ICYMI: Twitch Says Competition Will Make Us Stronger; VidCon Recap Day One

Inside VidCon, my recap from Day One

[via VidCon Twitter]

Day One of VidCon is in the books — it officially kicked off Wednesday but that was really more of a soft launch. 

Watch out for my VidCon Day 2 recap tomorrow morning. I debated cramming everything into one massive Friday night update but that seemed overwhelming for both of us. So, I’ve spaced things out with two newsletters this week. I hope you’ll share the weekend with me and read Saturday morning’s update as well!

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 ⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY

• TikTok’s COO and US-based face of the company V Pappas has quit

• Twitch’s CCO Laura Lee sounds off on the competitive streamer landscape

• Inside VidCon’s vibe shift from fandom-focused to business, business, business

• YouTube released it’s culture and trends report

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🎥 VIDCON RECAP

🚨 What’s happening: Launched in 2010, VidCon was originally a place for video creators (first YouTubers, then Viners, then TikTokers) and fans to meet. Now, it’s more of a meeting spot for the industry’s key players. It makes the convention incredibly relevant but the vibe shift is undeniable.

“It feels like we've come to a summit to find out how to be financially successful on a platform rather than coming to a convention to connect with creators,” NBC News reporter Kalhan Rosenblatt told me. “Even seeing Patrick Starrr, he’s a makeup artist who has a makeup line. And then the panels are the legal side of being a content creator and YouTube has a panel on how to best monetize your platform.”

There were still plenty of teens on the Expo floor, jumping into the Squishmallows Squish Pit and scouting their favorite creators. But the industry has indeed grown up. Creators want sustainable and diversified revenue streams. Platforms and businesses know there are billions at stake so nothing is left to chance. We’ve all been trained to look at the data and optimize, and the mood has shifted accordingly. 

👀 The scene: All the major platforms had a presence — including the TikTok Galaxy Lounge and the Instagram Creator Lounge — along with marketing agencies, vendors and even some surprise contenders.

YouTube, as the title sponsor, had pride of place with a front and center marquee and their Dreamland lounge for VIPs and Creators. 

Paramount+ was on hand in the Expo Hall with an immersive event activation called The Lodge, featuring popular franchises like SpongeBob Squarepants and iCarly. Hasbro also used the opportunity to announce an all new Furby. The glowed-up, interactive toy, which was originally released in 1998, will stage a comeback later this summer. But first, it will get its unveiling at a VidCon pop-up Friday morning.    

🗞️ It’s the small touches: Creators and VidCon speakers Colin and Samir put out an actual physical newspaper to celebrate the second anniversary of their newsletter The Publish Press. They even installed a yellow newspaper box at VidCon to distribute to fans.

📝 Seen and heard on Day One: Tubefilter and Streamy Awards founder Joshua Cohen, Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry kicked things off early on Thursday with a panel on The State of the Creator Economy, with a nod to the New Wave creators who are focused on “coming of age stories, slower paced vlogs, a heavy dose of filmmaking and storytelling.”

More personal and meaningful content was a recurring theme of the day, seemingly a response to interest-based algorithms, click-bait content and temporary virality. 

“So before, it was all about subscribing to a creator, following them and obsessing over everything they create,” Rich Greenfield, co-founder and partner at LightShed Ventures, opined in a fireside chat on How the Creator Economy Is Redefining Media. “And now these platforms, they'll entertain and they'll see what you like and they'll just continue to feed you content that entertains you. And it's less and less about an individual creator. And I think that should be scary to the creators out there.” 

I also attended a session on getting social commerce right with LTK’s co-founder Amber Venz Box — I’ve got a great interview to come with this influencer industry legend (check back Saturday morning!) but will leave this heartening gem here: 

“Creators do have the power. They're the ones actually making the content. Someone mentioned this earlier today, as generative AI is becoming more popular, people will crave human experience and that kind of emotional bond they have with the people that they follow.”

Then I headed to a session on driving social sales with Dash Hudson*, Jenni Kayne, and others, that explored entertainment-focused social content strategies. You may actually have heard me clapping when Jenni Kayne CMO Alexa Ritacco mentioned the Jenny Kayne Ranch remodel, which I had followed on Instagram from strip down to dream space.

Later, I met with Twitch’s chief content office Laura Lee to discuss where the platform goes from here and what the company sees as its unique advantage. Keep scrolling for that conversation. 

My day wrapped up with YouTube’s Industry Keynote delivered by Vice President of Product Management, Amjad Hanif who used the opportunity to bring Colin and Samir back out to discuss YouTube’s new Culture and Trends report, followed by creators Larray and SSSniperwolf to talk about community, affiliate shopping and upcoming releases such as AI-powered dubbing and thumbnail AB testing which will roll out soon to more creators.     

💼 Industry cred: I asked some of the industry’s leaders and tastemakers for their thoughts on the convention’s vibes and emerging themes:

“This is my first VidCon and I would say a theme that is really present is obviously short-form video. But… it’s not just about a new product coming out and how to use it, it’s about how to actually scale and build as a creator and that’s what I’m seeing in the sessions.

In terms of all of the activations, everyone is going all out because they want to wow the creators… For example, the Instagram lounge has the most activations. They have Booth by Bryant there, which is huge. It’s novel to be able to get a Booth by Bryant at an event. He was just at the Met Gala. They have a customization booth, a gaming booth, and then they have a customer support team which I personally have loved because you can go and ask any questions you have about Facebook or Instagram accounts.” 

-Gigi Robinson, creator economy and mental health speaker, creator and author  

“Just out of ‘The New Era of Celebrity’ [panel]. A big takeaway is the gap between traditional celebrities and Creators’ ability to deliver a brand’s message or promise with scale is growing wider with Millennials and Gen Z audiences. Unlike some traditional celebrities, Creators have the unique ability to connect with their fans on a deeper level via cultural conversations, comments, duets / reactions, live streams, consumer events, etc., all while engaging their fans 24/7 on the platforms younger generations love. i.e., TikTok, Instagram, YouTube.”

-Morgan Barclay, VP of Creator Marketing, QYOU Media

“I’ve been talking to people about how you turn passive audiences into more active communities; from audiences that just follow you to communities that actively comment, respond to thumbnails or provide new ideas for the channel. I think that the future for many creators will be tapping into these active communities which can be a part of the creation process more than a passive audience that just watches but doesn’t interact with the creator.”

-Alessandro Bogliari, Co-Founder and CEO at the Influencer Marketing Factory  

“This year's VidCon sunsetted the phrase 'You must work with creators' and replaced it with a question: 'What is AI going to do?' There was a general air of excitement, anticipation, and healthy skepticism throughout the days panels."

-Liam Trumble, SVP Creative, Superdigital

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🎙️ Conversations: Twitch’s Chief Content Officer Laura Lee

You don’t have to be a streamer to be aware of the streaming platform headlines right now: Twitch announced some recent policy changes, including a new Partner Plus program, which was met with mixed reviews by its streamers. Simultaneously, there were several high priced and high profile defections: the platform’s most popular streamer, xQc, signed a $100 million deal with competitor Kick, putting him at goat-status salary level.

Twitch’s Chief Content Officer Laura Lee was at VidCon to speak on championing streamer-led communities and play host for an invite-only creator dinner. I had a chance to speak with the executive about where Twitch is headed and ask her to unpack how she’s handling the current turmoil. 

Lia Haberman: What’s your take on what’s happening right now?

Laura Lee: I’m a firm believer in the mantra that competition actually makes you stronger. It forces you to really focus in on what's important. And it kind of lifts the noise, if you will. And so for us, it's really forced us to be even more contemplative than we normally have been. And the simple fact of the matter is we were working on Partner Plus before all that stuff started to rise up. But we felt like it was important to get it out there to our community because we're always thinking about ways in which we can help more streamers.

LH: Your LinkedIn bio mentions you revel in tackling hairy problems — do you have a framework for thinking about problems and how to find solutions?

LL: My husband says that I'm a bit masochistic, and maybe that's the point but… the framework that I use is really one of these: If it's a problem, I don't think that it's daunting and I always want to come with at least three or four different ways to try to tackle it.

What's really important in adaptable or agile leadership is, OK, that didn't work. We have to dust ourselves off and figure out ways in which we can approach a situation differently. Some of that is strategy, some of that is timing, some of that is just being thoughtful about taking in more data and taking in more sentiment and taking in more feedback from creators in the community for us to then say, ‘OK, we're going to approach it a different way.’ So I always try to make sure that there are multiple ways towards success, if you will, than just one path.

LH: What would you say to the streamers who have left very publicly? 

LL: What’s interesting to me is that I think it's honestly been a bit mischaracterized in the media. Yes, there are some streamers who have left, but there are many streamers who are choosing to try other platforms but still are coming back to stream on us.

So for example, xQc and Amouranth, still streaming on us, right? I think Twitch is still an important part of what they do. And for us, prior to all of this competitive stuff heating up, we had actually relaxed some of our policies.

So, for example, our exclusivity policy: When we are thinking about what benefits streamers the most, we know that giving them more choice, more flexibility… a creator's journey is often multi-platform and where we think we continue to shine and we want to continue investing our resources is remaining the best place for live streaming. Full stop. 

LH: There’s a graphic floating around Twitter that suggests Twitch’s community and interface are some of the best things about the platform, have you seen it? 

LL: I haven't seen it, so I can't comment on that. But I think that’s actually pretty fair. I think we are the best community hands down. And I think also intertwined with that is our UI and our product experience.

LH: What do you see as the future of the company?

LL: I’m incredibly bullish about what content means to Twitch and what it can be. We're very lucky that we continue to have a very vibrant and dedicated gaming audience... But we also have a lot of great examples of innovative content forms that aren't just gaming.

So, a few years ago we had this big influx of organic chess players. The BotezSisters are this pair of sisters who are intellectually, clearly much smarter than I am. They're under eight, national champions from Canada. And they started streaming about their chess play and now they stream IRL.

And then we have other creators, and I tend to always want to support women of color, female streamers, streamers from underrepresented groups, because I think that's also really important. So some other streamers that I love watching is BigBossBoze. She started off as a gamer on Twitch and then she found out that her true calling was actually True Crime.

And then my favorite most recent one is MadisonBeer started streaming on Twitch, which is kind of amazing.

LH: content and creators are so intertwined, especially on your platform. You're the chief content officer. Does that also make you the pseudo chief creator officer as well?

LL: So I view my role as number one, being the chief advocate for streamers worldwide. Full stop. And it's part of my job to not only advocate for them internally, but to listen to them, to learn from them, to ingest and to help us do better. And not just from a content perspective, but to take it back and to work with our senior team to figure out what are the product innovations that we need to do to make a long term career sustainable on Twitch.

LH: How do you reach out and talk to creators now without just throwing money at the problem?

LL: Yeah. So I mean, that's honestly a huge part of what my team does, right? We are constantly talking to creators. Creators are the lifeblood of our business. Part of the reason why we’re here at VidCon is because I’m prioritizing seeing my creators, as is my team.

LH: Can you share any struggles you’ve faced being a woman in the space, on the Internet, in business and in gaming. And how have you used that as your superpower?

LL: “I don't view it as a female specific question. I think for me, the way that my experience has been formed and certainly not by gaming, is more so being a female executive that's Asian.

It's been an interesting journey. It's been a great journey. But I find very often that I've come up against a preconceived model minority kind of conception. I'm a New Yorker, and so I'm pretty much a straight shooter. And I think some people who might think of Asian females in one archetype are not used to that. And so that's been a sort of interesting kind of situation that I've had to deal with throughout my career. But it's one of those things where it just makes you stronger, right?

LH: What’s been the best advice you’ve received in your career?

LL: One thing that’s honestly really tough for me is… Because there are big gaps in my career where I didn't feel like I had that mentorship, that it's so important for me — as cheesy as it sounds — for me to always pay it forward.

I am purposely making sure that I am not only mentoring women outside of my reporting group, but that I'm mentoring high potential women in my org. My org is a global org, so I'm very lucky that way, but I am making sure that I'm availing myself so that these women can feel seen and can feel like they can have that more one-on-one relationship with me, especially if they're based globally. There aren't necessarily a lot of opportunities for me to be working very regularly with them and that's so, so important for many people from underrepresented groups, many women, they often don't feel like they have that kind of steward who’s going to be that key board of director for them. 

*This interview edited for length and clarity

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📖 ON YOUR RADAR

• V Pappas steps down at TikTok as new executives are named -The Washington Post

• Discord plans to let creators sell downloadable products -The Verge 

• TikTok prepares 'Project S' plan to break into online shopping -Financial Times

• Instagram now finally allows users to download public Reels -TechCrunch

• Twitter to focus on creators, video, commerce in business revamp -Reuters

• Alex Cooper's new media company shows the allure of targeting young consumers -Business Insider

• David Dobrik posts to Snapchat 80 to 100 times a day, benefitting from Snap’s rev-sharing program -The Information 

• The original Smosh founders reunited and bought back their channel -YouTube

• MrBeast: I Want To Move On From Beast Burger -TheSpoon

• Ex-influencers speak about their lives after leaving social media -NBC News

Thanks for reading! Please come back tomorrow for my interview with LTK’s Amber Venz Box plus more VidCon insights and predictions on the future of influencer marketing and the creator economy!

*Dash Hudson partner