It's Friday and a company co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will bring eyeball scanners to Gap checkout lines. Minority Report isn't looking so far-fetched these days, huh?

Today's News

💸 Gen Z spends big on TikTok & Roblox
✍️ Job seekers learn skills on social media
🎙️ Oxford Road launches podcast awards
🔍 A platform hunts down deepfakes
🎞️ Will Iron Lung change Hollywood forever?

MONEY MOVES

"Mom! Can I see your card? There's a new skin!"

Gen Z spending is up across Roblox, TikTok Shop, and Whatnot

The shopping trends: Gen Z spending is on the rise across Roblox, TikTok Shop, and Whatnot. But which platform will ultimately come out on top?

Data collected from 1,000 Gen Z shoppers by the Retail Technology Show sheds some light on Zoomers' ecommerce habits. The five-year-old London exhibition found that those consumers made an average of 23 purchases on TikTok within the last 12 months, as compared to 20 purchases on Roblox over the same time frame. Roblox purchases across all age groups, however, rose 31% over the last year, RTS added.

The exhibition also pulled data for Whatnot, and found that Gen Z'ers are the most frequent buyers on the live shopping app, with an average of 16 orders per year. Data showed first-time buyers on Whatnot grew 374% in 2025, and women's fashion streams now bring over 500,000 view hours per month.

The takeaway: Those figures put TikTok in the lead among Gen Z consumers—at least, for now. As RTS points out, the platform's average of 23 annual purchases indicates only a 10% year-over-year rise in Gen Z TikTok shopping. That's far below the 54% jump Roblox saw.

Does that growth gap suggest Gen Z might "move on" from TikTok Shop? Maybe, but it's worth noting that Roblox and TikTok Shop don't necessarily offer consumers the same products or shopping experience. Roblox targets gamers and sells digital items like avatar and weapon skins, while TikTok's vast array of physical products targets anyone and everyone with a wallet.

That being said, Roblox is experimenting with selling physical products, while TikTok doesn't sell digital merch equivalent to what Roblox offers. If the metaverse hub can expand its ecommerce offerings to match TikTok's, RTS' data suggests it could become a significant rival.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

Gen Z job seekers are learning skills on social media. (Photo via Getty Images)

A recent survey commissioned by Express Employment Professionals and conducted by The Harris Poll found that 74% of job-seeking U.S. adults see self-taught skills as credible resume additions. (Tubefilter)
In a surprising team-up, both Apple TV and Netflix will offer livestreams of the F1 Canadian Grand Prix and access to season eight of the Netflix-created series Drive to Survive. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Threads has announced that it is testing a shortcut feature that will "make it easier to keep the convo going in DMs." (Threads)
Instagram is rolling out a new safety tool that will notify parents if a teen user is "repeatedly trying to search" for content related to suicide or self-harm. (Gizmodo)

POD PEOPLE

Killer Mike will host the big show. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

An agency is giving indie podcasters their own awards show at SXSW

The awards show: Oxford Road, a company known for its audiovisual ad products and insights, is bringing a new awards show to SXSW.

The Independent Podcast and Creator Awards (aka the Indie PaC Awards) will take place on March 15 in Austin, Texas, with rapper Killer Mike serving as host. To be eligible for nominations, creators must own the IP for their podcasts and have editorial control. Oxford Road will also leverage its ad data to find shows that are worthy of award consideration.

A jury assembled by the agency will select winners across ten different categories. Ashley Flowers of Crime Junkies, who has turned her podcasting career into a $250 million empire, will be among this year's judges.

The context: Oxford Road's upcoming event is hardly the first podcast-specific award show. There's the People's Choice Podcast Awards, the Ambies, the Signal Awards, iHeartMedia's own SXSW-set ceremony, awards for specific groups like Black and Latin podcasters, and even an unrelated celebration of independent podcasters in the U.K.

Despite those existing shows, however, Oxford Road felt that independent podcasters deserve more recognition:

"Independent creators…proved you don't need a network, a studio or anyone's permission to build an audience that trusts you. The Indie PaC Awards exist to recognize the creators who took that risk, the brands brave enough to back them early, and the work that makes people hit subscribe."

- Dan Granger, Oxford Road CEO (via The Hollywood Reporter)

Indie PaC's Creator of the Year nominees are key examples of the kind of pioneers who have propelled independent podcasting into the public eye. Showrunners like Theo Von are bringing their owned-and-operated podcasts to the forefront of pop culture, while creators like Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett are using their podcasts as the foundation of sprawling media companies.

PLATFORM POTPOURRI

A few creators want to help protect them all.

A platform made "by creators, for creators" is hunting down deepfakes

The platform: For years, big-name creators have spoken out about the looming threat of AI deepfakes. Platforms like YouTube have responded to those concerns with tools that target unauthorized AI facsimiles—but at the same time, they've continued to empower bad actors by launching more gen AI services.

Now, a new platform built "by creators, for creators" is stepping in. Founded by sketch comedian Zander Small, FanLock will help creators identify, manage, and crack down on deepfakes across over four million websites.

Small—who claims more than one million followers on Instagram—developed the independent platform to serve creators like adult streamer Morgpie, who told him that AI deepfakes are impacting their careers. Now a FanLock investor, Morgpie previously made headlines for her role in Twitch's infamous "topless meta."

According to Small, the streamer was "paying thousands of dollars a month" to deal with deepfaked representations of her likeness—but despite that sizable cost, platforms "still weren't getting the job done."

The details: That's where FanLock comes in. While independent organizations like CAA have taken on the deepfake issue with solutions of their own, Small believes his platform's four-tiered approach fills in gaps that make other DMCA services less effective. He specifically pointed to FanLock's oversight of Telegram, a messaging app that has earned a reputation as a hotbed for deepfakes.

Those comprehensive services come at a cost, with subscription prices starting at $49/month. But considering that AI fraud losses could hit $40 billion by 2027 (as predicted by Deloitte), FanLock's fee may be a small price to pay for embattled creators.

WATCH THIS

Will Markiplier's movie change the film business?

Colin and Samir believe Markiplier's Iron Lung will change Hollywood forever

The creator film: What does the staggering success of Iron Lung mean for creators? In a recent video, creator economy experts Colin and Samir broke down the impact of Markiplier's movie, which earned $50 million at the box office on a budget of roughly $3 million.

At its core, Colin says, the triumph of Iron Lung demonstrates that "the power of the people who are considered gatekeepers is shifting" as the film industry becomes increasingly accessible to creators. Check out the video here for a full breakdown.

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