“BeReal Youtube” Era • TikTok's decline • Creators looking for a full-time job

→ We're finally heading to “Be Real Youtube” Era 💫

"Me at the zoo" is the very first video on YouTube. A couple of days ago, its creator, Jawed Karim, who is also the co-founder of YouTube, updated its thumbnail for the first time, seemingly poking fun at either the clickbait era of MrBeast and his imitators or the abundance of AI-generated and processed thumbnails.

Jawed has been criticizing YouTube for a while, typically conveying his message through the description of his video. Ten years ago, he criticized the integration of Google+ into YouTube's comment system, which turned out to be a failed idea. Two years ago, he predicted the 'decline' of the platform amid the removal of dislikes, but that didn't come to pass.

This time, he's using a thumbnail, but honestly, while I appreciate his irony, it feels like he's a bit late to the game, about six months or so.

Not only is MrBeast gradually moving away from his signature style, but a New Wave of YouTubers has been gaining popularity, focusing either on storytelling or... not editing videos and thumbnails at all. See Slow Youtube, or "Be Real YouTube", as coined by Jim Louderback.

The most prominent example from this year is Sam Sulek, gaining 350k subscribers per month.

Another example is Dewayne Noel and his channel Dry Creek Wrangler School (+51k subscribers monthly).

It's further evidence that YouTube, like the entire internet, is highly fragmented, and there's an audience for any content. Tired of loud MrBeast-style videos? Vlogs and raw content is absolutely back, and there's always a bubble for slow, unedited videos out there.

I recently had a fun conversation in a podcast with Alina Verbenchuk, former Product Manager at YouTube (yes, we've launched a podcast with Nick Savrov from Uscreen!!), discussing the stages of accepting any changes and new trends on YouTube. It was interesting to learn that before launching Shorts there was resistance even within the product team.

Soon it's 2024, and here we are, not noticing how we've fully embraced the presence of short-form content on YouTube. Long-form content hasn't disappeared (despite the warnings), but rather it's gaining momentum.

But, speaking of decline...

→ Is TikTok in danger? 📉

I'm hearing more voices suggesting that due to the prioritization of shoppable content, TikTok is treading on a slippery slope. Came across an interesting thread by Lissette Calveiro highlighting that because of TikTok Shop the organic reach, which initially attracted billions of users to the platform, is on the decline. Considering the regulatory pressure and censorship, TikTok seems to be on a downward trend.

Adding to this, its push for merchants to livestream at least 2 hours a day and the recent report indicating -4% decline in TikTok interest among teenagers (via Debra Aho Williamson), we have a concerning scenario that is definitely worth keeping an eye on in 2024.

→ Full-time creators looking for a full-time job

This is something that I've been noticing more often — full-time creators are feeling burnt out from the income rollercoaster and seeking financial stability by exploring full-time employment options. Here’s a screenshot from the Canopy app which I’ve been binge-reading lately (shoutout to Ayomi Samaraweera!):

If you’re a creator looking for a full- or part-time job, make sure to check out Creator Economy Jobs – we're tracking hundreds of open positions where your experience is in high demand!

→ What else you might have missed?

• ✉️ I've raised the question a couple of times about how broken newsletters are on LinkedIn, and now I'm seeing the first consequences: Luke Himmelsbach, the co-founder of CreatorPad, has completely moved his newsletter called Cmd+Shift+Create to beehiiv. And it's a loss for LinkedIn — besides being full of insights I'm jealous of how it's beautifully edited.

• 😳 An insightful post by Brendan Gahan on the idea of 'Echo Bubbles' — algorithmically individualized content based on our digital footprints which leads us to isolated experiences.

• 👀 Tanner Papy (Blackshore LLC) made a good point that we need more transparency in the creator/influencer marketing agency space: “I would love to see a third-party platform that verifies which agencies actually represent talent”.

• 🤝 Rob Balasabas (Uscreen) has launched a group chat for Creator Partnerships folks who work in-house at brands.

Thanks for reading and I wish you all super great holidays! ❤️

If you enjoyed this edition, I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments.

And if you haven't subscribed yet, and you’d like to receive these weekly posts in your inbox, make sure to hit that "Subscribe". And see you in the next week!

-Konstantin