Post-Turkey Feast: Bending Spoons Swallows Eventbrite

Good Morning,

The big money moved this week as Eventbrite entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by Italian-based Bending Spoons for approximately $500 million cash, marking a serious valuation for the legacy ticketing marketplace. Bestie Bite raised $700K led by Techstars to convert shaky dinner videos into performance-driven marketing for restaurants—a clear vote of confidence that even low-production content can be weaponized for high ROI.

On the flip side, the market claimed a victim as AsqMe, the AI-powered creator inbox for aggregating and monetizing audience questions, is winding down after failing to secure a last-minute acquisition.

Quartermast Creator Economy Index

Layoff Watch

• Zee Entertainment: 200 employees were laid off over the past week after the Sony Acquisition fell through. Zee, a large Indian media conglomerate, insists the cuts were part of a pre-announced plan to reduce headcount to 700.

The Weekly Roundup:

1. TikTok and Ipsos Report: Interactive Livestream Gifting is Transforming Entertainment: New research demonstrates how livestream gifting is redefining creator-viewer relationships, the entertainment landscape, and the creator economy at large. (Ipsos)

2. Brands Rank Creators as a Top Three "Must Buy" Channel: Nearly half (48%) of ad spenders view creators as an essential channel, ranking only behind social media and paid search. (IAB)

3. Are Creators Really Earning More in 2025? Here’s the Data: Analysis of creator pay reveals a "wild west" where compensation shifts are leading to winners and losers across the chaotic industry. (Hello Partner)

4. CAA Adds Digital Media Veteran to Bolster Creators Division: Greg Goodfried, co-founder of digital content studio EQAL, joins the agency to strengthen its creators division and strategic operations. (Hollywood Reporter)

5. NBCU Doubles Down on Creator Content, Bringing Talent to Milan Olympics: A roster of top creators and podcasters, including Kylie Kelce and Cleo Abram, will travel to the 2026 Winter Games to produce original content for the event. (Hollywood Reporter)

6. GigaStar Crosses $1 Million in Creator Revenue Paid to Investors:

   Hitting this key distribution milestone confirms that YouTube Creators are now established as a viable and investable asset class on the GigaStar market platform. (PR Newswire)

7. Instagram Mandates Total Return to Office for Employees in 2026: Starting February 2, 2026, Instagram employees will be required to work five days a week in the office, citing a need to "evolve." (engadget)

8. Netflix Won't Let You Cast Shows From Your Phone to Most TVs Anymore: The streaming giant quietly removed the feature that allows mobile control of TV content, stating the feature was not widely used. (Wired)

9. Threads is Testing an AI-Powered Summaries Feature in Search: This is part of ongoing rapid feature expansion, including new options for private messages (DMs). (SocialBee)

10. Ireland Investigates TikTok and LinkedIn for Possible DSA Violations: Regulators are concerned with the illegal content reporting features on both platforms. (engadget)

11. Mark Rober (CrunchLabs founder) on Creator Economy and Netflix Expansion: The former NASA engineer discussed his company's expansion to Netflix and his goal to "reach as many brains as possible." (CNBC)

12. McKinsey Report: AI Agents are Becoming 'Virtual Coworkers': Developments are transforming agents from passive assistants into tools that can autonomously plan and execute complex, multi-step tasks within workflows. (McKinsey)

13. Goodbye Polish, Hello Honesty: Low-Production 'Betrayal Lists' Go Viral: These emerging social trends—including 'Betrayal Lists' and 'Can’t Care Less About' content—use humor and vulnerability to bypass high production values, generating authentic, relatable engagement.(Influencial)

Upcoming Events

• 1 Billion Followers Summit, Dubai: January 9 - 11, 2026

• Creator Economy Live West, Las Vegas: January 13-14, 2026

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