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TGIF! If you're ready for an Instagramable weekend, we have good news: you can now view your Insta feed in chronological order. So maybe this time around, you'll actually see posts about that Saturday pub crawl before it's over.
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Is ShopThing becoming the thing?
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Have you ever wanted to shop with your favorite streamer? (Or maybe just raid their closet?) For a 20% cut, ShopThing will let you do just that—at least, via live stream.
The shopping-slash-streaming company offers its 500,000 consumers the full retail therapy experience. If an influencer is streaming their way through a store and finds a bucket hat you like, you can find it, shop it, and ship it directly from the app.
And now that ShopThing has collected $10 million in Series A funding from Origin Ventures (which has also invested in companies like Cameo), things are heating up much faster than that curling iron you impulse-bought on Depop.
So what's next in store?
Mostly, a membership program and way more streamers. According to founder Maggie Adhami-Boynton, ShopThing already has 100 personal shoppers and influencers on board, but it's looking to add about 400 more.
So if ordering jeans doesn't give you the same thrill as squeezing into them under Forever 21's fluorescent lights, maybe consider joining the team as a shopper instead.
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- In esports news, Complexity Gaming just signed legendary Fortnite streamer Dennis ‘Cloakzy’ Lepore. (Tubefilter)
- Ouch! Japanese start-up H2L Technologies is bringing actual pain into the metaverse. Why would anyone ever do that? Let CEO Emi Tamaki explain. (The New York Post)
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DATA • YOUTUBE MILLIONAIRES 📈
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Forget the hustle: Vickey Cathey keeps things casual
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And it's really, really working for her.
Since 2016, Cathey's YouTube channel has been a mix of Black beauty videos, food clips, and vlogs. And although she calls her first post—a Cup O' Noodles reaction video—"embarrassing," viewers ate it up.
Six years later, they're still hungry for more: Cathey's second most popular post (at 18 million views) is also a noodle reaction video, while her first is a hilarious gummy fruit spit-take. A spit-take with 30 million views.
Surprisingly though, Cathey's main focus isn't food—it's hair.
Why? Because it's what her subscribers want. And since Cathey isn't in it for the money, she can create videos for her core audience without stressing over crazy post schedules or the latest buzz.
Plus, she hasn't really needed to do those things. In fact, Cathey says posting every day actually lowered her views—so she stopped.
By treating YouTube more like a hobby and posting once or twice a week, Cathey seems to have found the perfect balance between building her audience and keeping things casual.
So what's next?
"I'm just going with the flow. But I do want to make a hair brand, my own edge control. I want to branch out to that, and into merch, stuff like that."
— Vickey Cathey
Well, she definitely has the audience for it.
- Cathey currently has 1.07 million YouTube subscribers, but that's not all:
- She also has 381.8K followers on TikTok, with multiple posts breaking 1 million views.
- And her three most popular YouTube shorts? They have 58 million views combined.
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That's your cue—Jack Douglass says you can Be Funny Now.
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Although the 2020s have given everyone a darker sense of humor, it’s been a while since most of us have tested our wits in a game of Cards Against Humanity (or, if you're keeping it PG, Apples to Apples).
Well, YouTuber Jack Douglass has a proclamation: it's time to brush off your inner extrovert and Be Funny Now.
If you don't have an inner extrovert, don't worry: Douglass' new game can be played "whenever, wherever, and with whoever you want." Even if the answer to that is alone on the couch in your PJs.
So what is it, exactly?
Be Funny Now is a competitive party game dropping later this year. It's based on "Yesterday I Asked You" (YIAY), a wildly successful, 600-episode series from Douglass' YouTube channel Jacksfilms. (The series basically consists of Douglass creating colorful prompts and viewers responding with funny answers.)
This new game, created by Douglass and Galvanic Games, uses the same idea but without the whole YouTube/live host thing.
Players can download it via Android, IOS, or Steam and then answer prompts in "private lobbies" of friends or in "public lobbies" of strangers. Or, if you prefer something more Wordle-y, you can just answer the once-daily prompt.
Either way, it sounds like a better time than doom-scrolling.
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Brands are getting a little too comfortable on TikTok. (And we're kind of here for it.)
Language-learning company Duolingo has been a big, feathery green presence on TikTok since early 2021, but its latest posts have gotten pretty out there.
Like, so out there they include both Steve Harvey’s mustache and the phrases “duo dump” and “duoussy.”
While most commenters seem willing to play along, several have asked the question we’re all thinking: how on earth did this get approved? Well, with each video racking up millions of views—one is at 34 million—the answer seems clear:
In this internet age, a brand's gotta do what a brand's gotta do.
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