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Night Light | MrBeast Nabs Creator of the Year
Reed Duchscher
December 02, 2022
The Reed of the Week
Shorts creators dominated YouTube’s 2022 top creators listThe two questions I get asked often are “Where should I start as a content creator” and “How do I grow on YouTube”. Usually, I say something like “find a niche you’re really passionate about and start making content you know that community wants”. My answer to that questions hasn't changed, but it has evolved with the addition of YouTube shorts. There's never been a better time to start your content creation journey (and I truly mean that). In my 7 years representing YouTube creators, I've never seen a feature more valuable for organic growth than YouTube Shorts. TikTok is still valuable, but posting Shorts is now the key to building a YouTube audience. Just look at the breakout creator lists for 2022, look at the top 500 YouTube channels atm. It's completely dominated by YouTube shorts channels!
This is the first time in history that you can go from 0 subscribers to 1M+ in a matter of months (Airrack… I know). 9 of the 10 breakout creators on the list can attribute a large chunk of their growth to Shorts. The reason why is that the cost to gain a sub is far more efficient with Shorts. You don’t need to spend millions of dollars to create content that can garner millions of views. Most Shorts are $0 budget, you can create multiple videos a day, and any single one can go insanely viral. Jimmy and I have always thought that any creator that would ever catch up to him would have to do it through some other product or feature. My bet is that Shorts can be that product. That’s why we are doubling down on Shorts and expect it to continue as YouTube’s meta going into 2023.
Creator News
Jimmy featured on the cover of Forbes MagazineOn the cover of Rolling Stone and Forbes in the same year - has to be a short list of people to accomplish that. The line between the creator economy and the mainstream continues to blur.
Cameron Dallas raised pre-seed round for dating app IRLYI've seen more dating app pitches than I can count, and I love seeing creators be true difference-makers when it comes to securing funding. I'm increasingly seeing traditional investors treat talent as equal partners in business ventures like this, as opposed to simply being a marketing engine.
Noah Schnapp launched crowdfunded vegan Nutella brandI think it's interesting to see alternative ways of raising money becoming more common in creator-led businesses. Noah's involvement of his fanbase in the building and funding of tbh should be valuable for brand adoption and staying power.
Can't Miss Clips
Drake endorsed FeastablesFeastables x Champagne Papi: coming to an OVO store near you?
A Redditor broke down how much Jimmy has spent on videos$23m is a huge number, but if we are calculating how much Jimmy has spent on videos it's actually way higher. Prize money is maybe the smallest portion of spend when it comes to making a MrBeast video.
Moriah Elizabeth's iPhone app, Spark, debuted at #1 on the app storeWith $2.5m invested and 125,000 downloads, I feel that Moriah's app is a perfect case study in the power of creator ownership of their relationship with their fans. Excited to see what more comes from creator-led ventures like Spark.
Business & Entrepreneurship
Bytedance investors struggle to sell off shares amid IPO uncertainty I don't think this is an existential threat to TikTok as a platform, but something to monitor going forward. The ascension of YouTube Shorts could not have come at a better time.
Pearpop Raises $18m to scale social collaboration marketplaceI'm excited about Pearpop as a way of democratizing creator monetization, with 71% of payouts having gone to creators with under one million followers. I really do mean it when I say there's never been a better time to start creating.
Creator monetization comes to DiscordGreat to see more platforms work in ways to serve creators and their communities. Discord is already the best place for real-time creator engagement, and it's a no-brainer for them to work in tiered privileges to help further build community.