The global influencer era is upon us
This week I moderated a panel at the National Association of Broadcasters annual conference in Last Vegas with Dhar Mann, a massive content creator with who publishes scripted shows with motivational messages.
If you don’t know who Dhar Mann is, he’s basically the Mr. Beast of Facebook video. He has amassed tens of billions of views on the platform alone. He’s huge on YouTube, IG, and TikTok. His viral content success has allowed him to open a 100,000 square foot studio in Burbank where he shoots all of his content. Dhar has over 150 employees from script writers, to a wardrobe department, to a sprawling post production assembly line.
One thing he said to me while we were on stage that I found so interesting, is that, though he has always had a global audience, for years it never made sense to cultivate fandoms in secondary markets because the CPMs are so much lower outside of the U.S. and English speaking countries. He said that just a couple years ago it cost him $200,000 annually to dub his content into another language.
Now, thanks to AI, it costs less than $2,000 to dub his content into myriad languages. Soon, he said, based on his convos with Facebook and YouTube, dubbing might be done on the platform level, making it easy for anyone in the world to watch any content online in their local language.
Simultaneously, a lot of creators are moving their business models away from ad-based revenue and towards products and merch, which can ship anywhere in the world. These changes happening simultaneously have made it so that cultivating a more global audience is more valuable than ever.
Dhar said that a lot of top creators are discussing this, and many are planning on, or have embarked on, tours abroad. He pointed to iShowSpeed, who recently wrapped a whirlwind multi week tour in China, which skyrocketed his fame in Asia and transformed him into an A lister among more communities overseas. He predicted that, as many big creators reach saturation in the U.S., we’ll see them start to focus on developing fandoms abroad.
I think technology removing the language barrier across platforms like YouTube would be game changing, and could cause a major upset in the creator space. We might see more non-English speaking creators becoming popular here too, which is something I’ll be keeping an eye on.
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What I’m reading
The New McCarthyism Was Started by Liberals
As with earlier Red Scares, Democrats laid the groundwork for the current crackdown on dissent. — The Nation (a must read)
Why the Ultrarich Are Unplugging From “Smart Homes”
With wifi-enabled, voice-activated appliances too clever by half, analog, app-free abodes are suddenly tempting A-list L.A. buyers. Welcome to the new “Dumb House.” — The Hollywood Reporter
Christian “TheoBros” Are Building a Tech Utopia in Appalachia
The Highland Rim Project is a distopian fantasy infused with Silicon Valley techno-libertarian values with communities designed around “digital self-governance” and cryptocurrency. — Mother Jones
The Ultimate Millennial Multihyphenate
Paige DeSorbo chose her own path, conquering reality television, becoming an influencer and starting a hit podcast. Now she’s written a book. — NY Times
Eternal Celebrities: The Multi-Billion Opportunity Coming
A shift in law means agents and managers must now act as estate planners as an endless career is within reach. Late last month, Hollo, a conversational AI company, and Realbotix, which makes customizable humanoid robots, unveiled a version of Suzanne Somers. — The Ankler
Why are read receipts so triggering?
A tiny timestamp shouldn’t carry this much emotional weight. And yet, in modern dating, it does. — Mashable
Americans Are Preparing for When All Hell Breaks Loose
Once thought of as a fringe mind-set, the prepper movement is gaining traction in a world shaped by war, the pandemic and extreme weather. — NY Times
Bluesky’s Quest to Build Nontoxic Social Media
X and Facebook are governed by the policies of mercurial billionaires. Bluesky’s C.E.O., Jay Graber, says that she wants to give power back to the user. — New Yorker
The TikTok-ification of TV Is Coming
I see the seeds of so much of what I had previously gotten from TV, super-served by TikTok. — Variety
The shocking far-right agenda behind the surveillance tech used by ICE and the FBI
Clearview AI’s founders always intended to target immigrants and the political left. Now their digital dragnet is in the hands of the Trump administration. — Mother Jones
User Mag news rundown
- ICE director envisions Amazon-like mass deportation system: “Prime, but with human beings”
- A slew of right wing influencers had a secret off the record meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu this week.
- An NYC coffee shop has launched its own dating app called First Round’s One Me. The app has 300,000 current users, roughly 50,000 of whom are in NYC.
- Palantir built an ICE database that allows for highly specific filtering of people, letting agents search for students, people with tattoos, from specific countries, by visa status, etc.
- LeBron James was named Barbie’s Kenbassador, becoming the first pro male athlete to get his own Ken doll.
- Trader Joe’s has brought back its viral $3 mini canvas tote bags in four new springtime shades and fans are lining up at 4:00am to get them.
- Watch Secretary of Education Linda McMahon talking about implementing AI in schools, but pronouncing it “A1,” as in “A1 Steak Sauce”.
- The Sabrina Carpenter ‘Fortnite’ skin has become insanely popular with gamers.
- I cannot stop laughing at this video of a man who tried to use an AI generated lawyer to argue his case in front of a judge
The WNBA is shattering viewer records on YouTube.
- Beef-flavored potato chips are increasingly popular in the U.S. including Doritos’ new Late Night Cheeseburger flavor.
- A good look at Webtoon, a platform where creators make $1M a year and sell shows to Netflix and Tubi.
- Uber has released its 2025 Lost & Found Index, which offers a snapshot of riders’ most commonly forgotten and most unique lost items. NYC is the most forgetful city followed by Miami.
- Filmmaker John Wilson is opening a Ridgewood, Queens movie theater called Low Cinema.
- Nintendo coated its Nintendo Switch game cartridges in the most bitter substance known to humans so kids would stop licking them.
- Hobby Lobby is opening its first Manhattan store.
- Elon Musk rage quits gaming livestream after repeatedly dying while getting ruthlessy mocked by viewers.
- A visual guide to the elected officials who fly Christian nationalist flags at the Capitol.
- An illustrated French fish is taking over TikTok.
- Bravo just dropped a brand new batch of Gen Z nepo baby Bravolebrities with their show Next Gen (terrible name) which stars the children of several Real Housewives along with young NYC influencers.
- Effie is South Korea’s first hyperpop hero.
- I’m obsessed with this r/malelivingspace guy saga.
- MrBeast opened surgical facility in Ghana to treat rescued child slaves.
- JoJo Siwa and Mickey Rourke are fighting.
- The Trump admin is trying to deport 100s of students by vaguely saying they have criminal records and making them guess why. One’s “record” was being a domestic violence victim.
- Inside Higher ed is tracking international student visa revocations across the country.
- White House officials are withholding pool reporters’ dispatches that contain information the Trump administration finds inconvenient or unflattering.
- Nearly 200 cows disappeared. The case remains cold.
- Viral AI video mocks idea of Americans working in factories.
- Palm Beach buyers have always come from the Northeast but now, agents say Californians are taking over.
- Meta is so desperate to be seen as a leader in AI that it’s been caught cheating in AI benchmarks.
A deep dive into what the hell is going on between Walton Goggins and his White Lotus co-star Aimee Lou Wood.
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Related Knowledge Center: State of the business model
The traditional journalism business model has long since collapsed, and news organizations have shrunk or disappeared entirely. While a number of promising experiments are under way, the public has not shown a willingness to buy what news organizations are selling.