The inherent tension within the creator economy lies between the promise of financial freedom and the realization this freedom comes at a cost.
Patreon CPO says the company will double in size in 2022
Creator monetization startups are cropping up left and right as the tech world embraces the fast-growing creator economy. But Patreon, founded in 2013, has been around since before words like “influencer” were in our vocabulary — back when “Tik Tok” was a Kesha song, rather than the social platform that everyone is trying to emulate. […]
Playground launches in beta to help creators cultivate community
Launching today in beta, Playground is a social platform that seeks to help people discover and develop community while empowering creators to monetize their audience. Already, the website has a wide variety of users like the Museum of Modern Art, comedy host Alexis Gay, the Abolitionist Teaching Network, activist Nupol Kiazolu, and a Malaysian virtual […]
Memberful, a Patreon subsidiary, launches a newsletter product to challenge Substack
Between Facebook outages and Twitch data breaches, last week was bumpy for social platforms and the creators who build businesses on them. As internet creators look to diversify their income streams and retain ownership over their audiences, membership software maker Memberful is launching a newsletter feature today to add to its subscription membership services. While […]
One-time TikTok rival Byte relaunches as Clash, an app for video creators and their top fans
When the Trump administration announced it would ban TikTok in the U.S., a number of alternative short-form video apps began to flourish, as users hedged their bets on a potential TikTok exit. Among these was Byte, an app co-created by Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann, which topped 1.3 million downloads in its first week alone. But […]
Guardian owner invests in Unlock, an NFT protocol designed for subscriptions and memberships
Monetization for the creator economy continues to be a huge issue and opportunity, but creators mostly have to lock themselves into platforms like Patreon to realize their value. A better method would be to have a membership system for creators which sat across several platforms. Now, GMG Ventures (parent company of The Guardian newspaper) has […]
Tumblr’s subscription product Post+ enters open beta after much scrutiny from users
Tumblr is entering open beta for its subscription product Post+, meaning that all U.S. users can now try out the monetization feature. The product launched in closed beta in July, allowing users hand-picked by Tumblr to place some of their content behind a monthly paywall. This marked the first time that Tumblr allowed bloggers to […]
OnlyFans’ policy change is a tale as old as the internet
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. For our Wednesday show this week, Natasha and Alex and Danny had colleague Amanda Silberling on the show to help us parse through OnlyFans‘ precedent-setting move to ban sexually explicit content on its service. The decision was a bolt from the blue for […]
OnlyFans’ explicit content ban should spark a conversation about a creators’ bill of rights
OnlyFans’ decision to ban sexually explicit content is reigniting an important and overlooked conversation around tech companies, content guidelines and sex work.
OnlyFans promotes its SFW app as it seeks funding at a $1B+ valuation
OnlyFans — the platform where adult creators can directly monetize their audience — is pushing its safe-for-work app OFTV, which is available on iOS and Google Play. The ad-free app launched in January, sharing over 800 videos from OnlyFans creators, like cooking tutorials, yoga routines, and interviews. But this week will be the first time […]