This week, we focused on online creators and their revenue models after famous YouTuber MrBeast revealed that he is acquiring fintech startup Step, coinciding with Hollywood studios dispatching a barrage of cease-and-desist notices to ByteDance over the introduction of its new video generation tool, Seedance 2.0.

These seemingly unrelated stories indicate a media environment undergoing significant transformation, as well-known YouTubers seek to broaden their business strategies amid the looming threat and potential of potent generative AI capabilities.

In the most recent episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan, and I discussed the future of the creator economy and whether new creators will have opportunities to differentiate themselves.

“What’s the next saturation point?” Kirsten pondered. “Not everyone can go out and develop products. Will the number of successful creators simply diminish? Or will technological advancements or new platforms emerge that could help them find audiences to monetize?”

You can find a condensed version of our discussion, revised for brevity and clarity, below.

Anthony: [The news] inspired our colleague Lauren to craft an insightful piece about the creator business model as a whole, highlighting the fact that creators are no longer solely dependent on ad revenue. While it still constitutes a significant portion of their earnings, she outlined a variety of leading YouTubers, noting their expansion — generally into e-commerce but also into diverse revenue channels.

For instance, MrBeast has his own range of food products, including chocolate, generating hundreds of millions in revenue and became profitable in 2024, even as his media enterprise suffered losses. That was quite intriguing to me.

Kirsten: If Mr. Beast can’t achieve profitability with his media venture, who can? I found that statistic astonishing.

I’m not surprised that the entire ad revenue model isn’t functioning optimally for creators and influencers because it has reached a saturation level. My main question is, what will the next saturation point be? Not all of these individuals can venture out and create products. Therefore, does the pool of successful creators simply shrink? Or will new developments occur, technology-wise or through different media, enabling them to capture an audience to monetize?

Rebecca: It’s fascinating; there are numerous possibilities for what may arise, right? Perhaps they’ll construct digital avatars of themselves and place these avatars into various scenarios to generate income in different ways.

Yet again, it’s unsurprising; these individuals are now celebrities, right? Someone recently told me that many in the younger generation do not recognize our traditional celebrities, but they are familiar with TikTok stars. For years, celebrities have been promoting products and making money from that, right? I remember watching Rachel [Ray], a superstar chef who marketed her EVOO or extra virgin olive oil.

We had Slow Ventures on [Equity] about a year ago. They have established a creator fund where they’ve essentially formed a VC fund to support creators with their businesses, particularly those with niche followings, say someone passionate about woodworking and offering a line of chisels, who knows.

I find this an intriguing forward path, and it’s something we observe as journalists: How do we also attempt to be creators and establish our brand that could diversify our earnings? Admitting that sounds rather unpleasant.

Anthony: I’m smiling, but it’s a smile of someone whose spirit is gradually disintegrating inside.

We paused our AI discussions, but I must inevitably reintroduce AI into the conversation. Obviously, a related development over the past week is that ByteDance, the Chinese entity behind TikTok and an ongoing backer — but we won’t delve into that — launched a new iteration of its model, Seedance 2.0, which was primarily available to Chinese users at first.

However, we began to see individuals posting videos generated by Seedance, including a viral clip of Brad Pitt battling Tom Cruise. This raised the question: Is Hollywood in peril? Additionally, several Hollywood studios, including Netflix, sent ByteDance letters stating, “You cannot proceed with this; you’re essentially enabling users to create videos incorporating all our intellectual property and stars.” Initially, ByteDance remained silent but eventually responded, “We apologize for launching this without adequate safety measures; we’ll improve going forward.”

Kirsten: The timing is remarkable because I am currently editing a piece that Rebecca authored. Although it’s unrelated to Seedance, it touches on AI and filmmaking. So I’m going to give a future props to Rebecca for her timely insights on this subject. Rebecca, I know you have much to discuss, aside from the fact that Hollywood is upset. Is there more complexity to it?

Rebecca: Absolutely. I believe many individuals will leverage these tools to generate a wide range of content, resulting in an overwhelming influx. That will be intense. 

When discussing the use of AI video tools for creating films, advertisements, or various content, I sense a friction between producing a lot of low-quality material and potentially democratizing storytelling opportunities for those without resources or teams, who wish to share their narratives.

For instance, if you’re a small business wanting to create a shampoo advertisement — to be specific, there is a viral shampoo ad — or you sell coffee and wish to produce a promotional clip, [this] could equip you with the necessary tools. Is that detrimental? Or is it beneficial? Do we require more content in the world? There are various pathways to explore.

Kirsten: Is it detrimental, Anthony?

Anthony: From the creator’s perspective, I feel that the reaction to a lot of this low-quality material — quite frankly, much of it is of poor quality, and that trend will likely persist — will lead to a heightened value placed on authenticity. Thus, the opportunity for major creators might shift from “I have digital avatars of myself” to “No, I’m the genuine Mr. Beast, not a digital copy wandering around.”

Additionally, it’s significant that — indeed, every social platform experiences fluctuations — but OpenAI’s Sora, as I understand, witnessed rapid growth initially and has struggled to retain users more recently due to the lack of an authentic human connection in the user experience.

I also believe this will complicate the landscape for established creators trying to monetize […] and especially challenge new creators since an abundance of material will make it increasingly tough to stand out.

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