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TOGETHER WITH |
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It's Monday, and this year's Golden Globes didn't just hand out multiple awards to streamers like Netflix and HBO. It also gambled on a partnership with Polymarket, a platform that lets users bet on everything from political elections to sperm races. |
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Today's News |
👋 A TikTok exec heads out 🔍 YouTube updates its filters 🎭 Microdramas score top talent 📦 Fortnite debuts new item sales 🎙️ This week on the podcast…
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TIKTOK TALK |
 | TikTok exec Kim Farrell is on her way out. (Photo by Valerie Terranova/Getty Images) |
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TikTok is reorganizing as it prepares for the U.S. to take (partial) control |
The reorganization: On January 22, TikTok and the U.S. are (finally) expected to enact an agreement that will bring certain parts of the platform's business under the control of a government-backed consortium. To align with the requirements of that deal, TikTok is beginning to spin off some teams that previously operated under the ByteDance umbrella. |
Some U.S.-based employees in roles like data protection and algorithmic security were recently told that they will be working for TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC (as the newly divested U.S. app is known). TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has explained that divisions like "e-commerce, advertising, and marketing" will remain attached to the broader version of the app. |
That reorganization suggests that some divisions—like TikTok Shop—might not experience significant changes in the aftermath of the deal, even if U.S. users get a new recommendation algorithm. |
The impact: TikTok's creator team seems to have fallen outside that category. According to Status, a merger between the app's creator and publishing units will result in the layoffs of 20 U.S.-based staffers, with some other roles also being eliminated. |
Kim Farrell, who was the app's first-ever Global Head of Creators, is arguably the most notable TikTok employee who will move on as part of the restructuring effort. She ascended to her current position in 2023 as part of a previous reorg, and has since led the development of marketing and educational services for the platform's community. |
In the wake of Farrel's departure (and that of Music head Ole Obermann and North American ad sales chief Sameer Singh last year), TikTok's leadership team is shaping up to look quite different than it did in early 2025. |
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How much influence does your brand hold? Viral Nation's Culture Quotient can find out. |
Influencer marketing budgets are skyrocketing—but brand safety measures aren't scaling at the same pace. Manual influencer vetting creates dangerous blind spots, leaving brands with a false sense of confidence and an ever-present risk of reputational damage. |
To get to the crux of that issue, industry-leading agency Viral Nation teamed up with EMARKETER to survey the brands and marketers that defined influencer marketing in 2025. |
The key takeaway of that report: most marketers vet just 0.01% of creators' content history—but continue putting their faith in manual vetting. |
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38.5% of marketers said influencer vetting is too time-consuming, and only 9.1% of brands described their vetting process as "very scalable."
As a result, over 50% of marketers spend 30 minutes or less vetting a single influencer.
But since only 29% of agencies offer influencer vetting services, most brands and marketers continue placing false confidence in outdated systems.
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As we move into 2026, it's time to get serious about brand safety—and that's where Viral Nation's AI-powered influencer vetting services come in. |
Check out Viral Nation and EMARKETER's full report below to learn more: |
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
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INDUSTRY DRAMA |
 | Hannah Stocking will be one of the stars of 'Playback' |
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Microdramas are snagging big investments and top creator talent |
The creator casting: As microdramas rise to the forefront of digital entertainment, they're tapping into the starpower of some major creators. Second Rodeo, the vertical-first company founded and CEO'd by former MrBeast Creative Director Scott Brown, has signed Hannah Stocking to star in its musical microdrama series Playback. |
Stocking currently claims a following of over 70 million across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, but got her start on Vine way back in 2013. It's not clear exactly which role the creator will play in Playback—which has already wrapped production—but she's listed as a starring figure. |
The drama follows struggling singer/songwriter Maddie Bryce (played by Amber Laird), who creates an AI version of herself that unexpectedly becomes a top pop sensation. It will premiere in the coming months on the microdrama streaming app My Drama, which is owned by Holywater, the Ukrainian tech firm that recently got backing from Fox Entertainment. |
The context: That deal is perhaps the biggest investment in microdramas so far, and will see Fox produce an "ongoing" roster of over 200 microdramas exclusively for distribution through My Drama. Its announcement comes shortly after Disney's own move into microdramas. The House of Mouse recently backed DramaBox, a platform that makes 60-to-90-second episodes for popcorn romance series with titles like Fake Dating My Rich Nemesis. |
Brands and digital creators are getting involved in the microdrama game, too. P&G's personal care line Native is hinging a lot of its 2026 marketing on a microdrama called The Golden Pear Affair, while Alan Chikin Chow's microdrama-inspired series Beauty and the Beat was sponsored by Korean cosmetics/skincare brand LANEIGE. |
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GAME ON |
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Fortnite's new dev-made item sales include loot boxes—but not outfits and emotes |
The sales update: Epic Games is challenging Roblox head-on. As of last week, Fortnite developers (who have been able to create custom Islands/game modes on the platform since 2018) can now make and sell their own in-game items. |
Epic previously noted that the expansion encompasses both "consumable" and "durable" categories of user-generated items. The first category includes reusable items like skins and weapons, while consumables are items that can be used only once. |
That's already a big change—but under this new system, developers will also be allowed to sell loot boxes. |
That decision will likely be a controversial one. Some lawmakers have likened loot boxes to gambling for kids, and the selling of loot boxes is banned entirely in countries like Singapore, Qatar, Australia, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Fortnite itself has been in hot water over loot boxes, to the extent that it stopped offering them in 2019. Now, it's bringing them back, and will earn cash from them when the developer revenue split begins in 2028. |
But it's putting all of the regulatory onus on creators. |
A page on Epic's developer forum states that it is the "responsibility" of developers to "comply with all relevant laws" concerning loot boxes. It also explicitly says its guidance doesn't make it responsible for what developers do. |
The restrictions: Loot boxes aren't the only things developers can sell, but the list of what they aren't allowed to sell is much longer. |
As it turns out, Fortnite is cool with developers peddling items as long as they don't compete with its own sales. That means devs aren't allowed to sell outfits, emotes, or cars/trucks/buses—but according to Epic, they can sell items adjacent to these categories "as long as they affect gameplay and are not purely cosmetic." "Cosmetic items in categories that are not sold in the Fortnite Item Shop" are also above-board. |
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WATCH THIS |
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This week on the podcast… |
The 2026 premiere: Creator Upload is back for 2026 and kicking off with an executive guest star. On the latest episode of the show, hosts Joshua Cohen and Lauren Schnipper sit down with Spotify Head of Content Partnerships Jordan Newman to break down recent updates to the Spotify Partner Program. |
From lowered eligibility thresholds to video consumption payments that are beating advertising rates, Newman explains how creators can stabilize their income in the new year. |
Check out the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for all the details. |
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
