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Where does Snap go from here? The nearly fourteen-year-old company is struggling to grow its ad business, particularly compared to larger Meta Platforms and Google's YouTube. At the same time, CEO Evan Spiegel remains laser focused on his long-time, big bet: the company's augmented reality glasses, Spectacles. To keep funding the AR project, Snapchat parent has begun to discuss ways to raise outside money and even has considered spinning it off, as we scooped in this Weekend story on Friday. 

Whether Snap will ever see a mega hit with Spectacles is far from certain. In the short term, Snapchat should focus on revitalizing its main advertising business by ramping up its creator efforts and improving Spotlight, its TikTok competitor. While the company has made major strides in getting more creators posting on the app—and bringing back celebrities like Justin Bieber—its short-form video efforts still lag larger rivals when it comes to viewership and cultural relevance.

It doesn't have to be that way. First, Snap could make it easier for users to find the videos! Now, users open the app to the camera, and then can swipe left to see the messages they share with friends. To find Spotlight videos, they have to go to the bottom right of the screen. In contrast, short videos on Instagram and TikTok greet users as soon as they open the app. (The downside of this approach, at least for Instagram, is that some users complain that influencer videos drown out their friends' feeds.) 

Snap could also help more average users become influencers by making it easier for them to create their own videos. This is a known path. On TikTok, for example, users react to other videos and make their own videos that piggyback off trends on the app. The volume of content they generate makes it easier for TikTok to serve people personalized videos, which helps boost its ad business. At Meta, Instagram is seeing a boost in engagement from friends directly messaging each other short-form videos.

I could see Snap doing something similar. Spiegel told investors earlier this month that products that encourage users to share more content with each other on the app could help boost growth in North America, where it lost users last quarter. 

Such changes would capitalize on the gains it has made in short-form video. Spotlight makes up 40% of the time people spend watching content on the app, the company said earlier this month. Still, in my conversations with creators and talent managers I rarely hear anyone talking about Spotlight. That's probably because for the past few years, Snapchat has largely focused on getting creators to post more on its older signature product, disappearing Stories, by sharing revenue from ads that appear on these Stories with creators. 

In fact, I most often hear about top creators who are making a killing from posting a ton of those Stories, like Alyssa McKay, who consistently shares more than 100 disappearing Stories per day. That has resulted in her earning more than $2.5 million from Snapchat over the past three years. 

To be successful on Stories, creators have to post a lot more compared to creating shorter videos. Creators aren't posting 100 TikToks a day, for example.

"If you want to perform well on Snapchat, you have to really dedicate to that platform," said Momo Messerschmidt, a marketing and talent specialist at The Influencer Marketing Factory. 

That doesn't leave influencers much time to post on other social networks, where they can also earn money from lucrative brand deals that aren't as common on Snapchat. Snap's time commitment is a deterrent to some creators. 

Creators "are really spread thin in how much they need to create content," said Kirstin MacGowan, vice president of talent at Digital Brand Architects, a creator management firm owned by UTA. 

"Snapchat does require an 'always on' approach," MacGowan added. "Every aspect of your life you're Snapping."

Snapchat has taken one step to encourage more creators to consider posting more on Spotlight. In December, it rolled out an update to this revenue-share program to include opportunities to earn money from Spotlight videos that are longer than a minute.

It could do more. As I said on The Information's new daily tech show TITV last week, just like Snapchat is not a "must buy" for advertisers—it's also not a social app most creators feel they have to be on. That has to change if Snapchat hopes to revitalize growth in its advertising business.

Here's what else is going on…

Creator Spotlight: Maddie Borge

Maddie Borge, 24, started making YouTube videos more than ten years ago, recording herself doing crafts in her room or sharing what she was up to at school. As she grew up, she shared more about home decor, organization and travel, including her solo backpacking trips to countries such as the Philippines. Her YouTube channel now has more than 1 million subscribers. 

Borge, who is from Norway but now lives in London, started posting videos showing how she packed efficiently to save space, including using packing cubes. "The videos would go completely viral," she said. 

But she found that most packing cubes looked nice but were flimsy, or the ones that saved space looked ugly. She wanted an option that was functional and looked nice. "I want my suitcase to look like how much fun I'm going to have when I'm traveling," she said.

In late April, Borge launched her own line of packing cubes under a new brand called Pastael. President Trump announced tariffs on Chinese-made goods just before her launch, causing chaos for her young business, which uses Chinese manufactures. As a result, she decided to initially not offer shipping to the U.S., instead opting to ship to only the U.K., Norway and European Union countries. 

She launched in April by selling 2,000 sets of two packing cubes, in yellow or green and small and medium sizes priced at £40 and £45 (or $50 to $60). Pastael sold 70% of its stock on the first day, and the rest sold out a few weeks later. 

Borge bootstrapped the business herself and is selling her products through a website she created using Shopify. After facing a production issue in July, she restocked the packing cubes for a second time a few days ago, switching to a recycled polyester material, in response to her customers wanting to buy goods that are better for the environment. They sold out again. "I should've ordered a lot more," she said. "The long-term vision is to always have stock and drop new colors and products."  

She plans to expand to sell other accessories for traveling. In the future, she hopes Pastael will make up the majority of her income, which currently comes from sponsorship deals with advertisers. "I don't think I'll ever stop posting on social media, but I eventually want this business to be where I earn my money," she said.

Deals & Debuts

See The Information's Creator Economy Database for an exclusive list of private companies and their investors.

YouTube in recent months has been using AI to tweak creator's videos without notifying them or asking permission, the BBC reported. "We're running an experiment on select YouTube Shorts that uses traditional machine learning technology to unblur, denoise and improve clarity in videos during processing (similar to what a modern smartphone does when you record a video)," said Rene Ritchie, YouTube's head of editorial and creator liaison, in a post on X. A YouTube spokesperson didn't respond to a request for further comment. 

Spotify is rolling out direct messages to users 16 and older in select markets on mobile devices. The company said the feature is for users to share songs, podcasts and audiobooks with friends and family, and a way to keep track of recommendations. 

Meta Platforms announced a partnership with Midjourney, a startup that develops artificial intelligence models for generating images and videos. Meta will license Midjourney's technology for its future models and products as part of the deal. 

Perplexity has earmarked $42.5 million to distribute to publishers, out of revenue from subscriptions to the startup's AI service.

The Tick-Tock on TikTok

• President Trump said on Friday that he was open to a fourth extension of a deadline for TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a U.S. ban. 

• TikTok is planning to lay off hundreds of staff in London working on content moderation and security as it outsources more of these efforts to AI and concentrates its operations in fewer locations globally. 

Big Number: $701 Million

That's the amount OnlyFans' owner Leonid Radvinsky earned in dividends last year. The financial data came from a U.K. filing from the adult content site's parent company, Fenix International, on Friday.

OnlyFans' revenue is still growing, but not at the same rapid pace as recent years, according to the filing. Revenue rose 9% to $1.4 billion for the year ending in November 2024. In the prior fiscal year, revenue rose about 20% year over year, and revenue soared 160% in 2021, driven by lockdowns during the pandemic.

Fenix is reportedly in discussions to sell the subscription platform to an investor group at a valuation of about $8 billion.

Creator Corner

💍Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement on Instagram. On Tuesday, The Guinness Book of World Records also revealed that the pop star's appearance on Kelce's "New Heights" podcast earlier this month pulled in the most concurrent views ever for a podcast on YouTube. 

Dude Perfect partnered with Warren James, a startup that helps creators develop and sell merchandise, to launch the YouTube group's online store, which sells t-shirts, hoodies, basketballs, backpacks and other apparel. 

Alex Cooper's media company Unwell will host a ticketed event October 10-11 in Las Vegas that includes two pool parties, a live show and DJ sets.

People on the Move

Zaria Parvez is now director of social media at DoorDash. She previously ran language learning app Duolingo's viral social media strategy. 

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

A message from Deloitte What are some of the most impactful takeaways from Deloitte Digital's 2025 State of Social research? In our findings, brands reported that their social media budgets surged by an average of 9% in 2024, and estimated that they spend an average of 28% of their marketing budgets on social media efforts. But, where are these dollars going, and how can they make the most impact? Check out our second annual report to find out.

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