Tag
TikTok
TikTok Shop hits $23.4bn in US sales, with creators driving three-quarters of revenue
The platform now exceeds Target's online business as the fastest-growing US retailer for the second consecutive year, rewriting the rules of how products reach buyers and who controls the transaction.
Manifest launches creator debit card with Mastercard as financial infrastructure becomes a distinct vertical
The embedded banking platform's new business debit card bundles fraud protection, invoicing, and cash-flow tools into a single account. Traditional finance is now building for the creator economy, not just tolerating it.
TikTok Shop creator levels now visible to brands, changing how sellers vet partners
TikTok has made its creator badge system visible to sellers, letting brands see which tier a creator holds before opening collaboration talks. The shift turns previously hidden performance metrics into front-facing signals that could reshape how partnerships form.
TikTok One Creative Suite: what it actually changes for advertisers
TikTok has consolidated its creator discovery, AI production tools, and content amplification features into a single platform. The shift matters less for what's new and more for what it finally makes possible at scale.
Disney opens IP vault to TikTok creators, pulls fan videos into Disney Plus
The partnership announced 5 August gives creators licensed access to Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars assets, and makes TikTok videos streamable on another platform for the first time. Disney gets a pipeline of fan content without paying for it.
TikTok View+ lets advertisers optimise for 6-second views on Pulse Core premium placement
TikTok's View+ feature adds performance optimisation to its brand-safety-first Pulse Core product, allowing advertisers to chase 6-second view-through rates alongside adjacency to the top 4% of trending content. It's a bet that brand and performance don't have to trade off.
Platforms have stopped asking if AI content belongs. Now they're asking how much people want to see
This week crystallised a fundamental shift in how platforms handle synthetic content. TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat have all moved from encouraging AI creation to managing AI fatigue, and the question is no longer whether AI belongs on social feeds but whether anyone actually wants it there.
Meta's Creator Fast Track offers up to $3,000 monthly, but history suggests the money won't last
Facebook is paying TikTok and YouTube creators guaranteed bonuses for three months. The real test is what happens when the cash stops, and Meta's track record on creator payments isn't encouraging.
TikTok adds 6-second view-through optimisation to Pulse Core for the first time
View+ turns TikTok's brand safety adjacency tool into a performance channel. Announced in the Q2 2026 Product Preview, the feature is currently live via allowlist for Max Pulse and Category Lineup campaigns in the US and Canada.
Substack hits 100,000 paid publications as creators use it as the loyalty layer above social
The platform doubled monetised publications in under a year, with creators treating it as the owned-audience hub fed by TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube discovery, not a replacement for algorithmic reach.
TikTok adds AI content slider: why giving users a dial, not just labels, matters
TikTok has quietly become the first major platform to let users reduce AI content in their feed with a slider control, rather than just labelling it. The shift marks a turning point in how social platforms handle the AI slop problem.
YouTube draws the line on AI content monetization: three categories that lose Partner Program access
YouTube's 16 July clarification splits inauthentic content into three distinct buckets, giving creators the clearest guidance yet on where AI-assisted work ends and unmonetizable template farming begins.
Snapchat's Now Playing turns Snap Map into a friend-driven music discovery engine
Launched on 27 July with Spotify integration, the feature lets 450 million monthly Snap Map users discover music through what friends are listening to right now, not what an algorithm thinks they want.
Khaby Lame becomes Holafly brand ambassador as top creators shift from posts to partnerships
The world's most followed TikTok creator has joined travel tech company Holafly as global brand ambassador, a deal that shows how top-tier talent is moving beyond one-off sponsorships into longer-term commercial roles.
TikTok Mini Series brings episodic ad format and Growth Max automation to brands chasing recurring viewers, not one-off clicks
TikTok has formalised long-form commerce storytelling with Mini Series, an in-app episodic feature now paired with Growth Max performance automation. Brands become publishers; audiences become recurring viewers before they become customers.
EU gives platforms until autumn to prove they can police under-13s themselves
Von der Leyen confirmed phased age restrictions for under-13s on 13 July, but stopped short of a hard ban. Instead, the Commission is putting platforms on notice: build compliant age verification now, or face legislation after summer.
Why social media teams are replacing device farms with cloud phones
GeeLark and its competitors are betting that mobile-first platforms require mobile-native infrastructure. The shift from browsers to cloud-based Android environments signals a deeper tension in how social marketers operate at scale.
TikTok Creator Search Insights: Why Creators Are Ditching Guesswork for Search Demand
TikTok's Creator Search Insights tool now shows exactly what users are searching for and which topics have high demand but low content supply. The shift is forcing creators and brands to rethink content strategy around search intent, not just virality.
TikTok Custom Creator Networks let brands build permanent creator rosters
TikTok's new Custom Creator Networks allow brands to build and manage permanent groups of creators, employees, and partners for recurring campaigns, replacing one-off searches with ongoing collaboration inside Content Suite.
US lifts TikTok federal device ban after ownership deal closes, but agencies still decide
The Justice Department ruled that TikTok's new American majority ownership structure eliminates the risks behind the 2022 federal device ban, yet the decision hands control back to individual agencies. The shift opens questions about government marketing channels and what changes when platform risk becomes platform opportunity.
EU ditches blanket ban in favour of phased social media access for under-13s
Von der Leyen confirmed supervised-only access for children below 13 after experts rejected an Australian-style ban, putting platforms and brands on notice across 27 member states as enforcement tightens by autumn.
TikTok launches Article sticker for news publishers on iOS
The platform has quietly rolled out a feature allowing media brands to link written journalism directly from video posts, giving publishers their first dedicated distribution format built specifically for news content.
TikTok Pro Events turns the FIFA World Cup into a shopping channel with Stars and merchandise drops
TikTok's standalone event app debuts with collectible cards, live rewards, and in-app merchandise redemption. If it works at the World Cup, every major cultural moment becomes a monetised TikTok spin-off.
Creators take their $250bn industry to Washington as Congress begins to listen
The first Creator Advocacy Day saw 35 creators and industry leaders meet lawmakers to push for healthcare, tax reform, and AI protection as the US creator economy fights for recognition beyond the TikTok dancers stereotype.
TikTok splits inbox into Personal and Professional as creators professionalise
The platform's new two-inbox system gives creators dedicated tools for brand communications and follower management, marking its clearest signal yet that the creator economy is now a business infrastructure play.
TikTok Streaming Ads hands Netflix and Disney+ a direct line from discovery to subscribers
TikTok launched Streaming Ads on 8 July 2026, a Smart+ powered performance format that lets streaming platforms turn the app's cultural influence into measurable subscription growth. It's the first catalog-fuelled ad solution built specifically for entertainment, and it puts TikTok in direct competition with YouTube and Meta for streaming marketing budgets.
TikTok folds entertainment and commerce into one funnel with Mini Dramas and retail ad formats
TikTok has launched Mini Dramas for episodic branded storytelling, promoted through a new TikTok Growth Max automation tool, alongside Logo Takeover and Prime Time ad formats aimed at retailers. The platform is combining serialised content, built-in monetisation, and high-impact placements to keep discovery and purchase inside the app.
TikTok Symphony's July update delivers 50 - 70% faster ad production and reshapes the in-house vs agency content equation
The July 2026 consolidation integrates Dreamina Seedance 2.0, Reference to Video, and expanded Digital Avatars into a single production-to-performance pipeline. With 80%+ of first-pass outputs now usable without manual fixes, advertising teams can compress timelines from weeks to hours, challenging traditional creative resourcing.
Facebook now pays creators up to $3,000 a month to post. Here's what they have to give up.
Meta launched Creator Fast Track in March with guaranteed monthly payments for TikTok and YouTube creators willing to post Reels on Facebook. The move intensifies the platform war for creator loyalty, but it's not about money alone.
Instagram now de-ranks TikTok reposts by up to 3x as AI fingerprinting forces marketers to rebuild cross-platform workflows
Instagram's 2026 algorithm uses AI fingerprinting to detect and suppress recycled content from other platforms, delivering up to 3x less reach for reposts. The shift ends the era of efficient one-video-everywhere strategies and forces a fundamental rethink of how social media marketers distribute content.
TikTok's follower-first algorithm is killing reach for creators with disengaged audiences
Algorithm changes rolled out in early 2026 now test videos on followers before pushing to the For You page, meaning creators with dormant follower bases are seeing reach collapse even when the content is strong.
Social Media Marketing Updates: What Changed This Week
Instagram's non-follower push is intensifying, Meta is tweaking Advantage+ ads, LinkedIn has shifted its feed weighting, and TikTok is leaning harder into search-led content. Here's what social media managers need to know this week.
