| If you're finding value in our Creator Economy newsletter, I encourage you to consider subscribing to The Information. It contains exclusive reporting on the most important stories in tech. Save up to $250 on your first year of access. Welcome back! As shutdowns and acquisitions continue to hit the creator economy, some of the sector's buzziest pandemic darlings are still chugging along and trying to revamp their businesses. The latest: On Tuesday, Cameo announced it's making it easier for online personalities to sign up to join the video shoutout service. The startup said its new onboarding process for talent called CameoX has already resulted in 31,000 new personalities joining since testing it out over the past 18 months or so. "The nature of fame is changing," the company wrote in a blog post. Its new policy allows "just about anyone with a passion for engaging with fans to join the Cameo community." In the past, people ranging from athletes to actors and social media creators could join Cameo by applying, receiving outreach from Cameo staff or getting referred by another Cameo user or talent manager. Now, creators can join the app quickly by filling out a form and completing a verification process. As The Information previously reported, Cameo struggled in the aftermath of a pandemic-induced surge in demand for digital gifts, slashing its workforce to one-tenth of its peak size after an unsuccessful effort to raise new cash. Its valuation dropped 90% earlier this year from $1 billion in 2021 when it raised a so-called cramdown round. That gave it enough funds to "sustain the business indefinitely," a spokesperson said at the time. Meanwhile, Cameo has continued to garner headlines by attracting recently disgraced politicians including Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump's short-lived pick for Attorney General, and George Santos, a former Republican representative who was expelled from Congress. Other pandemic darlings have also since raised smaller rounds of funding, and similarly expanded their core businesses. Last month, newsletter publisher Substack raised about $10 million from strategic investors, including Omeed Malik and Nate Silver. It's also pushed into podcasts and video and invested in building out its app, adding features that make it more like a social network. In October, Spotter, best known for offering upfront financing to YouTubers, announced an investment from Amazon. Spotter has also announced its AI software Spotter Studio, which offers brainstorming tools to help creators make more viral videos. As part of the deal with Amazon, Spotter said the two companies would "expand access" to new business opportunities for creators. The Takeaway: It's no secret that it's been a rough time for many creator startups since many venture capitalists soured on the sector. More than two dozen creator economy startups have shut down or filed for bankruptcy since 2021, while at least 73 startups have been acquired over the past four years, including in fire sales, according to The Information's Creator Economy Database. Venture funding for the sector continues to be scarce, though it saw a rebound for two straight quarters earlier this year. That's forcing creator startups of all sizes to rethink their core businesses and expand beyond narrow niches. Here's what else is going on… TikTok Shop drove more than $100 million in U.S. sales on Black Friday, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Information. The most popular Black Friday products sold on TikTok's e-commerce offering included fashion, beauty and home items. Top sellers included Tarte Cosmetics and Chinese retailer Miniso, which sells housewares and other products, like toys and makeup. The stats were first reported by Business Insider. TikTok tripled its cut of sales to 6% earlier this year. TikTok Shop made up just a fraction of overall online spending on the Friday after Thanksgiving, however. Adobe Analytics reported that U.S. shoppers spent $10.8 billion online during the shopping holiday. TikTok shoppers also tuned into more than 30,000 live shopping streams on the app on Black Friday. Stormi Steele, founder of hair care brand Canvas Beauty, earned $2 million from a single livestream, according to the TikTok spokesperson. The ByteDance-owned company has been pushing creators and merchants to go live, encouraging them to host multi-hour streams that can sometimes span 8 or 10 hours on the app, The Information previously reported. See The Information's Creator Economy Database for an exclusive list of private companies and their investors. GigaStar, a startup enabling YouTubers to raise funding from individuals and institutional investors, announced the launch of its DropStars Program, which offers creators an advisory role and equity in GigaStar. The first two creators to participate are YouTubers Brian Kim and Tony Gaskins. Both have used the GigaStar platform to raise money. ElevenLabs, an AI voice company, partnered with German media company Bertelsmann to assist with tasks like automatically dubbing videos for new languages. Fidelity Investments marked up its equity stake in X by 32% in October, according to a recent investor filing. The move follows several markdowns over the past two years. TikTok on Tuesday said it removed some accounts that had posted comments supporting candidates in Romania's presidential election, in violation of the platform's deceptive behavior rules. Some 78 of those accounts with a total of 1,781 followers had promoted far-right candidate Călin Georgescu, who won a surprise victory in the first round of the elections. Romania's top court ordered a recount of votes cast in the first round of its presidential election following allegations that TikTok gave "preferential treatment" to Georgescu, according to the BBC. Australia's Parliament approved a law banning children under 16 years from having social media accounts on platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X. Bluesky said it's updated its policy against impersonating people to be more "aggressive" as more people join the micro-blogging site, including celebrities and organizations. The company said it's also helping those high-profile accounts set up verified domain handles. Kai Cenat smashed the record for highest subscribers on Twitch during a subathon, or nonstop livestream, which ran 24 hours a day for the entire month of November. The 22-year-old streamer reached 727,694 subscribers by the end of last month, according to a Twitch spokesperson. Cenat also amassed nearly 50 million unique viewers during that time. Alex Cooper could be getting into the vodka business. Last month, the "Call Her Daddy" podcaster filed a trademark application for "Popular Vodka by Unwell" for alcoholic beverages, except beer, that includes distilled spirits, fruit spirits and vodka cocktails. The name nods to her production company Unwell Network. Cooper has been teasing a secret project on social media, which she said would launch on Wednesday. The trademark application was first reported by Business Insider. Forbes released its annual "30 Under 30" list, which includes creators such as podcaster Bobbi Althoff, "Perfectly Imperfect" newsletter writer Tyler Bainbridge, and Mad Realities co-founders Alice Ma and Devin Lewtan, whose startup produces original shows for social media, such as "Shop Cats," with episodes about cats living in bodegas around New York City. Sarah Shapiro joined media company Puck as a newsletter writer, where she will contribute to Lauren Sherman's "Line Sheet" fashion newsletter. Previously, Shapiro wrote a Substack newsletter called Retail Diary with more than 10,000 subscribers. Line Sheet will expand to five days per week, up from three. Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat, hosts of the true crime podcast "Crime Junkie," are kicking off a live tour in March, visiting U.S. cities including Indianapolis, Austin, Los Angeles and New York. Phoebe Peng is now managing director of The Crypto Content Creator Campus, a new event focused on the future of crypto and the creator economy. Its first conference was held last month in Dubai. "Brain rot" is Oxford University Press' word of the year. The phrase became popular this year as a way to describe concerns about the harmful impact of consuming large amounts of low-quality content online, particularly on social media. Oxford said the term increased in usage by 230% between 2023 and 2024. Thank you for reading the Creator Economy Newsletter! I'd love your feedback, ideas and tips: kaya@theinformation.com. If you think someone else might enjoy this newsletter, please pass it forward or they can sign up here: https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/creator-economy | 
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