November 22, 2024 | Read Online

TOGETHER WITH

It's Friday and a new startup is bringing TikTok Shop to the real world—or at least to Santa Monica, where a physical retail-slash-streaming location just hit Third Street.

Today's News

⚽ MrBeast and Cristiano Ronaldo break the internet
🎒 Are brainrot study guides the secret to schooling Gen A?
🎬 The Sidemen head to Netflix
🛠️ Alan Chikin Chow builds a production studio
📱 A website offers an unedited peek at YouTube in 2009

BEAST MODE

Cristiano Ronaldo wanted his MrBeast collab to "break the internet." It did.

The big collab: As it turns out, there is a guaranteed way to go viral: just put Instagram's most-followed individual and YouTube's most-subscribed individual in a room together and hit 'record.'

That was the formula behind the latest video to hit Cristiano Ronaldo's YouTube channel, UR Cristiano. The soccer star invited MrBeast to join him for a collab designed to break the internet (which, of course, it did). Within eight hours of posting, the resulting Ronaldo/MrBeast video had collected 10 million views and soared to #1 on YouTube's Trending tab. And that's only the first installment of the duo's collaboration: MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) noted that Ronaldo will also appear in a video on the main MrBeast channel on November 30.

The context: Ronaldo first launched his YouTube channel in August as a home for personal content featuring his family. Longtime fans were eager to follow him to a new platform: thanks to the enormity of Ronaldo's base (he currently sits at the top of the Instagram leaderboard with more than 636 million followers) his YouTube hub needed only one day to attract over seven million subscribers.

It wasn't long before the Manchester United star (who now claims 67 million YouTube "siuubscribers") began eyeing the title of most-subscribed-to creator on YouTube. In response, the current record-holder—Donaldson—said he wouldn't relinquish his title "without a fight."

That status quo may have set up Donaldson and Ronaldo as rivals, but it hasn't stopped the former creator from offering helpful tips to his latest source of competition. In their first video, Donaldson encouraged Ronaldo to switch to close-mouthed thumbnails (as he did earlier this year) and suggested that he leverage his connections to collab with notable celebs.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

1 Billion Followers Summit has officially opened applications for a $1 million creator award

1 Billion Followers Summit is returning for 2025.

From January 11-13, 5,000+ creators and 300+ expert speakers will gather in Dubai to explore the future of the creator economy, examine monetization strategies, and network under the theme "Content for Good."

1 Billion Followers Summit 2025 will feature 100+ activities, 3 expert-led tracks, and the world's biggest creator award: $1 million.

That prize is designed to recognize content creators who deliver purposeful and innovative material that positively impacts communities and helps younger generations understand the true values of social media.

Applications for the $1 million creator prize are open from now until November 30.

Submitted projects should foster interaction and engagement with a broad audience, and must have a positive effect on the community. Individuals with impactful ideas in content creation can submit applications at www.1billionsummit.com.

Will you leave the 1 Billion Followers Summit as a millionaire? Hit the link below to submit your project:

Apply for the $1M Award →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

Companies like Coconote and StudyRot may have discovered the secret to making educational material more palatable to Gen Alpha: brainrot-style study guides. (Tubefilter)
The New York Times has accused OpenAI—aka the developer behind ChatGPT—of deleting potential evidence in an ongoing copyright lawsuit over the company's AI training practices. (Engadget)
Instagram head Adam Mosseri says Threads has updated its recommendation algorithm to "prioritize content from people you follow." (Engadget)
A proposed final judgment from the Department of Justice "requires Google to divest Chrome, which will permanently stop Google's control of this critical search access point." (NBC News)

SWITCHING SIDES

After hitting "the ceiling" on YouTube, the Sidemen are going to Netflix

The move: One of YouTube's top creator groups is headed to Netflix. The Sidemen have signed the second U.K.-based season of their Big Brother-style influencer reality show, Inside, over to the streaming service. The first season of Inside debuted this past June, and its premiere episode (which introduced 10 influencer contestants in a competition for £1 million) attracted over 14 million views. The Sidemen's channel as a whole brings in nearly 80 million views a month, and has just over 21 million subscribers.

Now, in addition to claiming rights to Inside's second U.K. season, Netflix has commissioned the first season of a U.S.-based version of the show. And according to the BBC, both seasons will air only on the streaming service—not on YouTube.

The context: The Sidemen's decision to team up with Netflix comes down to their explosive growth as a group. Member Vik Barn told the BBC that the seven-man crew has hit "the ceiling with YouTube" and are now "thinking about how to connect with different people."

Even so, Netflix wasn't necessarily an obvious choice for the Sidemen. Despite previously working with the streamer to release their documentary, The Sidemen Story, Barn noted that the group was initially hesitant to strike another deal because they are "all very particular about the way we work" and operate on a fast-paced schedule.

Similar concerns often make creators reluctant to work with bigger production entities, as many don't want to make the sacrifice of adjusting to a streaming service's production schedule without the promise of significant returns. Whether Netflix can provide the kind of outcome the Sidemen are looking for remains to be seen—but in the meantime, fans can prepare for future installments of Inside by binging the first U.K. season on the Sidemen's YouTube channel.

IN PRODUCTION

YouTube's multiformat king is opening a production studio

The studio: Alan Chikin Chow is taking his production process to the next level. The multiformat YouTube creator—whose personal channel has attracted more than 67 million subscribers—is opening a 10,000-square-foot production facility in Los Angeles. According to Taylor Lorenz of User Mag, that studio encompasses 10 sets equipped with top-of-the-line cameras and lighting equipment. Chow and his 20-person team will use their new space to shoot all of the creator's YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram content—but their plans for the studio extend far beyond social media.

The plan: Chow told User Mag that he aims to grow Alan's Universe into a multiplatform franchise spread across film, TV, live music, and IRL tours. The long-form series—which puts Chow at the center of dramatic high school plotlines, horror stories, and other pieces of genre fare—already routinely earns millions of views per episode on YouTube.

Chow isn't the only top creator seeking to compete with traditional film and TV by bringing production in-house. Dude Perfect has big plans for a massive studio facility in the Dallas area, while moralist Dhar Mann has enhanced his operation with help from MTV vet Sean Atkins.

The creator: Although Chow's production facility will primarily allow him to level up his long-form series, it was short-form content that first made him a star. The creator's prowess with YouTube Shorts vaulted him to the top of the charts not long after the format's launch in 2021. Three years later, Chow often pulls in more than 500 million YouTube views per week and occasionally claims the #1 spot in our U.S. Top 50 rankings. At no point in the past year has his weekly YouTube traffic dipped below 100 million views.

WATCH THIS 📺

Welcome to IMG_0001: A time capsule dedicated to "raw, unedited" YouTube videos

The feature: If you were sentient in 2009, you might remember the advent of "Send to YouTube," an Apple feature that gave iPhone and iPod Touch users the ability to post videos on YouTube with a single tap.

That capability might not seem so earth-shattering in 2024, but at the time, it was a power rush of futuristic proportions—one users were eager to seize upon. In fact, people posted millions upon millions of videos to YouTube with automatic filenames like IMG_1701.

The time capsule: Now, thanks to Ben Wallace and Riley Walz, viewers can watch a whopping 5 million of those clips. Walz recently created a website called IMG_0001, which he describes as a "time capsule of raw, unedited moments from random lives." Check out a few of those vintage videos here.

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