🧃 MrBeast Pitches Netflix Game Show

⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY

• MrBeast, the world’s most popular YouTuber, wants to make the jump to streaming

• TikTok is reportedly storing sensitive creator data on servers in China

• Colin and Samir’s biggest tip for launching a successful Discord server

• Some Instagram users have a new Group Chat feature called Roll Call

💻 ROADMAP

📲 BeReal Update:

• BeReal is testing a new chat feature called RealChat allowing users to send each other private BeReal images.

📲 Snap Update:

• Snapchat+ subscribers can now swap pictures with My AI chatbot and receive generative AI Snaps in return.

📲 Meta Updates:

• An Australian creator named Jonah Manzano spotted a new Instagram feature this week called Roll Call: a Group Chat mashup of Add Yours and BeReal.

  • You have five minutes to add a photo or video “on time”

  • Roll calls and any responses expire after 24 hrs

  • Person starting a roll call can unsend it at any time

  • Everyone who adds their photo or video can see yours

• Adam Mosseri recorded a 9-minute video (!) to shed more light on how Instagram, and specifically ranking across Feed, Stories, Explore, Reels, and Search, works. If you don’t have the patience to watch, he also recapped the highlights in this informative blog post.

• Meta’s threatened to remove news stories from Facebook and Instagram in California rather than come to a rev share agreement with media companies. This is all tied to the Journalism Preservation Act and it’s not an empty threat. People in and outside Australia, which passed similar legislation, can no longer share stories from Australian publishers.

• Mark Zuckerberg punked us all by hyping a new release in his Broadcast Channel, only to reveal the new Quest 3 headset. Nothing wrong with that but he knows everyone’s anxiously waiting for the new Instagram app. Come on Mark, give us the goods.

👆🏻 CLICK THRU

🎲 MrBeast Pitches Game Show to Netflix, Disney, HBO
MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) tweeted at the streaming services on Thursday with a pitch to turn one of his over-the-top YouTube videos into a streaming series to see how it performs.

The Pitch: “Imagine a 10 episode series with 10,000 people competing for the largest prize in game show history”

The Players: Donaldson tagged Netflix, HBO, Peacock and Disney+

Pros: There’s a reason Donaldson is the world’s most popular YouTuber. He understand what gets people to click and, more importantly, what keeps them watching. There’s no guarantee it would translate but it would be a fascinating experiment.

Cons: Donaldson would be trading almost unlimited freedom as part of the deal for streaming distribution. There might be no standards and practices department but he’d still have to contend with programming executives, legal, marketing and lots of other departments weighing in. Even if Netflix took a hands off policy to the production, it would be virtually impossible for MrBeast to control every aspect of distribution and promotion and we could wind up with a watered-down version of his vision.

How This Works: One side would need to yield. Either the streaming service decides it’s a risk worth taking and appoints MrBeast as Chief Creative Officer — temporarily turning the company into Donaldson’s own personal fiefdom. Or MrBeast decides he’s willing to cede some creative control to a streaming company, as long as he gets to produce the greatest game show of all time. Either way, I’d watch.

🫣 TikTok Creators’ Financial Info, Social Security Numbers Have Been Stored In China
TikTok has stored the most sensitive financial data of its biggest stars — those in its "Creator Fund" — on servers in China, according to a Forbes exclusive. This runs contrary to CEO Shou Chew’s testimony before congress earlier this year, where he said under oath: “American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore.”

Forbes quoted a TikTok spokesperson saying, “we remain confident in the accuracy of Shou's testimony.” There’s also a take from “YourRichBFF” TikToker Vivian Tu, who said: "If you're okay with being on TikTok, you probably don't care that much about your banking information being everywhere it's stored.”

Creators may or may not care. But if this report does turn out to be true, it could be used in support of a ban and will make it increasingly difficult for TikTok to fight the claims that the Chinese government is harvesting U.S. user data.

In laymen’s terms: don’t do the thing you swore you didn’t do.

🤖 Generative AI comes for advertising
By 2032, AI will influence 90% of all ad revenue, according to this Axios piece on generative AI’s role in advertising. “Agencies will likely take on bigger roles regarding compliance, accountability and measurement,” as generative AI takes on more creative roles.

It doesn’t mean there won’t be a need for creators — along with production capabilities, creators are trusted sources of information. It’s a big part of their value. And it’s that credibility that will serve them in the long run. But it could mean less reliance on UGC creators or other anonymous creatives who could be replaced by generative AI.

🔵 A verified AOC parody account got a boost from Elon Musk’s Twitter
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is justifiably concerned after Elon Musk reinstated and engaged with a verified parody account using her name and avatar. It’s almost impossible to explain how wildly absurd this app has become to a creator or brand manager who’s not on Twitter. Imagine being impersonated on Instagram or TikTok, and not only do Mark Zuckerberg or Shou Chew reinstate the banned account but they openly flirt with it?! It’s a surreal shit show. And it’s only going to make wooing advertisers back to that platform even harder.

Related: Twitter is now worth just one-third of the $44 billion Elon Musk paid for the company, according to Fidelity. And the platform’s head of trust and safety has resigned.