Social platforms are investing big money into creator funds and products. Like LinkedIn ($25 million), Facebook and Instagram ($1B), YouTube Shorts ($100M), Snap ($1M per day), Only Fans (£80K), and the list goes on. The platforms are also aggresively launching new creator tools ranging from social / livestream commerce and live audio to self-publishing, fan payments, and subscriptions.

Chris and Andrew explain why, and how this trend could evolve into program pullbacks and creator illwill, investment in creator-owed businesses, different incentive structures for different content types, and more.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Chris Erwin:

So Andrew it's time for another Roundup podcast. But before we talk about the topic of this week, which is creator funds, just a quick explainer to the audience we have been off for about a month since we last published. We took a little break at the end of August and through Labor Day. We think it's helpful to refresh and energize. I was off surfing in Portugal. And then was at my brother's wedding in Texas. What were you doing Andrew?

Andrew Cohen:

On a wedding tour as well.

Chris Erwin:

Hopefully we're coming back with a Roundup that's going to be better and stronger, version 2.0.

Andrew Cohen:

Yes. Feeling well rested. Hopefully it's rest, not rust.

Chris Erwin:

I've never heard that before, but I like it. All right. So let's talk about creator funds. So what's happening? Platforms are investing big money into different creator funds and initiatives, really to keep creators on the platform. Right? So some news like LinkedIn over the past couple of weeks launched a 25 million dollar creator fund. Facebook and Instagram have announced that they want to pay out over a billion dollars to creators. Snap has their spotlight program initially a million dollar per day, but pulling back on that, talk about that in a sec. YouTube has a shorts fund for 100 million, and then there is a long laundry list. They're Square, and Linktree, SoundCloud, Pinterest, OnlyFans, Twitter, and a bunch more. But clearly Andrew, a lot of activity in the space to try and get creators excited, right?

Andrew Cohen:

The formula is simple. Creators bring audience and audience brings revenue. So the way it used to work was that these incoming platforms, they would offer a really broad reach and that they would monetize creators and publishers audiences via advertising by c...

The Future of Creator Funds and Tools

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