🤑 SNAP'S GOLDRUSH

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🔼 France’s retirement age. (Probably.) President Macron overrode parliament to pass a contentious bill that raises it from 62 to 64 »» Will the move backfire? »»

🔽 Stripe’s valuation. The giant, privately-held payments firm raised a series I that values the firm at US$50b, just over half of what the firm was valued in 2021 »»

💬 “We started demolishing it yesterday. The landowner watched us do it and didn’t know either.” Banksy's latest artwork was totally obliterated shortly after completion »»

🛩️ This airport was just ranked #1 in the world, again. (Hint: it sports a butterfly garden and a rock climbing wall) »»

👗 “From one jewelry obsessive to another: here’s the best silver jewelry I’ve found” »»

💎 Modernism meets art deco in this chic London mews house redesign, that also nods to the offbeat design aesthetics of the ‘60s and ‘70s »»

How to pick a banking partner (and not get caught in a bank run) »»

6 ChatGPT prompts that'll save you hours a day at work »»

Why are researchers slamming OpenAI’s GPT-4 technical paper? »» 

A longevity expert shares the exercise she does to live longer and prevent her body from ‘aging fast’ »»

What YouTube hustle gurus are really selling you »»

Crypto app downloads are up 15% following SVB’s collapse »»

Attention founders: there’s a new app called Fuel which offers free company valuations, using a specific methodology from top VC firm a16z »»

2 days after Google announced a similar move, Microsoft said they will add generative AI to their popular office software »»

A battle royal is brewing over copyright and AI »» 🔐

A new BlackBerry movie is coming, and it looks like the real-life story of the world's first smartphone is a wild ride »»

Is the age of the empowered employee over? 90% of companies are planning to bring workers back to the office at least part-time »»

TikTok faces a ban in the US if it retains Chinese-based ownership »»

Meanwhile, the UK banned TikTok on government phones »»

Snap’s trying to poach popular social media stars away from TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Will it work?

SNAP’S POACHING SOCIAL media stars away from TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

• According to Fortune magazine, some super famous creators have been earning remarkable sums from Snap's advertising revenue share program.

• The gold rush has turned Snap into a favorite platform for a lot of high-profile creators.

• What’s this about? And is it sustainable?

• Let’s unpack it, shall we?

“SNAP STARS” LAUNCHED in 2022

• Snap shares ad revenue with its stars, social media personalities with serious mass appeal.

• Due to the fractious nature of media today, you may not have heard of popular creators like Hannah Stocking (24m Instagram followers) or David Dobrik (26m TikTok followers), but you probably have heard of Charli and Dixie D'Amelio, the “first family of TikTok.” (With over 150m followers, Charli is the world’s 2nd most followed TikToker.)

• What do they all have in common?

• They’re all on Snap Stars—and earning serious money on it.

• In some cases, more than US$10,000 a day serious.

GENEROUS AD REVENUE sharing lured them to Snap.

• Established creators really like the ease of creating Snap Stories, “as well as the authenticity it allows.”

• See, unlike “the demanding ideation and production schedules required” by platforms like TikTok and YouTube, “ ‘Snapchat stories are like the raw experience of someone’s day.’ ”

• That’s from David Dobrik, who likes how Snap Stories’ lo-fi nature “‘really takes the pressure off creating.’”

• They also like Snap’s ad revenue split, which is a secret, but is rumored to be 50/50.

SNAP’S DEDICATED TALENT manager plays an important role too.

• Adam Waheed (5.1m Instagram followers, 11.6m YouTube subscribers, and 18.8m TikTok followers) has been posting Stories on Snap for less than a month.

• But he’s making US$1,500 daily from ad revenue-sharing “and now considers it his favorite platform, in part because of his relationship to his Snap representative, Brooke Berry.”

• As Adam puts it, “with certain platforms, you have to email them—but [Berry] is like, ‘Text me whenever.’”

OK, WHAT’S THE bottom line here?

• This is a money grab for all concerned.

• Snap is only doing this because they command a fraction of the eyeballs that the large social media platforms do.

• Snap is tempting these giant stars with generous ad revenue splits, hoping to goose user growth.

• And while Snap’s user base has been growing consistently since 2019, it’s a small fraction of Meta’s, YouTube’s and TikTok’s.

IF YOU REALLY want to know where this is heading, look down. To Snap’s bottom line.

• As a business, Snap lost over a billion dollars in 2022. (US$1.43b to be exact.)

• That’s a billion dollars worse than 2021, when the company “only” lost US$488m.

• As it happens, 2021 was a bright spot.

• In 2020, Snap lost US$945m.

• And in 2019, they lost an even billion.

THIS SHOW CAN’T go on.

• Especially this season, when profit matters more than ever.

• Sometime soon, Snap shareholders are going to want the company to stop losing a billion dollars a year.

• That’s when they’ll ask the executives to hang on to more of that ad revenue.

• And when those US$1,500 daily checks go away, is Adam Waheed really going to take the time to send Snap Stories to his 362,000 Snap followers, when he’s got 18m to entertain over on TikTok?

More:

Snap Stories new advertising revenue share program is being called “insane.” How insane? Like, some creators are getting over US$10,000 a day from Snap insane »» 

Snap finally did it, y’all »»

Written by Jon Kallus. Any feedback? Simply reply.