The Crazy Butterfly That Ate the World, Web3 Backlash Accelerates, and Making It Work in the Creator Economy

TikTok, the Crazy Butterfly That Ate the World: You’ve seen — and likely participated in — #FashionTok. As Rebecca Jennings points out, TikTok dominates fashion trends, discovery, and purchase. But that’s just the beginning. If you cook food, you’ve probably tried — and enjoyed — a surprising recipe sourced on TikTok (mmm, smashed Brussels sprouts). Quirky nautical work songs, books, vintage art, etc., etc., etc. It’s the ultimate two-sided marketplace. Back in Web2.0, these marketplaces were the holy grail. A virtual butterfly with buyers scattered across one set of wings, sellers on the other, transacting together in the thorax (that’s the marketplace). Examples include Ebay, Amazon, and Airbnb. TikTok evolved this incredibly profitable model one step further –– a two-sided marketplace wrapped in a cocoon. Sure, trendsetters create, and the trend-starved consume on TikTok. But because everyone’s a creator on TT, a flood of remixes, elaborations, duets, and more wrap the marketplace in an exponentially greater cocoon of value. As the butterfly gets hungrier the cocoon gets bigger. So much of the culture that matters today starts inside TikTok. And where culture grows, money follows.

Making It Work in the Creator Economy: Are you an artist? Creator? Entrepreneur? If so, you really need to read novelist Elle Griffin's latest newsletter where she talks with artist (and writer) Nishant Jain. We talk a lot here about the changing creator economy, but this post lets us eavesdrop on two creators living the change. Two quotes I love:

• Elle: “To make it in this world, you have to be both the creator and the entrepreneur. And this creates a tension between making art and making a living as an artist.”
• Nishant: “My primary job is to create an environment in which the creator can thrive.”

Black History Month Kicks Off: First off, big congrats to Top TikToker Khaby Lame. Lame leveraged his tremendous success into a long-term partnership with Hugo Boss, a great example of turning a mega audience into an off-platform home-run. Here’s hoping his earnings finally mirror his followers in 2022. Also, we’re liking TikTok’s latest selection of 12 amazing Black creators who transcend the platform –– and YouTube just announced 135 new members of its Black Voices Fund, as well.

Web3 Backlash Grows: Regular readers know that I’ve been warning that NFT/crypto/tokens will be headed for a crash this year, and that trend is accelerating. I promise I won’t turn this newsletter into “Inside the Token Economy,” but the creator economy and Web3 are so intertwined it’s important to keep up with both. These are the relevant “trough of despair” stories from this week.

• DAOs were supposed to be nirvana. But @ApeDao_ is self-destructing and will either liquidate or mutate into an oligarchy.
• More than two hours of compelling video damning crypto and NFTs as a battle between the wealthy and the ultra-rich: “it’s Amway, but everywhere you look people are wearing ugly-ass ape cartoons.”
• TL;DR: Platformer distills the video above and focuses on three things Web3 has to fix NOW. Vice?piles on as well.
• Facebook kills its crypto project. (And has a bad week, too.)
• Crap creator Ice Poseidon scammed his followers out of $500,000 in a pump-and-dump crypto scheme.
• Developer of popular DeFi protocol unmasked as a convicted fraudster.

QUIBIS:?

• Airrack raises $3M to build a YouTuber film school.
• 100 Thieves owner and popular streamer Valkyrae re-signs with YouTube.?
• One of our favorite reporters, Taylor Lorenz, ditches the Grey Lady for Bezos’s WaPo.
• Geek alert: Google highlights the latest AI and machine learning trends (#3 is making your phone better).
• The Atlantic?deconstructs link-in-bio.?
• Stranger in a strange land: Peter Kafka tries to make sense of Web3.
• Former VidCon Featured Creator?Colby Brock has launched his first NFT collection.?
• LUM goes all in on NFTs and music.

Tip of the Week:?

This week’s tip comes from Veronika Taylor, SVP of Acast Creator Network:

We live in an era of really rich, varied media. There’s so much creativity in podcasting in particular, with new stories being told, new genres emerging, and new approaches being tested by creators. Get involved in the space, and don’t be afraid to experiment.

What We’re Watching:

• Watch Kehlani, Nick Jonas, Noor Stars, and many more perform at VidCon Abu Dhabi on our YouTube channel! Click here to subscribe.
• Former Featured Creator Elle Mills just released the trailer for her short film!
• Beware the crypto dragon!

Feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested, and if someone forwarded this to you, you can sign up?on our website at?VidCon.com?— scroll down and select “VidCon Weekly Industry Insights.”

Jim