TikTok Go Pays Creators for Hotel & Restaurant Content 🏨

TODAY’S EDITION

TikTok launched a new way for creators to make money through TikTok Go. The invite-only program allows eligible creators to earn commission-based rewards for promoting hotels, restaurants, local experiences, and other services.

When signing up, creators can select preferred cities and interests across Hotel, Travel, Food & Drinks, Leisure, and Beauty categories. They'll then see offers listed by categories, with details on how much can be earned for adding the relevant tag and driving bookings.

The program is live in the United States, Indonesia, and Japan, but only hotel bookings are available for US creators at the moment.

Creators in the program also get access to a dedicated TikTok Go Discord along with guidance and support.

Why It Matters: TikTok Go comes months after reports of TikTok launching a local services business and hiring roles to "onboard lifestyle creators across topics like food and travel, to help drive local services adoption and monetization opportunities," as well as trademarking TikTok Go.

The program creates a win-win ecosystem: creators, especially smaller ones, get a new revenue stream through their recommendations for services, similar to physical and digital products. Businesses get to tap into TikTok's massive user base through social proof from creators and everyday users.

Beyond a greater shift in the industry toward performance-based creator partnerships, this reflects a growing desire by platforms for more hyper-local content. It's a way to capitalize on the growth of people turning to social media for discovery, while also allowing platforms to potentially capture ad dollars that traditionally go search engines and review sites.

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Instagram had a busy week, announcing multiple product updates ranging from new insights to new ways for users to share and discover content.

Analytics Features:

Social Features:

Why It Matters: New insights offer creators and brands more visibility into what drives engagement. They can now identify precise elements that resonate with audiences, from opening hooks and audio selections to visual text and calls-to-action, while understanding who specifically is seeing their content and tracking which content formats successfully convert viewers into followers.

The social features add to Instagram's emphasis on connecting people over content. Reposts provide a native way for users to share content that resonates with them while giving credit to the original creator, helping with discovery.

The Friends tab centralizes social circle content, giving users a dedicated space to see what their immediate network engages with rather than relying solely on the main algorithm.

Although the Map will be popular with Gen Z users, it's hard not to address the privacy concerns users have been voicing since the announcement, some of which stem from unclear communication around the feature and misinformation spreading among users.

ESPN inked a deal with creator Katie Feeney as a Sports & Lifestyle Content Creator. With more than 14 million followers, she will contribute to ESPN's social and digital efforts, including a refreshed SportsCenter on Snapchat show and short-form video content for a forthcoming upgraded ESPN App. She will also make appearances across ESPN shows like Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown and College GameDay.

Why It Matters: With an impressive resume that includes being the first-ever Social Media Correspondent for the Washington Commanders, the recent Penn State graduate represents ESPN's accelerated pivot toward creator-driven content as traditional sports viewership declines among Gen Z. While ESPN dominates traditional sports media, younger audiences consume sports content differently, often preferring social media clips, creator commentary, and behind-the-scenes access over traditional broadcast coverage.

This follows ESPN's successful hiring of Omar Raja, founder of House of Highlights, as a full-time digital commentator in 2020, alongside launching the ESPN Creator Network, which is now in its third iteration. The trend extends well beyond ESPN: the NBA has expanded its Creator Program, the PGA Tour established a Creator Council to have creators serve as advisors, MLB invested in Jomboy Media, and Fox Sports recently announced a collaboration with Barstool Sports.

It shows how sports leagues and media companies view creator partnerships and creator-led content as essential to their long-term success. It also signals new pathways that bypass traditional journalism routes for aspiring sports media professionals.

Edits added the ability for creators to share drafts via Direct Messages, providing a streamlined way to get feedback from fellow creators and preview sponsored content with brand partners.

YouTube is testing a Collaboration feature with select creators that allows them to add collaborators to videos, with content then recommended to each creator's audience to maximize reach for both organic collaborations and brand partnerships.

LinkedIn has seen a 52% increase in CEO posting over the past two years, confirming the notable trend of business leaders using the platform to share company updates and thought leadership for business development.

Pinterest has 578 million users with Gen Z now comprising over 50% of its user base, validating CEO Bill Ready's strategic focus on shopping features and Gen Z-oriented initiatives.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel shared plans to develop new features that "inspire or kick start conversations," responding to an increase of users sharing Spotlight and Stories content with each other.

Roblox expanded creator monetization by allowing users to publish and sell custom avatar emotes (short expressive movements like dances, waves, or poses) on both Marketplace and within experiences.

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