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We're delighted to announce that Evan Spiegel, co-founder & CEO of Snap, will be joining the speaker lineup for the Future of Influence: What's next for creators, entertainment and AI on June 3rd at NeueHouse Hollywood. Spiegel joins other speakers including execs from Meta, Spotify and Coca-Cola. Tickets are selling fast, purchase yours here.
Hello! Ann here. Livestream shopping, while popular in Asia on apps like ByteDance-owned Douyin and Alibaba’s Taobao Live, has been hard for most U.S.-focused startups and creators to crack. Shoppers have been slow to grow comfortable buying stuff on livestreams, while retailers haven’t devoted much time and money to changing existing consumer habits. Whatnot is proving to be a major exception. The app, which started in 2019 as a way for users to buy and sell Funko Pop figures, now features sellers hawking everything from trading cards to brand-name clothes, with shoppers bidding on goods in real time. It hit more than $3 billion worth of goods sold through its app last year and landed a nearly $5 billion valuation from Greycroft, Avra and DST Global in January, in one of the biggest creator fundraising deals in recent years. (Whatnot generates revenue by taking a cut of sales volume, typically around 8% plus payment processing fees.) Whatnot’s viewers spend more than 80 minutes per day on average watching livestreams on the app, and the average buyer purchases more than 12 items per week, Armand Wilson, the company’s vice president of categories and expansion, told me. That’s pretty impressive engagement—more than the 48 minutes per day Instagram users spent on that app on average early this year, according to a Guggenheim Partners and Apptopia report, though less than the 108 minutes per day spent on TikTok. On top of that, more people have signed up for Whatnot so far this year than the total signups in 2024. “This is the year live shopping becomes more of a mainstream thing,” Wilson said. So what’s working? Whatnot credits its popularity to focusing initially on niche communities, like trading card enthusiasts, that helped spread the word. Whatnot caught the attention of big resellers like Chris Lin, who sells mainly beauty products and clothes and moved most of his listings to the app from eBay. It has also recreated in-person memorabilia shows online, including a virtual event in April that sold nearly 1 million sports cards. Whatnot also has a referral program that gives users credits for getting other people to sign up, and also allows users to earn commissions if other people buy stuff through product links they share. And in recent months, Whatnot has added ways for sellers to offer rewards like free shipping and discounts to frequent shoppers, Wilson said, and rolled out new chat features. There are also geopolitical factors working in Whatnot’s favor that could further stoke its growth. TikTok is the only other major U.S. app that has made significant inroads with liveshopping, and it faces an uncertain future due to its ties to Chinese parent company ByteDance. In January, after TikTok temporarily went dark, Whatnot ran newspaper ads nationwide touting its app as a TikTok alternative. Trump’s tariffs on new imported goods could also boost demand for secondhand and vintage clothes, which are two popular categories on Whatnot, Wilson said. Here’s what else is going on… See The Information’s Creator Economy Database for an exclusive list of private companies and their investors. LinkedIn said it will start sharing ad revenue with creators and allow marketers to sponsor creator posts, as it makes a deeper push into increasing the amount of videos on its platform. Users are now watching 36% more video than a year ago, LinkedIn said. Dub, a startup that helps financial influencers share investing tips, announced $30 million in Series A funding from investors including Notable Capital and Neo. Crumbl, the cookie and dessert chain whose products are a viral hit on social media, is selling a minority stake to private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, Bloomberg reported. Roblox reported a 26% increase in daily active users during the first quarter to 98.7 million from the same period a year earlier. Roblox creators earned $281.6 million during the quarter, and more than 100 Roblox developers earned over $1 million over the past 12 months. YouTube said it’s testing blurred video thumbnails for search results for mature or sexual content. Gallery Media Group acquired online fashion and beauty site Coveteur, the publisher said Thursday. GMG is the publisher of PureWow and owns social media accounts @cocktails and @recipes. Former Bustle Digital Group editor Faith Xue will become Coveteur’s new editor in chief. UTA signed Becca Bloom, a luxury and fashion-focused content creator with more than 2 million followers. President Trump on Thursday said he would nominate national security adviser Mike Waltz to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Waltz, along with Vice President JD Vance, had led negotiations about a potential deal for ByteDance to sell TikTok. Trump’s announcement came after reports that Waltz would be ousted from his role as national security advisor after accidentally adding The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal chat discussing military activity. Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be the interim national security advisor until the position is replaced. That’s the percentage of teens who say they trust TikTok for product recommendations, according to a new survey from Cafeteria, a startup that interviews and surveys teens for brands. By comparison, 39% said they trusted Instagram for shopping recommendations and 32% said they trusted Pinterest. Thank you for reading the Creator Economy Newsletter! I’d love your feedback, ideas and tips: kaya@theinformation.com. 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