蘑菇AV

YouTube overhauls TV app to compete with streamers: New features like episodes, previews, and subscription tools aim to boost creator monetization and rival platforms like Netflix and Disney+.

Consumers may be concerned about the economy, but the outlook is good for ad spend in the final months of 2024. The share of advertisers concerned about a slowing US economy dropped 11 percentage points (from 49% to 38%) between November 2023 and August 2024, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Retail media鈥檚 popularity, an influx of value-based messaging, high political ad spend, and connected TV (CTV) monetization will boost the ad industry the rest of 2024.

Why it matters: As creators seek stability and long-term income, Vimeo Streaming taps into growing demand for subscription-based monetization and platform control. Subscription models are gaining momentum: US creator revenues from social media subscriptions are projected to hit $350 million in 2025, a 27.4% increase YoY.

Initially launched as a simple text-to-speech tool, ElevenLabs has evolved into a platform that helps creators, marketers, and enterprises reach wider audiences while unlocking new monetization opportunities. ElevenLabs serves both creators and enterprises, with independent creators pioneering AI voice applications that later inform storytelling and marketing use cases.

NEXT will leverage AI to repackage 14 years of user discussions into evergreen recommendations, turning local word-of-mouth into a scalable monetization tool. While the shift to NEXT will temporarily impact revenues, Nextdoor is fully committing to long-term product improvements instead of short-term ad optimizations.

With app installs becoming more expensive and in-app budgets rising, AppLovin is positioned at the heart of mobile monetization. The company is betting everything on AI-powered ad delivery, and so far, that bet is paying off. AXON鈥檚 performance is pulling in spend across gaming, ecommerce, and connected TV, giving AppLovin a foothold in markets far larger than its original mobile gaming roots.

By offering insights into monetization and user acquisition performance, Adjust helps marketers refine their strategies and maximize ROAS. Additionally, its fraud-protection capabilities safeguard brands against invalid traffic, ensuring ad budgets are spent efficiently. SparkLabs uses AI-driven creative solutions to maximize ad performance.

Falling ad-supported revenues highlights free streaming鈥檚 monetization struggles, likely due to ad fatigue and low engagement. Why it鈥檚 worth watching: The highly competitive music streaming market will likely shift from expanding subscriber counts to increasing revenues per user.

TikTok is using product evolution as a defense strategy, focusing on creator monetization to shift the narrative from national security concerns to economic impact in alignment with US political priorities. By emphasizing livestreaming as an opportunity to develop creator-audience relationships, TikTok is deliberately crafting dependency networks that would face disruption from regulatory action.

Our take: Tailoring monetization strategies to specific titles and gaming experiences could help companies smoothly integrate in-game ads rather than breaking up the game experience with interstitial ads or ads that pause gameplay.

If it successfully pulls that off while improving monetization per TV hour, it won鈥檛 just lead the industry鈥攊t鈥檒l redefine it.

Meta鈥檚 focus on AI-powered ad targeting and content recommendations is enhancing engagement and monetization across its platforms. The company鈥檚 AI models have attracted advertisers by enabling precision targeting in ads, boosting revenues per user, increasing click-through rates, and overall making advertising on Meta platforms more effective.

While Google鈥檚 offer is generous, it raises concerns about long-term monetization. If developers become reliant on the tool, future pricing shifts could introduce new costs or limitations. Our take: Google鈥檚 history with search suggests monetization could follow once market dominance for AI code creation is secured.

YouTube has been busy as of late courting podcasters with new tools and monetization schemes. The company is reportedly working on introducing dynamically inserted, host-read ads, per Semafor, something that would open up even more monetization opportunities for podcasters. It鈥檚 also investing in the user experience: In February, the company said it reached 1 billion monthly podcast users.

However, creators who rely on TikTok for brand deals and monetization are increasingly uneasy. Creators felt blindsided by TikTok鈥檚 sudden shutdown, viewing it as a sign of disregard for their livelihoods. Many have lost trust in the platform, despite TikTok鈥檚 dominance in influencer marketing.

In an earlier era of podcasting, many smaller creators launched their shows on YouTube out of necessity because it offered an easy path to monetization.

US marketers will spend over $1 billion more on influencer marketing in 2023 than they did last year, per our forecast. We lay out six tactics to maximize the impact of those dollars.

Amid near-nonexistent growth in some key markets, web publishers are being forced to consider radical changes to the way they sell their ads on the open web.

Comcast president Mike Cavanagh expects Peacock will continue 鈥渄riving toward improved monetization, bigger scale and therefore declining losses over time鈥� during a morning analyst call. Comcast鈥檚 overall Q1 revenues reached $29.8 billion, down from $30.05 billion a year earlier, with adjusted EBITDA for its media division rising to $9.5 billion.

Standing out in a sea of platforms: Neptune aims to reward creativity with diverse monetization streams, including tips, subscriptions, and livestreams. The app is shifting focus away from algorithms and metrics to reduce performative stress on creators.

This poses a risk to content creators鈥� monetization strategies, which could shrink the market for creator economy tools and services. Startups in the sector will need to differentiate their products and demonstrate unique use cases as funding becomes more competitive.

Losing TikTok could lead to fragmentation, making monetization and market reach unpredictable.