TikTok’s $200M fund that finances new content creators is such a big deal, for a few reasons:
(1) User-Generated-Content sucks (we all proved it to ourselves by posting about politics all the time). It turns out most people really shouldn’t be content creators, and instead just readers.
(2) So the social platforms will try to equip the best posters with financing and resources to post more, and professionalize
(3) They will also want to entice these users with money in exchange for them being exclusive to their platform: “hey, I’ll give you $100k in exchange for you being exclusive to TikTok, IGTV, etc.
(4) The influencers will first say “no.” Why? Because YouTube is the only platform that is VERY good at monetizing content. Maybe substack… sorta? So until TikTok, Snap, Insta etc get better, influencers/new media professionals will refuse to go exclusive.
(5) This will up the anti for these platforms to improve monetization of their platforms and share more of the wealth with the content creators they are trying to grab.
(6) Each one will offer better deals, revenue splits, guaranteed monetization in exchange for exclusive content, and start to bid up on budgets higher and higher.
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These social media companies will simply just become “media companies.” The next Disney will be built within these social platforms.
In the meantime, if someone told you “what happened in the streaming wars will happen in social, and become the Social Wars what would you do?” By real estate in LA? Build a production studio? Invest in Quibi?
I’m not sure — but it’s how we’re trying to approach content and media generally.
