After a pretty hectic start to the month, things finally seem to be settling down. Just kidding! This is the creator economy we’re talking about; things are never quiet. As rumors of a ‘Twitch Adpocalyse’ swirl, Passionfruit has been reporting from the frontline.
Other major creator economy news covered this week include the viewing figures from that boxing fight, MrBeast (again), and Coca-Cola’s new, frankly cursed AI-generated commercial. As always, we’ve handpicked the best stories of the week, so, to stay in the know, read on.
Is There Actually a Twitch Adpocalypse?
In 2017, YouTube experienced an “adpocalypse.” This occurred when advertisers started pulling their ads from the site after it was placed next to videos they considered objectionable. This led to many YouTubers losing revenue from their videos, and now, Twitch streamers are worrying the same thing is happening to them.
“Dozens” of creators have reported a decline in revenue. ThatStockGuy, for instance, claimed that his revenue is down by 95%, while gaming creator Lacy has said that her daily earnings have dropped from $10,000 to $2,000.
In this piece, there are plenty of potential reasons for this revenue drop, including stricter content moderation, the restriction of political content on Twitch, and the role of content tags.
But is there really an ‘adpocalypse’? Read the full article here to find out.
60 Million People Watch Mike Tyson and Jake Paul Fight
For the past few years, Jake Paul and his brother Logan have pivoted from content creation to combat sports. Jake Paul won his first six fights before losing to Tommy Fury. However, despite the loss, he revealed on his podcast that he earned $30 million on that fight alone. His clash with boxing legend Mike Tyson seems to be equally lucrative.
Early viewing figures by Netflix suggest that 60 million people tuned in to the streamer to watch Tyson’s and Paul’s exhibition fight, with viewing figures peaking at 65 million. But what exactly happened during the fight? Did Paul or Tyson end up victorious?
ICYMI, check out our full article explaining that here.
How to Stitch on TikTok
It isn’t called social media for nothing. From it’s conception, TikTok has been all about bringing people together. Stitches are one of the best ways to interact with other creators. Quite literally, the feature involves a creator choosing to “stitch” their video to an original TkTok in order to add to the video in some way: from agreeing, to disagreeing, or otherwising illuminating the original clip.
Stitching a TikTok or being on the receiving end of a stitch can also have a lot of benefits, such as garnering an increased audience base. To find out everything about stitching, including how to stitch, how to change your stitch settings, and how to find out if your own video has been stitched, look no further.
Find out what you need to know about stitching here.
Coca-Cola’s Cursed New AI Ad
They say that the Coca-Cola Christmas commercial is the first sign that the holidays have arrived, but something was very wrong this year. The usually wholesome commercial felt hollow. Everything looked (relatively) the same, but something just felt off.
If this was your experience, don’t worry, you weren’t imagining things. The new Coca-Cola commercial is entirely AI-generated. As Lon Harris points out in his article on the subject, Coca-Cola hired not one, not two, but three AI companies to develop versions of the commercial for them.
Unsurprisingly, the commercial caused an uproar across social media, with online critics describing it as “soulless.” In equally concerning news, Coca-Cola also launched its own AI app, which generates personalized, Christmassy snowglobes for users.
To find out more about this whole mess, check out the article here.
How Did We Get the Beast Games?
On Dec. 19, MrBeast and Amazon’s reality show, “Beast Games,” will finally drop. The long-awaited competition show features 1,000 contestants competing for $5 million. But it isn’t necessarily long-awaited for the right reasons.
Touted as one of the largest productions ever, the most publicity the show has had is related to its numerous controversies; several of which were broken by Passionfruit’s own Steven Asarch.
The controversies inflicting Beast Games include poor working conditions — like a lack of food, being denied medication and being forced to sleep on floors — and a class-action lawsuit over unpaid wages and hostile work conditions. Moving forward, Beast Games will have huge implications for the creator economy.
Click here to read us unpacking it all.
Passionfruit on YouTube: The Reactorverse Episode 44
Our beloved podcast, the Reactorverse, is back with episode 44(!). This time, we’re meeting Kaiielle, who is better known as “Movies with KL” on YouTube. Like most reactors, Kaiielle started her reaction journey with big IPs like Star Wars and Marvel.
Since then, she has produced over 200 videos ranging from reactions to 1950s movies to video game adaptions like The Last of Us and Fallout. I’ve missed out on so many amazing stories so far in my life,” she says in her channel description, “and now I’m dedicating time to catching up.”
Capcut `Desktop Review
Every content creator worth their salt knows what CapCut is. The entry-level editing software has been a savior for TikTokers wanting to take their content to the next level. It’s proven so successful that CapCut has released a desktop version of the app. But is it up to scratch?
In his review, John-Michael Bond notes features like the app’s simplicity, the ability to directly export videos to TikTok and Instagram, and its huge library of templates and stock sounds. “There’s a reason a billion-plus people have downloaded CapCut,” he wrote. “For me, CapCut Desktop is the best editing app I’ve used for TikTok.”
Read our review here.
