Zach Vallese

1 month ago | cnbc.com | Zach Vallese

YouTube on Thursday announced new video creation tools for Shorts, its short-form video feed that competes against TikTok. The features come at a time when TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is at risk of an effective ban in the U.S. if it's not sold to an American owner by April 5. Among the new tools is an updated video editor that allows creators to make precise adjustments and edits, a feature that automatically syncs video cuts to the beat of a song and AI stickers.

1 month ago | cnbc.com | Jonathan Vanian |Zach Vallese

For the second time this year, TikTok is staring at a deadline that could determine its fate in the U.S. and that of numerous creators and brands that have built businesses on the Chinese-owned social app. The sense of urgency that led some creators to post wistful goodbye videos in January has shifted to a more cautiously optimistic outlook, with creators and firms saying they believe TikTok will remain in the U.S. They are, however, hedging their bets.

2 months ago | cnbc.com | Zach Vallese

After posting almost 200 videos, amassing hundreds of thousands of followers and racking up millions of views, Carla Lalli Music is quitting YouTube. Substack is her new focus. Music is a cookbook author and food content creator, and she is shifting her focus to Substack, a subscription platform that lets creators charge users subscriptions for access to their content.

Feb 7, 2025 | cnbc.com | Zach Vallese

Katie Austin normally publishes fitness content to her Instagram and YouTube channel. But this week, she's been posting a steady trickle of content from New Orleans. That's because Austin, 31, from California, is one of hundreds of creators who have swarmed the Big Easy for Super Bowl 59, getting paid large contracts to make social media content for big-name brands like Electronic Arts and Nike.

Jan 31, 2025 | cnbc.com | Zach Vallese

TikTok has nearly bounced back to its original traffic levels after usage fell 85% when the app temporarily shut down earlier this month, according to Cloudflare Radar. "DNS traffic for TikTok-related domains has continued to recover since service restoration, and is currently about 10% lower than pre-shutdown level," David Belson, head of data insight at Cloudflare, told CNBC in a statement.