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Reviews or "paid promotional content"? Amazon is paying users to make videos of its products

Mar 7, 2024
The online retail behemoth is selling access to its sizable platform to gig workers, says Caroline O'Donovan of The Washington Post.
"I think it's an open question if these are reviews or just paid promotional content," says Caroline O'Donovan at The Washington Post about the influencer videos.
Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images

Creators who build an audience online find algorithms can wipe it away

Apr 3, 2019
What happens to YouTubers when the platform changes the way videos are monetized?
Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images
Summer Dunsmore/Marketplace
Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

The Source Code: China's livestreaming industry is huge, lucrative and kind of dystopian

Dec 11, 2018
In the United States, would-be internet stars turn to YouTube, Twitch or Instagram. In China, it’s a livestreaming platform called YY, where creators sing or tell jokes to an audience that pays them directly in the form of digital gifts. Top streamers can make $100,000 a month or more, and lots of people now want […]
Filmmaker Hao Wu at Future Tense in Washington, D.C., in 2017.
New America/Flickr

China's livestreaming industry is huge, lucrative and kind of dystopian

Dec 11, 2018
As more people join Chinese platform YY, a new documentary sheds light on the business.
GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images

The creator economy is turning to the sharing economy for camera gear

Dec 4, 2018
Online video creators hope better production quality means more views.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Meet the woman who's making millions from slime videos on YouTube

Sep 10, 2018
Karina Garcia has attracted over 8.4 million YouTube subscribers by making DIY slime.
Karina Garcia has over 7 million subscribers on YouTube.
Karina Garcia/YouTube

Can the creator economy survive if creators are all broke?

Aug 14, 2018
As platforms like YouTube and Instagram rake in money, the people who try to make a living uploading videos and pictures often struggle.
Audience engagement doesn't require tricks, just a few simple speaking strategies.
ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images

How to be a social media star for a living

Jul 18, 2018
"As influencers, we are walking ad space," Troy Solomon says.
YouTube displayed a giant play button with the names of creators chosen to work with the company at VidCon.
(Marketplace/ Eve Troeh)