Hey Creatorverse readers,
Steven Bartlett, host of the “Diary of a CEO” podcast, is getting an even bigger piece of the creator industry pie. Barlett’s creator holding company Steven.com is partnering with the global brand and entertainment platform Authentic to launch the creator-focused platform, OBSN after Steven.com scored a $425 million valuation following an investment round led by Slow Ventures and Apeiron Investment Group last year.
In the coming years, the partnership hopes to deploy up to $400 million in creator businesses.
Essentially, the goal of OBSN is to offer creators a one-stop-shop when it comes to offerings like production, live events and commerce sales. As a creator himself, Bartlett noticed that as he became more popular, various management firms and agencies pressured him to fragment his company more. But the more fragmented it became, the less of a chance there was of Steven.com acting as a cohesive brand.
“In a world where sovereignty, which is owning the relationship with your audience, is increasingly more important, there’s no chance of sovereignty if your data is everywhere and there are different people pulling walled gardens around it because they have their own incentives,” Bartlett said on Monday to a roomful of advertising heads and media.
As for Authentic, the company, which is approaching $40 billion in annual retail revenue globally, will help creators and creator companies scale their brands. Authentic already has teams focused on several major creator needs such as product licensing, digital commerce and experiences. As the company with the likeness rights to celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and David Beckham, Authentic has a history of translating famous names into recognizable brands for the modern age.
Bartlett’s OBSN is the latest example of creators who have recognized that the entertainment industry at large doesn’t know what to do with them and are just building a platform themselves. These ventures can prove to be very successful. Alex Cooper’s Unwell scored a $500 million valuation earlier this year, and Rhett & Link’s Mythical has cooked up a whole universe of creator-led shows. But it’s still too early to tell if these creator-helping-creator companies really are the future or if they’re a stepping stone in this rapidly evolving industry.
Exactly what kind of creators OBSN is looking for is a bit up in the air. The two companies will be analyzing potential creator clients to see whether their audiences can be easily translated into commerce sales. Creators who focus on health, fashion and sports are on their radar.
“There’s all these little things that we have to do and check from a data standpoint to make sure that they can actually convert,” Jamie Salter, the founder and executive chairman of Authentic Brands Group, told me.
Salter and Barlett both walked me through their thought processes when it comes to identifying potential OBSN creators, an elaborate process that evaluates everything from how unique a creator is to their audience engagement and projected sustainability. Ironically, the acronym for this winning formula is “VIBE,” which stands for value proposition; influence; business model, sustainability and revenue; and evolution of the content. They even have a process in place in case their creator partners want to experiment with their content — a move that’s commonplace in the creator ecosystem but that can spook legacy players.
“[Experimentation] is central to the studied approach,” Bartlett told me, showing me Steven.com’s slack channel and weekly leaderboard that’s exclusively dedicated to celebrating experiments, no matter if they succeed or fail.
Now onto the rest.
Kayla Cobb
Senior Reporter [email protected]
What’s New
Senators Cory Booker and John Kennedy announced the bipartisan Senate Creator Caucus
Washington D.C. is paying closer attention to creator needs. Yesterday, Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and John Kennedy (R-LA) announced the launch of the Senate Creator Caucus alongside a panel of creators that included Mark Vins (851,000 Instagram followers), Jackie Aina (3.4 million YouTube followers) and MatPat (5 million X followers). Though Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat, isn’t currently a creator, he made the popular YouTube channel Game Theorists, which he sold in 2022. So what are these creators’ main concerns?Taxes and endless hurdles from a government that still refuses to understand this $252 billion industry.
“We’re small businesses, but we don’t have a tax code. It is hard for us to get loans because the bank doesn’t think that this is actually a legitimate business,” Patrick said during the panel. You can watch the full presentation here.
Meta is being sued for using Facebook and Instagram images to train AI without users’ consent
Parents from Illinois and California are suing Meta, but this time it’s not about child safety concerns. It’s about AI. The lawsuit claims that Meta illegally used their Facebook and Instagram photos to build a face-recognition system for its smart glasses and train its generative AI models. The lawsuit is a proposed class action suit.
People are watching creators about 60% more often than they were a year ago
A new report from the YouTube Culture and Trends team and NRG has found that audience viewership for creators is up across the board. In the U.S., 67% of participants aged 14 to 44 years old said they were watching more content or following more creators that no one they personally knew was watching compared to five years ago. The same study also found that 63% of people in the same age group said that, compared to five years ago, they watch more content or follow more creators that everyone they know is also watching or following. The same report found that YouTube videos related to “Backrooms” have been viewed more than 15 billion times. Just further evidence that mainstream culture isn’t necessarily disappearing; it’s evolving.
Platform Updates
Amazon Prime Video adds shortform news clips
If you want to get more of your news from Jeff Bezos, now you can. On Monday, Amazon Prime Video announced that the streaming platform will now include on-demand news clips from both local and national stories. These will initially be available on TVs and living room devices before rolling out to web and mobile devices. The option will join Prime Video’s existing local, national, and world news coverage, which are available to everyone in the U.S. whether or not they have a Prime subscription.
Meta launches Meta One, a new subscription for creators and businesses
Meta introduced Meta One yesterday, an offering that will give creators and businesses more AI usage across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Meta AI. More than 50 features are already part of the launch, which has 15 million subscriptions and trials so far. Plans start at $2.99 per month and go up to $14.99 per month and will let users use AI more often to edit photos and videos as well as an enhanced profile that can showcase your website.
The company also unveiled its Creator Marketing Hub and will start rolling out live video ads on Instagram. YouTube isn’t the only tech platform becoming TV.
Twitch tests an AI “stream coach” to give creators feedback
Twitch is experimenting with a new tool that uses AI to give a select group of streamers feedback on their content. The offering is completely optional, and creators can opt out of using it. Also, it should be noted that Twitch is in the middle of a lawsuit from creators over using their content to train AI models that lets creators opt out instead of opting in.
Movers and Shakers
Caleb Hammer’s “Financial Audit” partners with Red Seat Ventures
“Financial Audit,” the aggressive personal finance podcast from Caleb Hammer, has partnered with Red Seat Ventures, the creator-focused digital media company owned by Fox Corp. Under this deal, Red Seat Ventures will be the exclusive audio and video ad sales partner for the podcast and will distribute the show across Tubi, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other third party platforms. Speaking of Red Seat Ventures, the company announced a live streaming option for its creators yesterday.
MrBeast is a New York Times bestselling author
I stand corrected from last week! Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, is now a bestselling author for “The Most Dangerous Games,” which he wrote with James Patterson. Despite reports that the book was on track to be a publishing bomb, the novel debuted No. 3 overall on the NYT Best Sellers Hardcover Fiction list. The book is also in the Top 10 of USA Today’s Best Selling Booklist and No. 2 on Amazon’s New Releases list. That million dollar prize probably didn’t hurt.
Jake and Logan Paul are producing a fight competition series for Hulu and ESPN
The Paul brothers are trying their hand at streaming once again. Their untitled project for Hulu and ESPN was previously called “Fight Island” and comes from Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse as well as Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions. Last year, the brothers starred in the HBO Max reality show “Paul American,” which was canceled after one season, and Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions has been a frequent collaborator with Netflix when it comes to boxing and MMA matches.
Speaking of sports, the live broadcast company Creator Sports Network has partnered with FAN.live on several creator-led NFL broadcasts. Creator Sports Network’s group of more than 2,000 creators will be able to host live NFL watch-alongs using FAN.live’s Watch Party platform. During the first week of pro football season, the partnership drove nearly 2 million live views across 50 creator-led streams.
@carolinecianci What should I post about? #vlog #influencer #comedy ♬ original sound – Caroline Cianci
Who to Watch
Caroline Cianci
There is something brilliant about comedian Caroline Cianci’s TikTok channel (223,000 followers). Cianci has several recurring characters, including a dead-eyed Gen Z girl devoid of personality, but her “Girl Who Tries to Vlog” series is the real reason I can’t stop thinking about her. Most of these videos start with Cianci introducing herself multiple times before turning off her smile to either practice her script, psych herself up or criticize herself. With her big, pained eyes, she artfully captures how anxiety-inducing and quietly mortifying it can be to make content. I feel seen.
Bonus Content
- There’s a 100% Chance AI Agents Are Already Ruining the Internet (via 404 Media)
- Why Science and Education Videos Are Thriving on YouTube (via TheWrap)
- IAB Creator Upfront: Why a half-built infrastructure is holding back CFO buy-in (via Digiday)
Want more? Explore WrapPRO now.
This report provides a weekly deep dive into the creator economy. It highlights key trends, political and technological developments, data points and industry leaders all with the goal of making you smarter about this constantly evolving space.
The post Creatorverse: Podcaster Steven Bartlett Wants to Invest $400 Million in Creator Businesses appeared first on TheWrap.
