We love hearing from our community, and lately have been getting some interesting questions about the creator economy.
We picked a handful of them to answer today. If there’s something you’d like us to cover next, just reply to this email.
Let’s dive in…
What are some common misconceptions about the B2B creator economy? What are both brands and creators overlooking when it comes to this opportunity?
B2B doesn’t have to be boring! We’d love to see more out-of-the-box partnerships rather than stale LinkedIn posts, product demos or creators explaining software features. B2B buyers are people too, and they want to be entertained, as well as informed.
There’s certainly a place for technical creators, or even a company’s own employees, to act as ambassadors for B2B brands. But companies should also be looking at other types of creators, including lifestyle influencers and comedians. A good example: Microsoft’s ongoing partnership with Alix Earle, who recently turned her visit to the company’s headquarters into an entertaining vlog. She also posted this slickly-produced promo for Windows this week.
LinkedIn will remain the top platform for B2B brand deals, thanks to its business professional audience. But as Corporate Natalie pointed out during a recent episode of Scalable, pairing Instagram and LinkedIn together makes for a better campaign—and helps reach different types of audiences.
For creators, there is also a major opportunity with AI startups. These companies are raising millions of dollars in a fiercely competitive market, and they’re increasingly turning to influencers to try to stand out and help shape the narrative around the tech. That means working with technical creators, but also lifestyle creators with a more general audience who you might not immediately associate with AI.
What do you make of the trend of creators engaging and promoting information about the attention economy and ways that social media itself perpetuates social negativities? Could this usher in a new era of responsibility in the market? Or will they just fade if they can’t keep up?
If you’re not sure what this question is getting at, earlier this year there was a wave of creators encouraging people to limit their screen time or use of social media.
While the trend seems to have slowed for now, we wouldn’t be surprised if it popped back up again soon.
We get the appeal of logging off. But we also see anti-doomscrolling influencers as the new de-influencers. Encouraging people to spend less time on their phones or step away from social media is still a form of influence. So is telling people not to buy things.
Case in point: Olivia Yokubonis is a creator who has dedicated her account to encouraging people to close the apps they are on. She also works as a digital wellness strategist at Opal, a screen time app, meaning her content also serves as marketing for her day job.
That’s not to say that there isn’t merit in her advice. And when people have pointed out the irony in what she’s doing, she responded with: “Where else am I supposed to find you, Kyle? For us to be actually seen, we have to be where people are.” She has a point there, too.
What sectors of the economy or industry—or what demographics of society—are you surprised are NOT as served or engaged in the creator economy. And why do you think that is?
There seems to be a creator for almost everything, from woodworking creators to influencers who post exclusively about insects. And today, everyone from Gen Alpha to baby boomers are engaging with creator content: Older demographics are now driving much of YouTube’s viewer growth. (That coincides with the platform’s growing popularity on TV screens.)
But that doesn’t mean all of these sectors are served equally. There is also sometimes a mismatch between what types of content people are watching and what content creators are earning money from. This matters because if creators can’t make money from their content, they may pivot, creating more gaps in the industry. (We’re looking at you, insect influencers.)
For example, comedy was the most popular content category among social media users in the US, according to YouGov data from March. But only 23% of US comedy or skit creators said they had made money from their content, on par with current affairs creators, according to a November 2025 report from CTA. That’s likely due to brand safety concerns with both of those types of content.
Meanwhile, roughly half (51%) of gaming creators said they had monetized their content. The data also showed that men were more likely than women to make money in almost every content category, except fashion and beauty.
Here are a few other specific categories we think are underserved: Content around military service members and their families; outdoor creators, especially those focused on extreme sports, hunting and fishing; and fashion-focused B2B creators. (Speaking for ourselves, we'd love more content on what to wear to specific work events. It’s so hard to find good inspo!)
To generalize a bit, many of these categories face a combination of smaller audiences, fewer brand partnership opportunities or stricter advertiser standards (think guns or politics), making them harder to turn into sustainable creator businesses.
What’s been the best part of going independent?
Kaya: It’s hard to pick just one thing. From making final decisions about what to cover, who to interview and what events to attend to seeing the business side of the creator economy first hand. Most of all, it’s really rewarding to build something from the ground up—with a close friend! I have no idea how anyone does this alone.
Jasmine: Having full ownership of our work. We are always on the clock these days, but I wouldn’t trade it for a nine-to-five. Being able to build this business with a trusted friend helps alleviate the stress—and makes it more fun!
⚽Sports Desk
Norwegian soccer player Erling Haaland isn’t just going viral for his seven (!) World Cup goals or for Norway’s soccer chant, the “Viking Row.” He’s also getting attention for his Snapchat usage, which some have said is giving 2016 thanks to the unfiltered, tongue-in-cheek posts.
While many international fans were surprised to find Haaland so active on Snapchat, Norway has long been a world leader in Snapchat usage. Over 3 million people, or more than half of the population, used Snap as of the second quarter of 2025, a company spokesperson told us. By some third-party estimates, Norway is second only to Saudi Arabia in Snapchat usage.
It’s also just a fun, lighthearted moment for Snapchat. Our question is… will the company start doing more with him?
The Round Up
TikTok on Tuesday kicked off the first stop on its six-city tour across the US, which will highlight local creators and small businesses. The company also announced a new user milestone: 200 million Americans are now on TikTok, up from 170 million in March 2024.
The tour starts in New York City, and will also include Atlanta, Des Moines, Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix. It comes just after the 4th of July—and almost six months since TikTok spun off its US business into a separate venture, which threatened to hurt TikTok’s usage and relevance in the country.
Meta launched a new app called Pocket, which lets people make apps and games using AI prompts.
Reddit is cracking down on spammy content using AI. Reddit is one of the top sources cited by AI chatbots and the move comes as more brands are trying to get mentioned by posting fake or spammy comments on the platform that could be mistaken for real reviews or opinions. The company said its new automated systems are blocking 23 million spam views per day and catching about 25,000 new spammy posts and comments per day.
Medium, the online publishing platform, launched an Editor Partner Program that pays editors of publications a 25% cut of earnings of the stories they edit. The program initially will include more than 100 publications and over 300 editors.
Coming Up On Scalable
Our next podcast guest is…Don Lemon!
The former CNN anchor is the latest TV news star to go independent and build a media business on YouTube. We talked about everything from his arrest in Minnesota while covering ICE protests to the future of media and how he approaches YouTube thumbnails.
The full interview is out this Thursday anywhere you get your podcasts.
In case you missed it over the holiday weekend, we also published our exclusive interview with Netflix CMO Marian Lee.
In her first-ever podcast interview, she discussed competition with YouTube, whether Netflix will sign more podcasting deals this year, why marketing hasn’t changed as much as you think despite AI and much more.
The full interview is worth your time. You can watch on YouTube or tune in on Spotify, Apple or iHeartMedia.
Soundbite
Yesterday, I released the last-ever episode of my podcast, which is so insane. But the most insane part is you didn’t even know I had a podcast, did you? And that was, incidentally, a big part of the problem.”
Mitchell, a comedy creator who uses the handle @madsmitch, hosted her “Monologuing” podcast for the past five years. After publishing 200 episodes, she’s pulling the plug. She didn’t make “a single cent” and it was “way too much work for one person,” she explained in a recent video.
She’s the latest long-time host to call it quits as podcasting faces a reckoning. Go deeper here.
Creator Moves
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are married! Beyond being one of the world’s biggest pop stars, Swift is also the ultimate creator, as Jasmine argued in this 2023 article for Business Insider. Kelce is a creator in his own right: He hosts the popular “New Heights” podcast with his brother and former football player Jason. Their most recent guest? Prince William, who joined them to talk all things football (ahem, soccer). The Kelces gave him quite the intro.
Tilly Norwood, an AI actor, was cast in a lead role in the new comedy drama called “Misaligned,” from AI-focused studio Particle 6. AI-generated actors have sparked backlash in Hollywood.
ColdFeet Films, the production company started by comedy podcast Chapo Trap House, is partnering with Patreon on six short comedy films, which will premiere on July 19.
Talent Tracker
Shadi Nayyer joined LinkedIn’s creator team. Previously, she was head of ecosystem growth at Meta and global head of creator programs at TikTok. She is the latest ex-TikTok staffer to join LinkedIn as it ramps up its creator efforts.
The Daily Mail is hiring a US-based influencer correspondent to break news and write features about the creator economy. The reporter needs to spot stories other people miss, including “a single deleted comment, a telling crop in a brand photo, a subtle shift in follower count,” according to the job description. In October, the tabloid newspaper named London-based reporter Molly Clayton as its first influencer correspondent.
Tubi is hiring two senior associates on its creator partnerships team.
ICYMI: Matt Starker, the CEO of Ashley Flowers’ podcast company Audiochuck, left the company, Bloomberg reported last month. Evelyn Webster, the former CEO of SoulCycle, was named as his replacement.
