The creator economy is losing its buzz, here’s why it’s a good thing. Also, is this the end of link-in-bio tools?

We hosted our first Creator Outreach Masterclass last week and it was a blast! Thank you to everyone who joined. We shared everything we’ve learned from these past 5 years of doing creator outreach with you so I hope you learned something new.

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Ok, back to the news.

Lots of things happened this week so let's jump right into it.

The creator economy is losing its buzz - Here’s why I think it’s a good thing. The creator economy went into a hiring frenzy last year. Startups were overvalued and funds were wasted on tools that didn’t have long-term value. With the recession glooming and the stock market barely holding, companies and investors are forced to do their due diligence. This will separate the good from the bad and thus, make the creator space flourish.?

Instagram *quietly* tests multiple links in bio - Instagram is testing adding multiple links to a profile’s link-in-bio. This puts the app in direct competition with all other LiB tools. Is this the end of LiB tools? I don’t think so. They offer many customizable features for monetization and distribution. However, I do think they’ll have to get creative if they don’t want to lose a chunk of their market share.?

People who do not use a link-in-bio tool are not doing so because they either don't know something like that exists OR they see the hassle as too much for the benefit. However, by making it easy to sign up people will get used to using link-in-bio tools and once they see the benefits they will look for better alternatives.

The only "loser" here might be Linktree but they will never lose either way.

Bending Spoon raised $340M in funding led by Ryan Reynolds - Bending Spoons is the biggest mobile app development company for creators in Italy, with over 500M downloads, 90M monthly active users, and now $340M in funding. The fact that not only celebrities but Italy’s leading banking group, Intesa Sanpaolo invested in a creator economy startup shows the immense potential of this space.?

Dream’s highly-anticipated face reveal and why it matters - Here’s what this whole thing made me realize. First, amassing 30M sub and 2B+ views without ever showing your face is not only possible but incredible. Second, influencer marketing is more important than ever. Dream facetimed 25 mega-influencers before the live, they posted their live reactions and the Internet went crazy. So much that Dream was searched more than politicians, athletes, and even the weather.?

The most talked about thing from VidSummit - No, it’s not Shopify ’s creator-themed ice cream truck. It’s MrBeast’s 6-person thumbnail team which makes around 20 versions per video.

Walmart enters the Metaverse - 沃尔玛 is the latest major brand that arrived on Roblox with “Walmart Land”. Seems like hopping on the metaverse bandwagon is trending, but a promising opportunity nonetheless, since there are over 52M active daily players on Roblox.?

Is TikTok overtaking Google in search? - I have to agree with Evan Britton on this. TikTok is nowhere near Google when it comes to search. It may be the go-to place for the discovery of entertainment and travel destinations but it has a long way to go before it becomes a search engine comparable to Google.?

Creator economy events happening this week:

• Hume secured $11.7M in funding - With this funding round led by TGC Crypto, Hume will focus on music, storytelling, and digital identity to create “metastars”.?
• Minteo raises a $4.3M seed round - The Latin-American NFT marketplace, Minteo will focus on working with local artists and brands.?
• NFT video platform Glass raised $5M in funding - Another funding round by TGC Crypto, Glass is the first video NFT startup to get funding.

Just like that, you’re done in a flash ?

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