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Hello! It's been a busy week for YouTube! The company on Wednesday hosted its annual Brandcast event for advertisers in New York where it announced updates ranging from new deals with the NFL to features for creators. On Thursday, CEO Neal Mohan told a MoffettNathanson investor conference that revenue generated per hour watched on YouTube Shorts has risen to the equivalent of YouTube's long-form videos in several countries, including the U.S. This is significant news. Investors, creators and YouTube channel owners have been skeptical that short-form videos can bring in the same revenue as longer ones, since Shorts advertisements show up in a feed between videos rather than embedded in longer videos. Mohan credited this to an increase in viewers and improvements the company has made to its advertising products. (To be sure, it's still to be determined how this revenue growth for Shorts will translate into payments doled out to creators.) Besides Shorts, YouTube spent a lot of time playing up its presence in podcasts. At the Brandcast event at Lincoln Center, Mohan plugged that more than 1 billion people watch podcasts on YouTube every month. Podcasts "are thriving on YouTube because people love to watch, not just listen," Mohan said on stage. He also touted the prevalence of YouTube on living room screens, as he has in the past. Last quarter in the U.S., YouTube users spent more time watching YouTube on their TVs than any other device, he said. YouTube executives said a feature announced in September that makes it easier for viewers to binge their shows directly on their TVs will also apply to YouTube podcasts. "A podcast is a show," said Steve McLendon, YouTube's head of podcast products at Thursday's event. "We're really excited to elevate your content on living room devices." He said YouTube is focused on offering podcasters more analytics about their shows. Analytics, of course, are a feature YouTube has long offered traditional video bloggers. And YouTube unveiled a leaderboard ranking the top 100 podcast shows by watchtime on YouTube in the U.S.—a feature that podcast rival Spotify already has. For the release, on Thursday it brought some of its most-watched podcasters, including members of the YouTube group Smosh and of the "Flagrant" comedy podcast, to an event at its New York office to mingle with journalists. Not surprisingly, Joe Rogan's podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience" topped YouTube's podcast list. "Kill Tony," a weekly podcast recorded live from Austin hosted by standup comedians Tony Hinchcliffe and Brian Redban. True crime podcast "Rotten Mango" took third place. YouTube plans to expand podcast charts to additional countries in the future. The Takeaway: Podcasting has become more popular, particularly after the U.S. presidential election. But YouTube faces more competition from Spotify and Amazon for viewers and ad dollars. Its moves to expand features, like a top podcaster chart and analytics, shows how it's using its position as the world's biggest video channel to keep its hold on this market.—Kaya Yurieff & Sahil Patel Here's what else is going on… See The Information's Creator Economy Database for an exclusive list of private companies and their investors. Whalar Group, a company best known for managing creators and sponsorships with advertisers, a group of investors including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff had invested in the company at a valuation of $400 million. Hedra, a San Francisco-based AI video generation startup, raised $32 million in a deal led by Andreessen Howoritz. Glass Imaging, a startup that uses AI to improve the quality of images, raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Insight Partners. YouTube signed a multi-year deal with the NFL to put on the annual Super Bowl Flag Football Game featuring creators and artists, as well as additional international flag football games. Earlier this week, YouTube announced it had won the rights to livestream an NFL game from Brazil on September 5. This will be the first time that YouTube will exclusively—and for free— livestream an NFL game in its entirety on YouTube. Roblox said it will allow its creators to sell physical items along with virtual items through a partnership with Shopify. Wix, a website building software, launched a new feature called Wixel offering AI visual design tools. • The European Union released preliminary findings in an investigation started last year, saying it believes TikTok broke its Digital Services Act, which requires companies to publish information about the content of ads, including the users targeted by the ads and who paid for them. Next, TikTok has to respond to the preliminary results to try to avoid a fine. • TikTok is testing a new feature that uses AI to generate alternative text which will be read out loud by screen readers to make TikTok easier to use for people who are blind or visually impaired. Last month, TikTok added alt text for photo posts, which allows creators to add text describing their content during upload or after publishing. • The company invited creators to the Cannes Film Festival to share behind-the-scenes video from the event, including Joe Aragon, Monse Gutierrez and Chris Rudd, who all create videos about film and TV on TikTok. Kudzi Chikumbu, the former global head of creator marketing at TikTok, launched a new podcast this week called "Not Just One Thing," focused on career development, which will include interviews with guests who don't have a singular title or career. 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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