Youxin's TikTok Bet & iHeart's Sirius Tango

Good Morning,

Youxin Technology took an 18% stake in TikTok agency YATOP for $10.8M, valuing the China-based agency at $60.8M and folding YATOP's 10,000+ influencer roster and partnerships with Crocs, Nintendo, and Anker into Youxin's commerce stack. Meanwhile in the Middle East, Rain acquired creator-economy company Digital Maarefa, deepening regional creator-brand infrastructure and adding to a steady stream of MENA creator-economy deal making.

iHeartMedia is reportedly in early merger talks with SiriusXM- a tie-up that would consolidate two of the largest US audio platforms and signal how creator-driven content is potentially reshaping legacy media consumption. On the pre-M&A radar, the film social network Letterboxd is being shopped to buyers, with Versant and The Ankler reportedly circling.

Light week elsewhere, but VaynerX launched a new agency built for the attention economy, and creator-turned-operator Dhar Mann is betting on speed dating with the launch of Magnetic Match to fix creator-brand matchmaking.

Sergey Brin's quietly slipping out of California and rebranding Republican- I wonder what his YouTube algorithm is feeding him now.

Quartermast Creator Economy Index:

Layoff Watch:

• Nike: the sportswear giant is set to cut 1,400 workers in latest round of layoffs, primarily in its technology department.

The Weekly Roundup

1. Vine Returns as Divine: Jack Dorsey's $10M non-profit funded Divine, a Vine reboot launching with a no-AI policy, archived 500K original Vines, and a creator-first revenue model that ditches ad-targeting for direct brand deals and per-creator domains (Publish Press).

2. Spotify Buys Into Fitness: Spotify rolled out workout content for Premium users featuring creators including Chloe Ting and Pilates By Raven, expanding its creator-content footprint into a new vertical (Spotify).

3. YouTube's Side-by-Side Ads: YouTube is testing a "side-by-side" live streaming ad format that runs in parallel with creator content rather than interrupting it (Tubefilter).

4. Tubi Goes Creator-Native: Tubi commissioned original creator series with Keith Lee and CelinaSpookyBoo, signaling FAST platforms scaling creator-led programming as audience acquisition strategy (Tubi).

5. Microdramas Hit $11B: The microdrama industry is on track to surpass $11B in revenue this year, with creator talent including Hannah Stocking and Issa Rae's TikTok partnership bringing scripted production value into a format previously dominated by formulaic content (Omdia).

6. The $60M Polish Stream: Polish creator Łatwogang closed a nine-day livestream that raised $60M for cancer research, breaking the world record by 3x and outpacing MrBeast's biggest livestream fundraiser by 5x with just 5.4M followers (Publish Press).

7. iShowSpeed Hits Funko (and Kick Hits 100M): iShowSpeed launched a Funko Pop the same week Kick crossed 100M users, the platform's biggest milestone since launch (Tubefilter).

Upcoming Events

• Scalable Summit, Los Angeles, May 6th, 2026

• Press Publish, Los Angeles, May 28th, 2026

• VidCon, Anaheim, June 25th-27th, 2026

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