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Also in this letter:
■ By the Numbers: Musk says Twitter usage at all-time high
■ Zoho has hit $1 billion in annual revenue: CEO Sridhar Vembu
■ Deloitte India fires employee after hacking expose
Tech firms are sharpening their focus on creators
Social media platforms and other technology companies are increasingly tapping the creator economy to grow their user numbers and income amid a severe downturn and rising fears of an impending recession in the US and other developed countries.
Driving the news: The latest to do so is Snap, owner of Snapchat, which on Tuesday launched its Sounds Creator Fund in India. The fund will provide monthly grants of up to $50,000 to emerging, independent artists. The move is in line with Snap’s plan to deepen its presence and shore up its revenue in India by tapping regional content creators, especially in non-metro markets.
Also read | Why Snap is wooing Bharat
YouTube, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that users around the world will soon be able to view Shorts – bite-sized, TikTok-style videos – on TV screens as it looks to fend off competition from TikTok, Meta, Snapchat and others. A few months ago, the platform said it would start sharing ad revenues with Shorts creators from early 2023 as part of a slew of changes to its YouTube Partner Program.
Meta, too, is increasing its focus on the creator economy. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call in late October, “I mentioned last quarter that Instagram Reels had crossed a $1 billion annual revenue run rate. We continue scaling monetisation across both Instagram and Facebook and the combined run rate across these apps is now $3 billion.”
Beyond tech: Interest in the creator economy isn’t restricted to tech firms. On Monday, Visa announced the launch of the Visa Ready Creator Commerce programme, which will “help creator-centric platforms, such as social-commerce and video gaming companies, embed financial tools – like faster and more flexible payouts through Visa Direct and tipping and donations”.
Studies: Meta recently commissioned a report on the state of the creator economy and the opportunities it presents. According to the report, there are about 300 million independent creators around the world, and the creator economy is forecasted to generate more than $100 billion this year.
In mid-October, Adobe released a report titled ‘Monetisation in the Creator Economy’, which found that nearly half of non-professional creators (48%) now earn money from their creative activities, with higher percentages in Brazil (59%), the US (53%), Germany (51%), the UK (51%) and South Korea (51%).
The report also said creators are optimistic about the metaverse, with 68% expecting it will bring new job opportunities as it continues to grow.
Why now? While tech firms – especially Big Tech – tapping creators is hardly a new phenomenon, they appear to have sharpened their focus over the past few months as the economic downturn has led to a slowdown in advertising, which has taken a huge toll on their revenues, user numbers and stock prices.
Snap’s stock is down more than 78% year-to-date, Meta’s is down more than 71%, and Google’s is down around 39%.
By the Numbers: Musk says Twitter usage at all-time high
Twitter’s new chief executive Elon Musk said earlier today that usage of the platform has exploded since his takeover.
“Twitter usage is at an all-time high lol,” he tweeted.
The company, in an internal FAQ shared with its sales team, claimed its monetisable daily user (mDAU) growth has shot up over 20% since Musk took over, The Verge and other media outlets reported.
A short history of the blue tick: Since its creation in June 2009, Twitter’s blue tick has undergone a slew of changes – some intentional, others less so.
Having started out as a way to keep impersonators in check, the blue tick quickly morphed into a badge of honour and status symbol as the platform awarded the coveted symbol only to a select few of its millions of users.
Since taking over the company in late October, Musk has vowed to fundamentally change this, announcing that anyone willing to pay $8 a month will get a blue tick and other benefits as part of its Twitter Blue premium offering.
Click here to read about the history of the controversial badge and its possible future.
Also Read: Blue tick accounts suspended for impersonating Musk
Zoho has hit $1 billion in annual revenue: CEO Sridhar Vembu
Amid the economic slowdown, Chennai-based Zoho Corporation on Tuesday announced it has hit $1 billion in annual revenue on the back of its diversified product portfolio.
“We built one product, a modest product and we got some modest profit. We invested in building more capabilities steadily. Even our own people would not have believed years ago that we could build all this. That is the journey of building steadily,” Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s cofounder and CEO, told IANS.
The company also announced on Tuesday that it plans to open 100 network PoPs (point of presence) around the world in the next five years for providing users with faster networks, and also double investment for technologies such as blockchain and AI.
R&D over marketing: Zoho, which spends three times its marketing spend on R&D and has received 25 patents in the last three years, attributes its growth to strong R&D capabilities across categories and markets, its diversified portfolio and to businesses choosing unified offerings over single products.
Also Read: Pocket FM exceeds $25 million ARR, eyes US foray
Deloitte India fires employee after hacking expose
Deloitte India said it has fired an employee who was reportedly running a hacking firm on the side.
“We are aware of the recent media reports outlining serious allegations about an individual who used to work for Deloitte India. This individual no longer works for Deloitte India,” a Deloitte spokesperson said.
Catch up quick: The Sunday Times and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism conducted a sting operation that’s said to have exposed India-based hacking groups targeting VIPs globally. Aditya Jain, an associate director with Delottie’s cyber unit, was running hacking firm WhiteInt, according to the report.
Earlier this year, undercover reporters posing as former intelligence officials travelled to India looking for hackers who could get them sensitive information from the email and computers of key personalities. Jain, who was cited as speaking to the undercover reporters, had joined Deloitte in February 2022.
Targets: The hacking firm’s database is said to have included confidential information about former Pakistan President Musharraf, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, former UK chancellor Philip Hammond, and former Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhry, among others.
US lays claim to $1 billion in stolen Silk Road Bitcoin
The US is seeking the forfeiture of more than $1 billion in Bitcoin stolen from the Silk Road online marketplace, Reuters reported, citing federal prosecutors.
Big haul: In the second largest seizure in US Department of Justice history, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents obtained 50,000 Bitcoin during a November 2021 search of the defendant James Zhong’s home in Gainesville, Georgia.
Zhong, 32, on Friday pleaded guilty to wire fraud for tricking Silk Road’s processing system into releasing the funds to his accounts in 2012.
By the time it was seized, the Bitcoin was worth more than $3 billion. It has since lost about two-thirds of its value.
Some of the stolen Bitcoin was found on a computer in a popcorn tin stored in a bathroom closet, IRS special agent Trevor McAleenan said in an affidavit.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
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