Reddit goes paywall, Yahoo bets on influencers, TikTok won’t die

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ICYMI: Slow Ventures is betting big on creators with a $60M fund, offering $1-3M for a 10% stake in businesses beyond ad revenue. The focus? Niche influencers turning their content into full-scale brands.

Reddit’s paywalls are coming—and that’s just the start

Reddit’s finally making good on its paywalled subreddit plans. CEO Steve Huffman confirmed in an AMA that paid communities are launching this year, though he didn’t share many details.

This isn’t a shock—Reddit’s been tweaking its business model since last year’s IPO. It hiked API fees, shutting down third-party apps like Apollo, and cut licensing deals with Google and OpenAI to let their web crawlers scrape Reddit. Now, it’s looking at in-platform shopping and AI-powered services like Reddit Answers to keep the cash flowing.

Reddit’s freewheeling era is fading fast, and more monetization moves are coming.

Today’s top updates

• Instagram is testing a private “dislike” button next to comments. “This gives people a private way to signal that they don’t feel good about that particular comment,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote on Threads.

• Spotify could charge as much as $5.99 a month on top of existing paid plans for a new streaming service offering better audio and access to concert tickets, Bloomberg reported.

• Kim Kardashian’s Skims and Nike announced plans for a new women’s athletic apparel and footwear brand, NikeSkims, which will launch sales this spring.

• Amazon shut down Inspire, a TikTok-like shopping feed inside its mobile app that it launched in 2022, The Information reported.

• Uscreen, a startup that helps creators make mobile apps and run membership programs, raised $150 million in new funding from PSG Equity.

• Facebook will delete live broadcasts after 30 days starting February 19, with options to download or transfer videos before removal.

Yahoo is betting big on influencers

Yahoo News is making a big bet on influencers. The platform has signed nearly 100 YouTubers, TikTokers, and Instagram creators to drive traffic to its site, offering them a 50% cut of ad revenue in exchange for their content.

The move makes sense—social media creators are now a primary source of news for millions, and platforms like NBC, the White House, and even the Democratic National Convention are leaning into influencer coverage. Some creators in Yahoo’s program, like YouTube travel vloggers Kara and Nate, have millions of followers, while smaller names like self-help creator Cory Allen (500k+ Instagram followers) say Yahoo saw where the industry was heading before traditional media did.

But there’s a catch: Yahoo doesn’t fact-check creator content. While it avoids news and politics in favor of lifestyle topics like travel and interior design, the blurred lines between journalism and influencer content are getting messier.

For creators, though, the deal is straightforward: More views, more revenue. The question is whether Yahoo can balance traffic growth with credibility—or if legacy media is just another brand hopping on the creator economy bandwagon.

TikTok’s still standing—one month after the shutdown scare

It’s been a month since TikTok briefly went dark in the U.S., and surprise—it's still here, and still thriving.

TikTok’s daily users in the U.S. hit 106.8M the day it came back, dipped to 79.7M, and are now creeping back up to 86.1M. Creators haven’t bailed either—top accounts actually posted 26% more in the first two days back.

On the business side, TikTok Shop raked in $32M in a single day post-shutdown, and CEO Shou Chew says 100% of paused ad campaigns are back up.

Some creators are still uneasy, but most are rolling with it. For now, TikTok’s proving hard to kill.