnership Ads and TikTok Spark Ads on commission, not upfront fees. MUTHA cites 140% GMV.
Instagram Live video ads go generally available from 29 September as Partnership Ads on creator Lives. Korea Soft: Meta cites 24× viewers and 2.7× ROAS.
Alabama's first-in-nation TikTok teen-safety settlement sets a $100 million floor — up to $300 million — and hard daily, overnight, and feed limits before the state's trial could open.
Expanding Watch With to eligible long-form videos later this year, YouTube says reacting streamers keep live ad revenue and fan funding while original uploaders get attribution, Studio view credit, and control over which videos can be used — with no revenue share disclosed for the source channel.
The Yellowstone studio is committing capital to Yes Chef Studios with Jack Goldburg and Liam Henning, aiming to build scripted and unscripted food shows and a bench of new food creators — with Jack keeping ownership in the deal.
Average affiliate payouts to Indian creators more than doubled-plus between the first quarters of 2025 and 2026, YouTube said, as Amazon, Meesho, AJIO, Snapdeal and Tata CLiQ expand the merchant shelf ahead of festive season.
Five days after Disney locked Like Nastya into a development pact, Netflix takes four collections from India's biggest preschool YouTube brand — via Cookbook Media — and puts the audience numbers on the table while keeping the check quiet.
Alex Cooper's media company confirms three new series and one returning franchise for its fall slate, weeks after WTSL marked the business at half a billion — and keeps testing formats where the audience already is.
Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo move their top comedy podcast from Acast to SiriusXM with exclusive distribution and global ad sales across audio and video. Financial terms undisclosed by the company; The Hollywood Reporter's sources peg $160 million.
Like Nastya's first major-studio development deal covers Disney Jr./Disney+ animation, live-action family content, and library licensing. Terms undisclosed.
IAB UK forecasts £1.217bn in creator partnership spend for 2026 — first time over £1bn — as CreatorFronts admits the basic unit of value still isn’t standardized.
Steven.com and Authentic Brands Group launched OBSN on Monday. The partners say they will put up to $400 million into creator-led companies over the coming years — capital plus brand, product, and distribution, not another fragmented retainer stack.
SheSpeaks surveyed 365 creators for Business Insider. Eighteen percent said a brand explicitly asked them not to label a paid partnership in the past year. Creator self-disclosure also slipped versus a decade ago.
X expects to cut the last Creator Revenue Sharing checks today, covering earnings through 7 September. From here, creators who want platform money apply into Original Content Rewards — and the old 5 million organic-impression gate is gone.
Channel Revenue Tokens sold under Reg CF can move after a 12-month hold. FINRA BrokerCheck lists GigaStar Securities as a digital-asset ATS.
byFounders led. Wave Ventures joined. Cross-border creator payouts sit inside an agent-run campaign stack.
Declared paid promotions unlock per-market age and locale limits. Automated labels for undeclared branded content are scheduled for the coming months — with no published go-live date.
Original Content Rewards and subscriptions now settle through X Money in the United States. Non-U.S. creators stay on Stripe. Revenue Sharing still ends 7 September.
Combined debt and equity for creator-led media businesses. Checks typically run $500,000 to $5 million against YouTube, TikTok, Spotify and Roblox cash flows.
Affiliate network folds into Later's influencer stack. Links, commissions and the 1st/15th payout cadence stay. Company says revenue more than doubled in two years.
Companies House now warns the OnlyFans operating company overdue. The year to 30 November 2025 was due 31 August. No annual accounts of that period are on the filing history.
Existing members keep earning through the cutoff, then reapply. Payouts turn on “qualified impressions” from Premium users on the Home Timeline. X did not publish a rate or a pool percentage.
Eligible U.S. creators can tag products in Shorts, long-form and livestreams. Amazon still decides whether the account stays in good standing. Studio shows a daily total, not the video or the SKU.
The August 12 grant now covers “Twitch and/or its affiliates’ business.” A class action filed August 20 says the old purpose clause never licensed generative models, and Amazon has not published a rate.
The 20% is in Club’s own terms. Kick has not changed its subscription split, and its ads help page still says creators get no direct additional payment.
Bloomberg reported timed exclusives plus marketing and brand-deal penalties. No contracts signed. This is not a Partner Program change.
$16 million cash at close plus $4 million in deferred Acast shares. Completion was concurrent with signing.
The public number under a video is no longer the figure that pays the Partner Program. YouTube did not say how much counts will rise.
YouTube did not say how many of the more than 3 million YPP channels it claims currently sit under the Shorts floor.
The July 31 update changes recommendation eligibility. Snap did not explain whether that also removes a video's eligibility to earn ad revenue.
Business Insider reports Beast Industries had $91 million in contracted brand deals heading into 2025, including T-Mobile and Amazon commitments.
The seven-part show starts August 5 on Xfinity's social accounts and places the company's internet service inside the competition.
Ad sales rose 13% from a year earlier. Alphabet pointed to World Cup-related strength alongside direct response, brand advertising and living-room viewing.
The upload control is starting with YouTube Partner Program channels; Ask Studio can now generate and revise thumbnails only for long-form videos.
Business Insider reports full access costs $20 a week or $200 a year; Apple's U.S. listing labels a $19.99 Weekly Pass but also describes that price as monthly.
The test starts later this year in unspecified video-heavy countries, with a Feed-first opt-out and only a possible U.S. expansion next year.
Shows may surface in search, Recommended shows and Continue watching, giving serialized creator videos a presentation designed for bigger screens.
Insight Partners led the Series A, which will fund Passionfroot’s Zest AI agent, creator dataset and U.S. expansion. No valuation was disclosed.
Business Insider reports the August pilot adds a 10% to 20% sales commission; TikTok’s terms put ads, creators and AI content inside the plan while keeping product and compliance liability with sellers.
The 2025 U.S. report puts the ecosystem above 540,000 full-time-equivalent jobs, compared with 490,000 in YouTube's 2024 estimate.
TikTok says its 2026 NBA Finals hubs generated 497 million impressions and 426,000 watch referrals, figures that do not show how many people completed a tune-in.
Social Commerce Club will retain its brand and leadership inside the combined business. Podean did not disclose the deal's financial terms.
TikTok says 2.16 million unique viewers watched the July 2 Confessions II event, a record limited to its standalone artist broadcasts.
New episodes of Good Mythical Morning, Mythical Kitchen and Last Meals will reach Netflix and YouTube on the same day starting September 7.
A €1,245 creator pass, Adobe-backed beach and content studios put creators beside brand buyers; the harder question is how much access becomes signed budget.
The formal ad product looked DSA-compliant. The risk was sponsored-looking creator and brand posts that kept reaching minor accounts through the recommendation feed.
Yahoo reaches 250 million monthly U.S. users, and its NBA Draft bot shows why brands need approval, disclosure, and payment terms before turning a creator's expertise into AI.
The U.S. hosts 78 of 104 World Cup matches, and CBP/DHS say foreign influencers making paid content on visitor status may be working illegally.
Google will decommission current Tenor API integrations on June 30, and Klipy says 8,500 developers and 40,000 creators have migrated since January.
Albertsons and P&G will launch Rico's Tacos on June 23, using 25 shopper-trip insights, 15-second store teasers, app viewing, and sales measurement to test branded entertainment as retail media.
e.l.f. Hair opened on TikTok Shop on June 16 before Target, after a limited hair test sold out in 48 hours and brought in 65% new e.l.f. customers.
The marketer's guide to clipping campaigns, pay-per-view creator rewards, platforms like Content Rewards, Whop, Vyro, and Mainstage, and the checks that keep cheap reach from becoming bad media.
Substack says its first flagship sponsors are putting millions into creators, turning paid newsletter trust into brand inventory without calling itself an ad platform.
New York can now fine undisclosed synthetic-performer ads $1,000, forcing brands using AI influencers to prove the label survived every post.
Ana Zelu, Mia Zelu, Aitana Lopez, and Granny Spills all surface synthetic identity in profile copy, while TikTok, YouTube, and Meta policies still center on labeling AI media.
Quartermast and New Economies counted 81 creator-economy M&A deals in 2025, while large 2025 funding rounds clustered around AI, social commerce, and new communities.
Kit's 5,000-square-foot New York studio is free for Creator or Pro customers, putting professional production space inside the software subscription.
Clip Tech says brands pay clippers up to $5 per 1,000 views, while FTC guidance still requires each paid endorsement to disclose the material connection where viewers will see it.
A 2 million-video YouTube study found 146,800 affiliate videos; 45.5% had any disclosure and 12.2% clearly told viewers about compensation and the linked relationship.
Accenture is buying Whalar’s 170-person agency, with terms undisclosed and one outside estimate at $225M–$300M — a carve-out that turns creator marketing into enterprise growth infrastructure.
Lu do Magalu's ~$2.5M figure is a Kapwing rate-card model, not disclosed revenue — but the real story is the three cost lines a synthetic creator deletes, run by a team of eleven.
FaZe closed its de-SPAC at about $725 million, then disclosed in the same proxy that sold the deal that it expected to miss its own revenue forecasts by 20% — GameSquare bought the whole company for roughly $17 million.
The $1.1 billion price implies roughly 24 times forward revenue, all of it earned by taking a flat 10% of writer subscriptions — a cut Beehiiv and Ghost are undercutting at the top.
OnlyFans markets an 80% creator split, but its audited 2024 filing routed $497M to one owner — about what 397,000 average creator accounts earned all year.
Congo Brands committed to buy 18.5M cases of Prime a year — a $67.7M bottler suit and Prime's 71% UK revenue drop show how far real demand fell short.
Hailey Bieber's Rhode ran so far past its earnout thresholds that e.l.f. marked the liability up $57.6M — flipping Q4 to a $49.4M GAAP loss on 35% sales growth.
GameSquare bought Click Management — $12.4M revenue, 545 deals, 75 creators — for $8.5M, a 0.69x revenue mark that sits below almost every creator-economy M&A headline.
e.l.f. held marketing near a quarter of net sales while L’Oréal’s ad-and-promo ran 32.4% — and rode 28 straight quarters of growth to $1.31B. Here’s the always-on creator engine closing the gap.
Coty’s 8-K pegged Kylie Cosmetics at $177M in trailing revenue; months later its filings let Forbes reset 2018 sales to ~$125M against the ~$360M the family had promoted — the gap a public-company audit forced open.