The Rise of Digital Clones: A Bold Experiment Disrupts Online Stardom

This Week: It’s the second week of August and here’s what you need to know.

• From Creator to Clone:? Gaming creator Kwebbelkop is now an IA construct! Jordi Van Den has replaced himself with an IA doppelganger, hoping to maintain the community he built over 15 years - without doing ALL the heavy lifting.? Video views on his two AI releases are on par with recent human-powered videos, but we’ll see how it holds up over time.? It’s just another (albeit AI) way for creators to extend themselves and their careers, similar to how Ryan’s World hopes to extend the franchise with animation as its star approaches puberty, or how Star Trek animated the end of its first five-year mission in 1973 after the TV show was cancelled.? The Publish Press has more details on how Kwebbelkop is making it all work.? Soon this will be a common way for creators to extend their life-cycle and build new revenue streams.

• I’ll Take Manhattan!? Creators have great power.? Sometimes more than they think.? Popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat discovered that Friday when he threw an impromptu meet up in New York City that spiraled out of control. 65 people were arrested and Cenat now faces riot incitement charges.? Lots of take-aways, including the need to coordinate with local safety teams in advance, crowd control and scenario planning, and security just in case anything goes wrong.

• Tubular Data Reveals What/When/Where to Post:? Tubular Labs has access to an immense amount of data, and they just released a trends report with key insight sourced from 2023 data.? Samples include:

??1 to 3 minutes is the ideal length on TikTok

??Food and Drink videos deliver the highest views on Shorts

??Old music hits get new life on TikTok.

??News posted at night works better than during the day.

??Cooking, Cleaning and Organizing videos drive sales.

• Now’s the Time to Build:? Although not creator related, self-driving taxis are a textbook instantiation of the hype cycle.? Hot in the early 2010s, dead by the end of the decade, Waymo and Cruise are advancing up the slope of enlightenment.? Soon they will be ubiquitous.? Creator Economy startups take notice – if you survive, great times await.

SPONSOR: This Is an Opportunity for You to Get Sponsored by?Fiverr—The World’s Largest Marketplace for Digital Services.

And unless you’ve got a full-fledged team already (kudos if you do), it’s likely you’re already using Fiverr to help with outsourcing.

In their new program, Fiverr is giving creators the opportunity to turn their content into income. Here’s how it works:

• Choose between a one-off collaboration?to a long-term partnership and submit the relevant application.
• Receive?Fiverr credits?to try out their services and showcase them in your content.
• Enjoy your earnings—Fiverr offers flat-rate payments for the content as well as commission-based incentives (aka, the more conversions your videos drive, the more you earn)

Got 5,000+ YouTube subs? Apply here

QUIBIS: ???

YOUTUBE

• Shorts inches closer to TikTok parity with in-feed live video, remixes, long-form clipping and other new creator tools.
• Those AI-created video summaries will be available on mobile devices globally, but only for how-to, shopping and vlogs

META

• Instagram cracks down on DMs to strangers, which should help reduce unwanted messages and unasked for images and videos.
• New AI tools coming to Instagram.
• Meta releases open-source AI audio tools, which produce both music and sound effects.? Try it out here.
• Threads DAU falls to 8M, down 82%.? Work to be done, for sure, but not a disaster (yet).
• AI chatbots coming soon based on distinct personas.? How long until creators can become one of them – and make money too?

TIKTOK

• TikTok almost doubles caption character limit to 4,000 – which is roughly 600-1,000 words.? I still remember being paid over $1 a word for my freelance writing.
• Been quiet this summer on the whole “TikTok Ban” front, but now Double T’s companion editor CapCut is under fire for improper data handling.?

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

• Looks like a strategic shift at Discord, as it lays off most of its creator economy team.
• Case study: creators using Reddit to drive big sponsorship money.
• Mr Beast puts the ghost into ghost kitchens, and runs afoul of the actor’s strike.?
• Twitter won’t take a cut from creator subscriptions until they pass $100k.? A good precedent for all platforms.
• Twitter delays sending revshare checks.
• Good news for Twitch – the gambling ban seems to be working, and overall views are trending up.
• LuLu buys the Creator Economy Expo and The Tilt newsletter. I’m looking forward to their 2024 event in Cleveland.
• Not a fan of Snap’s new AR Lens rewards program as it asks creators to deliver experiences with no promise of payment.
• Yet another “State of the Creator Economy” report, this time from Convertkit.? About half of the respondents were Convertkit customers, so it’s skewed.? Worth a read for directional reasons.
• My tips on how to thrive now that social video is old media.

GENERATIVE AI?

• Maybe Roblox really is the metaverse – more than 1M downloads so far for its Meta Quest beta app.
• Adobe adds generative expand (just like MidJourney) to its Firefly/Photoshop beta.
• Is AI poised to upend the thumbnail creation industry?

TIPS

• Matt Koval with a fascinating analysis of why many YouTubers are uploading too much and getting dinged by the algorithm – along with how you can diagnose and fix the issue.
• Ed Film Booth on why NOT to share your videos off of YouTube.
• The best way to go viral on LinkedIn – my new LinkedIn Idea Generator!

LIMERICK OF THE WEEK – in honor of virtual Kwebblekop.

There once was a YouTuber quite grand,

Whose fame spread all ‘round the land.

With millions of fans,

He devised clever plans,

To become an AI virtual brand.

With algorithms and mad coding skills,

He transformed into pixels and thrills.

Speaking digital sound,

While facial pixels abound,

He thrilled all with his virtual chills.

From YouTuber to AI he flew,

His fans' admiration still grew.

With each line of code,

He chose to upload,

A virtual shooting-star erupted anew.

Now he’s become a cyborg sensation,

Captivating a whole generation.

Not flesh and bone,

But very well-known,

In the halls of AI innovation.

Thanks for reading and see you around the internet. Send me a note with your feedback, or post in the comments! Feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested, and if someone forwarded this to you, you can sign up?and subscribe on LinkedIn for free here!?

If you’re interested in working together as a sponsor to reach the leaders in the creator economy, check out Inside the Creator’s sponsorship packages and/or email me at [email protected]

And don't forget to listen to The Creator Feed - the weekly podcast Renee Teeley and I produce - get it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher!