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TOGETHER WITH |
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It's Monday and OpenAI went big for the Super Bowl with a $14 million ad that compared the development of ChatGPT to the invention of the wheel. |
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Today's News |
💸 Roblox pays creators almost $1 billion 🧑⚖️ Trump stops trying to sue Twitter 🏈 Fox offers $500K Super Bowl ads (on Tubi) 🎭 Minidrama studios come to the U.S. 🎙️ This week on the podcast…
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MONEY MOVES |
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Roblox paid creators almost $1 billion in 2024 |
The stats: Last month, Fortnite announced that it paid creators $352 million in 2024. Now, Roblox has revealed a sum that dwarfs that stat: during its latest earnings call, the platform reported paying creators $280 million in Q4 alone—bringing it to a 2024 total of nearly $930 million. |
That massive payout isn't just a win for creators. Roblox takes a 30% cut of developers' sales through its platform, so increasing creator earnings means upping its own yield, too. Overall, the company's Q4 revenue was $988.2 million, up 32% year-over-year. It expects that number to increase slightly in Q1 2025 to between $990 million and just over $1 billion. |
Roblox also saw a 19% year-over-year increase in monthly active players (bringing it to 18.9 million), as well as a 21% year-over-year rise in the number of "engaged hours" players spent within creators' Roblox games (for a quarterly total of 18.7 billion hours). |
The context: Despite Meta's costly attempts to become the world's #1 metaverse hub, Roblox and Fortnite both continue to outclass it—but Roblox has clearly pulled ahead when it comes to payouts for developers of digital games and items. |
That gap can at least partially be attributed to one key difference between Roblox and Fortnite: the latter platform started out as a battle royale game with all assets developed by owner Epic Games. It only later graduated to having independent game developers, who now make their own content through its Fortnite Creative sandbox mode. Roblox, on the other hand, doesn't have a core in-house-developed game; instead, it's always been a platform for developers to create their own games and digital assets. That business model set it up to be a leader in the metaverse—and a major contributor to the $250 billion creator economy. |
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🔆 SPONSORED 🔆 |
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Lifetime Perks for Creators Across the World: Welcome to the Creators HQ Founding Members Program |
Creators HQ is an innovative digital and physical space in Dubai where creators thrive and a network of experts is never more than a step away. From slick editing suites to exclusive partnerships, Creators HQ is dedicated to providing unlimited opportunities to creatives worldwide. |
80 founding members have already been selected from among the world's top creators and industry leaders. Now, Creators HQ is opening 20 additional slots for anyone in the creative field to apply. |
What does it mean to be a founding member? |
Founding members receive dozens of perks, including… |
Lifetime access to Creators HQ facilities Guaranteed speaking slots at the 1 Billion Followers Summit Priority access to government creator campaigns Introductions to major companies and partners 24/7 concierge services, including Golden Visa relocation support Invitations to exclusive events Eligibility for a special affiliate program
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Applications are open for creatives, media professionals, entrepreneurs, tech innovators, and more. Hit the link below to apply: |
Become a Creators HQ Founding Member → |
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
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GAME DAY DECISIONS |
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Tubi or Not Tubi: Fox offers a choice with $500,000 Super Bowl ads |
The Game Day deal: For Fox, broadcasting this year's Super Bowl on both traditional TV and Tubi (its free, ad-supported streaming platform) provided a link to new audiences—and an intriguing opportunity for advertisers. |
Super Bowl LIX was the first to be broadcast on a free, ad-supported TV (FAST) platform. That novel distribution avenue opened a fresh batch of ad inventory to meet the demand for Super Bowl commercials—at prices far lower than the $8+ million price tags attached to some of this year's traditional TV slots. According to Digiday, Fox offered 15-second Tubi spots for as little as $500,000 apiece, with some agencies receiving that offer as late as January 31. |
The response: Brands reportedly jumped at the chance to snap up those discounted slots, leading Fox to carve out additional floater units to sell. It's not hard to see why interest was so high: the previous two Super Bowls both achieved streaming viewership records (on CBS' Paramount+ and NBC's Peacock), and Tubi itself offers brands an audience of 97 million monthly active users who are willing to experience commercial interruptions in exchange for free access to popular content. |
If the first Super Bowl broadcast in the FAST lane convinces brands of the potential of ad-supported streaming services, it'll be good news for platforms and viewers alike. Sports fans are typically served the same ads over and over on streaming platforms, so an influx of new ad inventory would add some much-needed variety to the mix. |
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SHORT AND SWEET |
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Minidrama studios are bringing bite-sized soap operas to Western audiences |
The trend: We're in a new age of soap operas—one where all the drama is packed into just 60 or 90 seconds of content posted on platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram. |
Minidramas first became a dominant force in China and are now gaining traction in the West. Those trope-driven series—which initially emerged around 2018—have historically been produced by Chinese studios like Tencent and Kuaishou. According to Bloomberg, minidrama studios operate by producing bite-size episodes for five-figure budgets, distributing a few on platforms like TikTok's sister app Douyin, and then redirecting viewers to their own apps to watch full series. |
The stats: That business model has become a stunning success in China, where studios now produce between 5,000 and 8,000 new series a year. Thanks to viewer spend and ad revenue, China's minidrama industry collectively made just under $7 billion in 2024, surpassing the country's box office earnings and representing a year-over-year jump of 35%. |
The expansion: Some of that revenue growth could be the result of rising Western interest. Minidramas have found a new audience among American TikTok users over the past few years, leading established Chinese studios to form U.S. headquarters, hire American production teams, and tap bilingual actors to film in both English and Chinese. |
Newer U.S.-based studios have also seized on the genre's growing popularity by producing minidramas in English for an American audience. One of those companies—ReelShort—is operated by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Crazy Maple Studios, and claims more than 10 million U.S. viewers. It produced one of the most popular minidramas on TikTok and YouTube in 2023 (The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband) and is currently building a content library in 16 languages for audiences across Latin America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. |
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LISTEN UP 🎙️ |
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This week on the podcast… |
The reunion: It's a rare occurrence for industry experts Lauren Schnipper and Josh Cohen to be in the same place. Last week, however, the duo reunited for SoCom 2025 to explore the world of social ecommerce and catch up on the hottest creator economy goss. |
The episode: Here are the highlights from their IRL sit-down (aka the latest installment of Creator Upload): |
YouTube brought creators and fans together with a new Communities update Creators left their mark on Super Bowl advertising Doritos resurrected a classic contest to join the Game Day adstravaganza Khaby Lame vowed to "see all the world and its problems" as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
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Tune into Creator Upload on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to find out more. |
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
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