Creator's Digest - Issue #6
🖋 Everything you need to know this week about #Creator Economy
Hi, it’s Ange!
Welcome to the 6th issue of Passion & Creator, the newsletter about emerging trends in the exciting vertical of the Creator/Passion Economy.
Every week, receive the news, resources, deep dives, and tips to better understand the ever-growing of the Creator Economy!
Feel free to reach out if you’d like to share comments or questions. Don’t forget to like this post above and share it with your friends and colleagues. 😉
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The breaking news with the rise of VTubers and other news
The fundings and exits to watch with 7 new rounds and $146M raised
The top content to read, see and listen to with the Play-To-Earn model
Let’s talk about Creator Economy with the Africa & LATAM ecosystems
The post of the week with the first MrBeast Burger restaurant
Have a good reading 💁🏿♂️!
🤖 Twitch has hosted a week of VTubers celebrations: the VTubers, a new main creator category?
Last week, Twitch, the famous livestream scaleup, set up a week of celebrations for a specific kind of creators: the VTubers! During this celebration, +100 VTubers were present, and different VTubers-focused events has bet set up.
For example, attendants could find workshops in the Creator Camp about the benefits of VTubing or how to create its own VTuber; and tournaments such as the Fall Guys joint game where 30 VTubers were involved.
What is a VTuber? It’s not linked to Vloggers (or Video Bloggers, people who make blog content in video format): it’s the intersection of creators and digital avatars.
The “Virtual YouTuber” is a digital 2D or 3D avatar, creating content through videos and livestreamings on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. A VTuber could be either animated by the human creator, as the PiewDieDie VTuber, or an independent entity.
According to User Local, the number of VTubers increased very fast all along the years: from 2016 when the first VTuber was created in Japan, this population grew to 1 000 in 2018, 10 000 2 years later, to finally reaching the 16k in the world last year.
Ok, but how could I differentiate between a regular digital avatar and a VTuber?
They are both “digital characters” which are involved in content. However, when the regular avatar is just used as a creator imaginary representation in video games universes, metaverses, and only interacting within them; the VTubers have a higher degree of “humanization” by interacting with its audience on social media and creator platforms, and creating content on videos platforms.
Why does this matter?
1️⃣ VTubers are a solution for creator fatigue.
The Creatornout is a less and less hidden subject. As consistency is the key skill to becoming a great creator, the creators need to create a lot of content by themselves, holding their back office, and being always creative to create a sustainable community.
Furthermore, the ecosystem pushes creators to create a lot of content: for example, Twitch enforces livestreamers to make at least 200 monthly hours in their Creator Program: it’s like a real job. Without new content from creators, these platforms cannot serve their users.
So creators have to create a lot of content to emerge, and stay at the top!
Furthermore, the personal monopoly which pushes the creator to the top is nearly impossible to replace. So, when creators are in a bad mood, sick, or something else affecting their public behavior, they cannot be replaced.
This is where the VTubers jump on the floor! VTubers could recreate the personality of the creator, being the perfect substitute, and offer more peace to the creator.
2️⃣ The VTubers could be a very good opportunity for creators to expand their activities
With the rise of deals closed to virtual creators such as Lil Miquela or more recently the virtual rapper FN Meka with Capital Records (before the deal breaker), the virtual creator is able can personal projects.
In this way, a creator could “expand himself” by working on projects he could not before, develop a double career, and new revenue line for a sole bank account (the virtual creator doesn’t need to be paid 😅)
3️⃣ The Creator Economy will not be reserved for people open to public exposure
You may know someone in your entourage, or maybe you, that has skills to become a very good gamer or have specific skills to share, but they did not make the first move because they’re afraid to make a flop at best or experience online harassment at worst.
The VTubers will be the perfect disguise for the “shy” personalities with something interesting to share, or the first step before creating and posting in public.
🖋 More than 100 VTubers are taking over Twitch for a week-long celebration of virtual streamers
And some other interesting news…
Sad moments for Snap 😢: after the good launch of Snapchat+, the company announced a massive layoff of 20% of employees, including the closure of Zenly entity, the French startup bought in 2017 at $213M.
The digital avatar unicorn Genies is no longer just for public personalities thanks to “The Warehouse”: now you and me could create our avatars 😁!
For this week, the Creator Economy startups collectively raised $173M in 7 rounds!
🟪 Perform (2021 / USA 🇺🇸)
#SporTech: Matches runners creators to clients for coaching programs
Raised a $1.2M Seed round
🟪 Ready Player Me (2014 / USA 🇺🇸)
#Web3 / #Gaming: Allows creators to develop avatars usable across several metaverses and games
Raised a Series B of $56M
🟪 Animoca Brands Japan (2014 / Japan 🇯🇵)
#Web3 / #Gaming: Powerhouse of the blockchain gaming
Raised a VC round of $45M at a $500M valuation
🟪 Inworld AI (2021 / USA 🇺🇸)
#Web3 / #Gaming: Enables Web3 creators to develop AI-powered virtual characters for video games and metaverses
Raised a $50M Series A
🟪 NFT Genius (2020 / USA 🇺🇸)
#Web3: Enables creators develop NFT collections
Raised a $10.5M Series A at a $150M valuation
🟪 Avium (2022 / Singapore 🇸🇬)
#Web3 / #Video: Enables Web3 creators to develop and produce animated content for media & entertainment companies
Raised a Pre-seed of $2M
🟪 VIAVIA (2021 / USA 🇺🇸)
#Fashion / #Livestream: Italian made fashion retailer & livestream shopping platform
Raised a Seed of $8M
If you want to see the previous rounds of 2022, their investors, and discover other companies of the Creator Ecosystem, do not hesitate to check my +600 organizations Creator Economy Database (still in progress), by clicking on the link below 👇
This week, we’ll explore the intersection of Web3 and gaming verticals: the Play-To-Earn model! The Play-To-Earn is an opportunity for gaming creators to make money, such as the e-sport prizes & contracts, or livestreaming subscriptions & donations.
If you want to understand why titles like Axie Infinity help gamers build a “gaming wealth”, read these contents 👇
🖋 Web3 Gaming and Play-to-Earn Economics by Catherine Yeo, Lead Venture Partner of Contrary & Author of The Creator Revolution.
📱 Play-To-Earn - What is it and where does the money come from? and Play-To-Earn - Performances and downsides by Red River West’s VC & Tech platform Lead Abel Samot.
🖋 The Metaverse, Blockchain Gaming, and NFTs: Navigating the Internet’s Uncharted Waters, written by the provider of games & e-sports analytics Newzoo.
🖋 Play To Earn Report: NFT Game Analysis Report, written by the dApp service platform PlayDapp.
🖋 The Future of (Crypto) Gaming, written by the Web3 research firm Delphi Digital.
👨🏿💻 Tell me what do you think about this content in the comments and what kind of subjects would you like to be treated in this section!
🌍 The Creator Economy ecosystem of Africa & LATAM
In the tech ecosystem, the biggest startups are not only in Europe, South-East Asia, and the US. The emerging markets, like Africa or Latin America, are part of the game, but mainly on more “classic” tech verticals, like FinTech, Logistics, or HealthTech.
But now, emerging markets are present in cutting-edge verticals like Web3, and the Creator Economy. So, what are the headliners of Africa & LATAM?
From my research on fundraising and exits, names dropped by people on LinkedIn, and articles, this is the mapping of the ecosystem:
🌍 The Creator Economy ecosystem in Africa
Egypt 🇪🇬
👉 Minly (Fan Interactions)
👉 Trendster.io (Influence marketing)
Tunisia 🇹🇳
👉 Wantotrip (Group travels)
Nigeria 🇳🇬
👉 Gamr (eSports)
👉 Nestcoin (Web3)
👉 Selar (E-commerce)
👉 Fidia (Payments, Link-in-bio)
👉 Shukran (Tippings)
👉 Paystack Commerce (E-commerce)
👉 Flutterwave Store (E-commerce)
Benin 🇧🇯
👉 Africreators (Digital products)
Kenya 🇰🇪
👉 Honeycoin (Payments)
👉 Wowzi (Influence marketing)
South Africa 🇿🇦
👉 NFTfi (NFT-collateralized loans)
👉 Bettr (Digital banks)
🌎 The Creator Economy ecosystem in Latin America
Mexico 🇲🇽
👉 Trendi (Creator accelerator)
👉 Genuina Media (Spanish-speaking podcast production)
Brazil 🇧🇷
👉 Creators LLC (Influence marketing)
👉 SNACKCLUB (Blockchain gaming)
👉 Elo7 (The Etsy of Brazil)
👉 Squid (Influence marketing)
Colombia 🇨🇴
👉 Mowies (Creator Paywalls, community & NFTs)
👉 Wabi (The next Shopify of Colombia)
👉 Favik (Business-As-A-Platform)
👨🏿💻 Do you know Latin-American or african creator-focused startups? Tell me in the comments or ping me on Twitter or Linkedin.
🍔 Consecration of MrBeast: when the engagement of the community is so high that it gathers +10k people for a restaurant launch!
MrBeast, the +100M followers-YouTuber, is a real businessman. He began with YouTube videos in 2011 and met his first success in 2017 with a video where he counted untilto000 for 40 hours 🤣.
Furthermore, he has developed since 2017 his multi-channel YouTube network with his team, and then expands to build his creator empire on several lines of business:
a mobile game with MSCHF
angel investments on Current, Backbones
venture capital investments with a $20M VC fund with Night Media
food brands like Feastables and MrBeast Burger
…
About the latter, MrBeast Burger, it’s one of the most successful ventures of the YouTuber: a fast food brand working with +1600 restaurants and generating +100M sales!
The Sept 4, the brand makes another step: MrBeast Burger went into brick-and-mortar business by launching its first MrBeast Burger restaurant.
And it’s a huge success: according to the creator, +10 000 clients were present to buy their burgers 😱! I let you see that excitation below 👇
It’s still incredible how we don’t need to be classic “entertainers” like international actors, rappers, and singers to be able to create such enjoyment! For example, in Franc,e we saw the same enjoyment (all things being equal 😅) with the creator Léna Situations with her ephemeral concept store, the Hotel Mahfouf!
If you want to know more about MrBeast’s journey, check out this very good content 👇
An 🖋 article by the VC Alexandre Dewez and ex-JellySmack now Augment founder Ariel Renous.
A 🎥 video of the Creator Economy key opinion leaders Colin & Samir.
That’s it for today!
Do not hesitate to reach out on Twitter or Linkedin if some content touched your curiosity, or if you want to suggest your sources 😎
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See you next time 🙋🏿♂️ !
Ange Michael AHYI