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TOGETHER WITH |
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It's Friday and Netflix wants you to know that every vote counts—at least, when it comes to weighing in on the streaming service's live competition shows. |
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Today's News |
💸 Zuck makes a $50B claim ↔️ YouTube reorganizes 📈 This week on the branded charts… 🎮 YouTube cracks down on gaming 👍 Hit 'Like' for a cute animation
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KEEPING IT REEL |
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Mark Zuckerberg claims Reels "has an annual run rate of over $50B" |
The upside: Meta's Q3 earnings report didn't exactly thrill Wall Street operatives, but the tech giant did have some good news to report. According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, topline quarterly revenue reached $51.24 billion—a number nearly $2 billion higher than analyst estimates—and sales are up 26% year-over-year, representing Meta's highest revenue growth since Q1 2024 (per CNBC). |
The other major upside: Zuck says Meta's short-form Reels format has achieved an "annual run rate of over $50 billion." |
The annual run rate for a business refers to a yearly total that is extrapolated from a shorter time period. So while it's not quite accurate to say that Reels ads are currently hauling in $50 billion per year, that figure could become valid as long as the TikTok-style video format maintains its current trajectory. (To put that number into perspective, YouTube's annual run rate based on its recently reported Q3 ad revenue would total $41.04 billion.) |
It's not surprising that Meta is optimistic about that eventuality. The company has spent the past three years honing Reels ads—which hit the mainstream in 2022—across platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Most recently, the tech giant put generative AI to work on the format through the development of contextual ad products. Those innovations helped Reels surpass 200 billion daily views in 2023. By Q4 2024, the format was one of the stars of Meta's quarterly reports. |
The downside: Ironically, AI also factored heavily into the more negative aspects of Meta's Q3 report. After falling short of projections related to earnings per share, execs cited several factors that impeded topline growth, including massive spending on AI projects and a $16 billion tax charge related to the Trump administration's Big Beautiful Bill. Despite Meta's revelations surrounding the success of Reels, that news triggered a stock market rout as investors displayed skepticism surrounding Meta's future. |
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The creator economy is reshaping media. How will you invest in the digital future? |
As a global creator management and licensing company, Gushcloud's vision is clear: to build the infrastructure, financing, and global ecosystem that transforms creators into enduring businesses. |
Now, to help investors capitalize on that evolution, Gushcloud has compiled The State of the Creator Economy 2025: a data-driven report that shows how the creator economy is eclipsing other major industries—and how investors can capitalize on that growth. |
The key stats: |
The creator economy is now a $200-250B industry, rivaling the traditional film/TV market in scale.
By 2028, the creator economy is expected to surpass $400B, growing nearly 3x faster than music, sports, or publishing as creator income streams rapidly diversify.
With Gushcloud, investors can directly finance those income streams via structured funds—while targeting 12.5% USD yields with quarterly distributions.
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As the industry matures, creators are shifting from platform renters to IP owners and brand builders. Gushcloud is uniquely positioned to lead this cycle, investors key opportunities to capitalize on the next phase of digital media. |
Hit the link below, scroll down, and enter your email to read Gushcloud's 2025 Creator Economy report for free: |
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
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GOSPEL STATS 📈 |
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Top Branded Videos of the Week: Trick or treat? |
It's Halloween, and some creators are offering up more tricks than treats. On Gospel Stats' latest ranking of most-viewed sponsored YouTube videos, for instance, you'll find a harrowing game of roulette, a teenage jailbreak, and some good old-fashioned horror. |
🥇 #1. MrBeast 2 x Feastables: Spicy Milk Roulette (76M views)
MrBeast's snack brand is a frequent backer of its founder's YouTube videos, with sponsorships spread across multiple channels and video formats. When it comes to Shorts, however, Feastables is rarely just a backer; it's almost always the star of the show. The entire 1:20 runtime of MrBeast's latest Feastables-sponsored Short, for instance, is devoted to the brand's recently-launched milk product.
🥈 #2. Jordan Matter x Sephora: We Ran Away From My Dad For 24 Hours (14.6M views)
These days, more and more creators are seeking out lengthy, multivertical sponsorships—the kind where a brand pays for multiple videos and things like IRL activations and merch. Sephora's partnership with creator Salish Matter and her father Jordan is a good of that dynamic: in addition to being the official partner of Salish's makeup line, Sincerely Yours, and contributing to a launch event at American Dream mall, the cosmetics company has now sponsored several Salish-centric videos. |
🎰 #1,908. Grief x Raycon: The Best FRANKENSTEIN Adapation \ Junji Ito's Frankenstein EXPLAINED (60.8K views)
As fans eagerly await Guillermo del Toro's long-awaited adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, another take on the story is getting some attention. For his latest film breakdown, horror/sci-fi/mystery enthusiast Grief dove into the 2018 adaptation penned by horror comic king Junji Ito. The video's backer, tech company Raycon, is an increasingly frequent sponsor of YouTubers, and paid for nearly 40 videos this week alone. |
Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights. |
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PLATFORM HEADLINES |
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YouTube's new guidelines will age-restrict some gaming violence (and NFTs in general) |
Per spokesperson Boot Bullwinkle, YouTube is updating its Community Guidelines around gambling and video game violence to "adapt to the evolving digital world." Here's a rundown of the major changes: |
The gambling update: YouTube began seriously buckling down on gambling content back in March, when it prohibited creators from even mentioning the names of gambling sites that aren't "certified by Google" and age-restricted all content containing "depictions or promotions of online casino sites or apps" to prevent anyone under 18 from viewing it. Starting November 17, YouTube is expanding that policy to include digital goods and "social casino" websites/apps. |
The restrictions on digital goods will apply to activities like "skin gambling," which is popular among players of games like Counter-Strike (where you can roll loot boxes and pull different weapon/character skins at random). Some rare skins sell for millions of actual dollars at auction, leading gamers to drop big money on digital loot boxes. Creators often chronicle those skin gambling quests in YouTube videos—and that's what the platform plans to age-restrict. |
Along with skin gambling, YouTube's updated age-restrictions will apply broadly to NFTs and "social casino" content (aka content featuring "websites or applications that simulate traditional casino games but no real money is wagered"). |
The gaming update: Then there's the gaming side of YouTube's big update. Since 2019, content featuring video game violence has been given approval for all ages and all ads, with a few exceptions. That liberal policy is getting a revamp this fall. Starting November 17, YouTube will age-restrict videos that show "violent gaming content featuring realistic human characters that focuses on scenes of certain kinds of extreme violence against non-combatants." |
The platform says it will consider several factors when enacting age-restrictions, including the duration and "prominence" of the violence, and whether the violence is happening "to a character that looks like a real human." |
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WATCH THIS 👀 |
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YouTube is making the 'like' button more fun |
The animations: YouTube is spicing up the process of hitting the 'like' button. Next time you go to show appreciation for a video, you might just be greeted by a cheerful, on-theme animation. |
The platform has reportedly introduced 20 animations across categories like sports and travel. Those graphics transform the usual 'thumbs up' icon into a variety of moving symbols, from footballs to airplanes. |
Check out this X post from software designer Andreas Storm to see the animations in action. |
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
