Bryant Yang

I was delighted to be speaking at TikTok’s Retail & eCom event on holiday planning a couple of weeks ago.    The timing is perfect – as Fospha has just analyzed $100m of spend in TikTok to tell you exactly how to nail platform performance.    Our Ultimate TikTok Playbook is the most comprehensive platform analysis we’ve done.    Many brands we work with have already proven TikTok’s ability to scale - Nutrimuscle, Represent, Underoutfit Inc and The Essence Vault Ltd have all done brilliantly here and their case studies are referenced in the report.   But for many others TikTok remains underinvested, especially if they aren’t sure exactly how to execute on the platform.    That’s why we leveraged $100m+ worth of spend data, 3+ years of TikTok experience and our daily conversations with immensely successful brands to produce this resource for you.     Whether you're looking to break into TikTok for the first time or build a bulletproof long-term strategy, you’ll need this playbook. Download your copy here: https://lnkd.in/e2yU4i5Z

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I usually don't post much on LinkedIn, but between ChatGPT's flirty Her-inspired voice and Butker's commencement speech last week (same same but different), I'm a bit fired up. Meta recently announced the formation of a new AI Advisory Council. The kicker? This group, tasked with advising one of the world’s most powerful tech companies on its AI strategies, is composed entirely of white men aged 30 to 40. This decision comes just months after OpenAI faced criticism for its lack of diversity following Altman’s departure. (For a better example of how AI boards can be organized, check out the Government of Canada’s own Advisory Council: https://lnkd.in/gGbpi9wf) I hear you barking, big dog. "There are only four people; why does it matter!" "They're very smart and successful white men; I'm sure they know what they're talking about." "Why is it always about race / gender!" Or, [insert any comment from Tech Crunch's tweet on this story: https://lnkd.in/gAAf_eFn]. ICYMI: BIPOC and women are markedly underrepresented in tech, especially in leadership roles. And, diversity in decision-making—especially at this new frontier of very influential tech—is essential (underlined and in bold) for creating inclusive advancements that serve the whole, not the few. DEI isn’t just a "trend" or an option; it’s imperative for fair and equitable innovation. Technology (or anything, really) built by a homogenous group risks perpetuating biases and failing everyone else. What happens when a homogenous group makes a product? They make it primarily for people who think and behave the same way. Many, including the World Economic Forum, argue that AI is already failing women. From the inherent sexism of personal assistants and chatbots (which are predominantly female) to women being targeted by AI-generated explicit content, it's clear that AI has—and will continue to have—serious ramifications for women. BIPOC have also faced significant negative consequences, including bias in facial recognition (leading to wrongful arrests and privacy violations), discrimination in hiring algorithms, healthcare disparities, and more. By ensuring diverse voices are heard and included in the development process, we can build technology that is more effective, more inclusive, and more beneficial to society as a whole. But without them, AI will inevitably reinforce existing inequalities and fail to serve anyone who doesn't fit the homogenous mould. Anyway, a big shout out to my ladies (and BIPOC) in STEM. Your work is so important, and I hope you feel seen and appreciated every day.

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A recent EMARKETER article published a report on Netflix's revenue. This year, Netflix made a big change - and limited sharing of an account's password outside a household. From an ideal perspective where users are watching only Netflix and don't have other OTT platforms, it makes absolute sense. It also makes sense if Netflix has much much better content than the competition. But, the slowing of subscriber gains goes beyond this 'business logic' - Netflix did record a growth in subscribers in the first quarter, but a slowed growth since. Yes, it's ad-supported tier and live sports is driving growth - the question is, "Will it be enough?" "Can the OTT giant grow inspite of degrowing subscriber gains?" It might be time to crunch some numbers - Has the overall viewer hours increased? Is Sleep still the 'biggest competition to Netflix'? emarketer article: https://lnkd.in/gb77ruRp Medium article: https://lnkd.in/guTaEx-c

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It's hard for me to write this. I worked at Google for several years on key projects like Google Pay. In that time, I racked up a healthy stack of restricted stock units, or RSUs, which contributed tremendously to the growth in my net worth. Even as late as a few months ago, I still had around 33% of my portfolio in Google. But I’m rebalancing my portfolio out of Google. Here's why: While using Peek for my monthly portfolio review, I saw that if I had sold all my Google RSUs last year, and invested the S&P500 instead, my money would have grown 34% instead of 18.6% with Google. Google today is not the company it was. In fact, it is in danger of becoming like Yahoo! In my latest blog article, I explain all the reasons why I think it's time for me to say goodbye to Google in my portfolio 🥲 To read my thoughts at my blog, visit the link in the comments 👇

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I've tried starting to write this post so many times. Knowing the incredibly talented people who were let go from Dropbox today is nearly leaving me at a loss for words. These people are some of the sharpest, kindest, deeply experienced, no BS badasses that I've had the pleasure of working with. If you were impacted, please know I have a personal policy of only connecting with people on LinkedIn who I *actually* know for times like this when introductions to loose ties are meaningful. Please do not be shy if I can put you in touch, write you a recommendation, or simply be a someone to lean on. Network: are you hiring writers, researchers, marketing leaders, CX content leaders, content designers? Take advantage of this incredible talent now on the market. Let me know if I can connect you!

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Two months ago I wrote a post about where Bachtrack.com was with the leaving Twitter/X thing and the questions we were asking ourselves to try and find our way to a decision (read that post in full here https://lnkd.in/egdtivb5). Having just spent the last two days at our thrice-annual Company Meeting, and finding ourselves in a new place post-US elections, I thought I'd check in and see how things were faring. Some interesting happenings have been spotted on the alternative platforms we chose to join alongside X: Bluesky and Threads. Initially, things were pretty quiet. We replicated our Twitter content there and saw a little bit of action, but not anything to write home about. But since the events of last Wednesday, there has been a big change, and it seems to be happening on Bluesky. Our Bluesky account has seen a 280% increase in followers in just 10 days. Our editor, Mark, the man behind our X account and who has also been posting on Bluesky for us, reports that interactions on Bluesky posts this week surpassed interactions on X for the first time. A smaller increase can be seen on Threads (7%). And we are down just short of 1% in X followers. What does this mean? It's a hunch, but personally, I think that Threads is where a "general" audience is heading, and Bluesky may be where the "niche" audience is heading. By that, I mean the community of classical music, culture, arts etc. people, which was so strong in early-mid period Twitter. Whilst this is not yet enough to mean we are ready to abandon X altogether, it's a significant trend and one we will keep our eagle eyes on. Because it raises another question: should arts and culture organisations seeking safe harbour from X choose a platform where "people like them" are hanging out? Or should they choose one where "people yet to be converted" are? I suppose that depends on the organisational aims for social media. And I'll leave that for another day! Should you fancy joining us, we are: 🦋 @bachtrack.bsky.social 🧵 @bachtrack And if you are still there: ❌ @bachtrack

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At some point, your cause will grow out of start-up mode. You'll then need to graduate from the Squarespaces and Wix's of the world and onto a website platform that allows you more control and the ability to reach more people and better tell your story. Here's a basic list of options available to you: - Wordpress can accommodate the majority of nonprofit and school websites; it's flexible, relatively easy learn and use and has a deep community of product support. - If your organization publishes and shares massive amounts of content, some people like Drupal, but a capacity-limited org may find it less user-friendly than Wordpress (and it definitely has a smaller support community). - There are nowadays also "no code" options like Webflow; while these are better able to quickly create web pages, they're also less flexible if you need to access site data and underlying code. - Lastly, there's a whole series of "niche" options, products like Craft and Expression Engine, that can be tailored to meet specific workflows, but I've found that most NPs don't require this level of customization. Bottom line - if yours is a growing nonprofit with standard content management needs, Wordpress is the way to go, but you certainly have other options to choose from. If you need help deciding on which system is right for you, DM me here and we'll talk through your needs.

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Here’s what happened when Robokiller doubled its price Earlier this year, Bending Spoons bought Robokiller, a spam-blocking app, and raised its subscription price from $39.99/year to $89.99/year - more than double. According to Appfigures, in October, revenue hit $3.8M, marking the app’s best month ever and a 28% year-over-year increase. That sounds like a win, right? But let’s look closer. When the price doubled, churn followed. It’s pretty clear Robokiller lost more than half of its paying users after the increase. And that’s not counting those who haven’t had the chance to unsubscribe yet. The revenue boost might look great now, but I wonder about the long-term impact. Churn seems to be climbing, and keeping users happy at this higher price won’t be easy. Are you experimenting with IAP pricing? How do you approach these changes in your apps?

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Fun insights from Pinterest in the M.T. Deco Substack today 🪩 I love the big and bold trends in the new Pinterest Predicts, and am so appreciative of the team for giving our audience some added context. Super fun to hear more about the process of creating the report and also get more detail about the drivers of a lot of these trends. What I am interested in is how we'll see everyday people take these trends and apply them to their content. Of course it will be cool to see brands and creators activate on all of it, but at this point, I'm more into the people who are using social to have some fun while building their personal brands. Will drop the Substack in the comments!

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A year on from our Kickstarter launch, we are reflecting on where we are with Brother Earth Co and what has gone our way and what hasn’t (yet!). In no particular order: Meta ads - too early to tell here but the signs are promising and the time and expense involved in creating UGC content seems worthwhile. We knew we weren’t the best skilled people to make the content or manage the ads so we worked with a great content creator and agency. LESSON - work with an agency like House of Performance (hop) to manage your ads and bring in creative skills.  Give the ads time to run and learn, we have been advised 3 months at a minimum. PR - this didn't meet our expectations. We commissioned some research (surveying 2000 people) to understand perceptions on personal care and sustainability topics. We felt the data we got back was a little bland and whether it was due to the questions, unlucky release timings or the findings not cutting through enough, we didn’t get any real pickup in the press.  LESSON - think very carefully about PR, find something exceptionally eye-catching to say. I fear our brand and messages were lost in the noise. Multiple founders - With three of us, we had many great ideas and opinions. However we should have been more strict on roles and responsibilities from the outset and avoided the temptation of being involved in everything (ultimately coming from a good place as we were all passionate). LESSON - despite it being a painful process, invest the time to be clear on roles, responsibilities and availability (time being the most valuable resource we have). Fundraising - it was so time consuming and in today’s market, very hard to find external money without a lot more history and proof points. In hindsight, we were too early-stage to go out to Angels etc. and should have focused on friends and family from the outset. Part of our external search was that we wanted true external validation of our business. LESSON - in today’s business climate, friends and family are your best bet. Still go through all the thinking, planning and rigour and don’t take money from people who aren’t 100% convinced. Product Development - this has been SLOW. With the best intentions and focus it will always take longer than you want. We had very high hopes working with a new partner, but again we are a small client to them and the reality is that they have prioritised other larger clients. LESSON - allow more time (tricky), be patient - I still don’t know how we could have sped up this process. :-( Growing the team - we are very pleased we prioritised the search for a marketing person to join our team. There are many reasons behind this, new ideas, external perspective, challenging what the founders have been doing, bringing new energy. Thanks Jamie Prowse! LESSON - Start the search asap, don’t over analyse, trust your gut and get working together quickly to see if it works #startup #zerowaste #businessforpurpose #kickstarter #sustainability

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Really interesting article here from Capacity Interactive on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ads. Some key takeaways: 1. In their test between ads that swapped the creative (imagery, video, etc) every 10 days or every 7 days, the 10 days performed better for engagement and the value of purchases made. What does this mean? You don't have to switch up the creative as often as you might think, people engaged more as it went on. 2. In their test between segmented audiences (where you use retargeting to move people through an ads funnel) and non-segmented (where you rely on Meta to find your audience for you) the non-segmented campaign performed better, BUT only over a longer period. In the short term, moving the audience step-by-step through an ads funnel worked better. What does this mean? If you have an ad campaign that will run for less than 8 weeks then using a segmented audience is a good idea to move people along the ads funnel. For longer term campaigns you can rely more on Meta's automated, machine learning to find your audience. If you're panicking about what an ads funnel even is then don't worry, Katy F. is currently working on a handy article to guide you through using one! 3. Despite how interesting the article is, I wouldn't actually recommend you use Meta's A/B testing yourselves unless you've got a substantial budget, as it can work out as more expensive (and we know that cultural organisations often have very limited budgets). You can do your own version of A/B testing without using the official tool by making two campaigns to run alongside each other. If you work in the arts and cultural sector in England and have questions about using paid social ads then I and Katy F. can help for FREE! You can book in with us here: https://lnkd.in/ezsjyfVU It's always free too, this isn't a limited time offer, the Digital Culture Network exists to support creative and cultural organisations and individuals in England with your digital marketing. https://lnkd.in/epG5btJd #SocialMediaMarketing #ArtsMarketing #ArtsAndCulture

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Pie is LIVE in San Francisco. This is not a city that is dumb to new startups. There is e large and growing graveyard of companies and apps that have tried to solve the problem of making friends IRL. Having worked on this for five years, here is why we think Pie is right on time: 1. Our Pie Creator Fund is creating a gig economy of people building IRL communities. Loving people is one thing. Being able to afford the time and treasure to bring them together is another. Apply here: piecreatorfund.com 2. Most Pie plans are free. The internet is littered with paid opportunities to buy tickets. But what if you don't know what to expect? What if you don't know what is worth paying for? Believe in free: getpie.app (and click San Francisco). 3. We have secrets about the future. Not all of them are in our product yet. We hope that you give us a shot and maybe later we can tell you our secrets. Maybe you don't have to figure out who to hang out with, maybe we can do that for you.

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Quick Q&A with Emma Garnett, the incredible partnerships lead at Soar With Us and one of Prish's early agency adopters! Q: What is your first impression of Prish? 🤔 A: "Absolute game-changer! Really user-friendly and puts everything I need to make partnerships successful for us in one place—exactly what I’ve needed all of these years!" Q: How will Prish help your agency? 🤝 A: "The key feature I'm most excited about is the events section. We're really focused on events for 2025 & this will ensure I don't miss out on any of the chances to connect with partners & show up for them." Q: Finish this sentence: "Before Prish, my partnership strategy was..... A: .....here, there & everywhere! Now I have everything I need right in front of me to help guide our partnerships strategy and make this channel work for our team (which clients work with which partners & which partners send us referrals so I know which partners to prioritize, which partners are running special offers so I can share with our clients, etc) Q: Describe how Prish has changed your workflow...in three emojis or less.  A: 📅 ✨ 🚀 Q: What’s the most surprising thing you’ll be able to accomplish with Prish that you couldn’t before? A: I’ll finally be able to manage and track every aspect of our partnerships in one place—no more logging into multiple dashboards & portals or chasing multiple updates. As a 1 man band it's so easy to forget where you are with each referral, what you get paid, when you get paid, etc. so the fact that I have something that gives me this clarity will only help make me a better version of my partnership self! Q: Anything else you want to share? Prish isn’t just a tool—it’s a secret weapon for partnership success. It’s intuitive, efficient, and designed for people in partnerships, by people in partnerships, who need to juggle a lot without dropping anything. If you're interested in simplifying partnerships for your agency, get in touch! #partnermangement #Shopifypartnerships #prish

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Those who know me well, know that I typically like to stay behind the scenes—working with founders, speccing out products, iterating with engineers, etc. So this was a BIG step outside my comfort zone. Thank you Harry Stebbings for taking the time to dig into my 15+ years in product and how those learnings shape my role at Sequoia Capital and our work with founders. We covered a lot of ground, from the product philosophy we walk pre-seed and seed-stage founders through in Arc to the PMF framework we recently released. The experience wasn’t as panic-inducing as I thought it would be! While I’m out here, I wanted to mention one thing that I didn’t get to cover with Harry: the fact that my career arc as a product leader looks a bit different from most. I have been very intentional about staying an individual contributor and focusing on building products vs. building teams. To my fellow IC lifers out there, even if the path isn’t obvious, there’s always the option to make one. Don’t think leadership only means management. Special thank you to those who didn't just tolerate, but enabled the path I'm on: Jess Lee, Terry Angelos, Ashley Alexander, Vishal Shah, Ethan Lubka, Roelof Botha, Alfred Lin, and Pat Grady.

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Re-sharing this - because I've made some tweaks, but mainly because I genuinely feel that the context I've included here and the style of communication really gives a peek at who I am and what I offer. And while there's certainly more context that lies between these sections and the bullet points they share, I believe that they are a small introduction and I'm hoping enough to make you want to learn more. Take a look, share, reach out, let me know what you think! https://lnkd.in/ezDQzx74

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New Feature Alert: Refundable Samples on TikTok Shop TikTok Shop has just rolled out Refundable Samples in Open Collaborations, bringing a game-changing feature for brands looking to collaborate with creators more strategically! What’s New? With Refundable Samples, brands can now sell samples directly to creators through the product marketplace. Here’s the twist: brands set specific criteria for creators to meet (like post count or engagement metrics). If these criteria are met, the creator receives a full refund—if not, the sample becomes a regular purchase after 90 days. Why It Matters → Win-Win: Brands gain high-quality creator content, while creators enjoy a risk-free way to try products. → Strategic Collaborations: Only creators who meet your exact criteria qualify for refunds, ensuring alignment with brand goals. → Automated Process: Refunds are seamlessly automated, so brands stay efficient while engaging the creator economy. This feature is currently available exclusively in Open Collaborations. For brands on TikTok Shop, Refundable Samples offer an innovative way to connect with creators and expand visibility. Could Refundable Samples be the next big move for your TikTok Shop strategy? Drop your comments below! #TikTokShop #EcommerceNews #InfluencerMarketing #CreatorEconomy #RefundableSamples

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I would LOVE to talk to some DTC people (share if resonates) Listening to the My First Million podcast (with Shaan Puri, Sam Parr & Ad Professor); over the last months I've been finding out how great of a business idea the Healthy Holistic Homes brand actually is that we've been growing with Miriam Gubovicova over the last 2 years. It's always been kind of a side thing lagging behind but now, I just need to expand a little bit of my focus on this. So far... 👉 We've built @miriamgubovicova & @healthyholistichomes to 55.6K & 75.9K on TikTok 👉 We've now also been growing on Instagram – still low but moving 👉 And we have 2.11K on YouTube (this is our main focus right now) 👉 There's also a great website, a banger quiz & other working lead magnets 👉 Email list is something around 4k but it needs a cleanse https://lnkd.in/dXe9rfX4 https://lnkd.in/d7Q6zNsA https://lnkd.in/dKPZ7Yuw https://lnkd.in/dqCst-MR After realizing what we've been sitting on, we've... 👉 Spoken to some great industry top people & gotten valuable advice 👉 I've stepped down from the HHH brand, and now Miriam is the face 👉 Turned up the content production knob slightly 👉 And this has enabled me to gain a fresh perspective on things So, I realize there's quite a few ways we could take this, but I understand that the product side is where I'm lacking. Do I start affiliating mold remediation & testing services? Start testing & create a database of high quality healthy products? Offer really high-ticket consulting & at-home visits? (which we've done & recorded a couple) Or launch our own product line of clean ______ products? (e.g. clean cleaning products?) So far out most popular videos — where we have the most views both on YouTube & TikTok have been about air purifiers for short-form and mold for long-form. Since we're already producing media that's doing tens-to-hundreds of millions of views for our clients, turning up the intensity on our own content is not a challenge. What's been holding us back the most till now has been the return on investment part — not knowing if the effort we're putting in will ever translate to something tangible. So, this is where we're at — would love to talk to somebody that resonates with what we're building! --- --- --- BONUS CONTENT — Here's a gripe of mine. So, we've generated tens of millions of views on TikTok with our content, but it for some reason NEVER performed on Instagram. However, what planted the seed of our disgust for Instagram was finding our videos (that were stolen from our TT) & seeing them have more views than the original ones. Literally our video, downloaded, from our TT, and posted to Instagram. AFTER we already posted it. And the ours had like sub 1k views and the stolen one had hundreds of thousands or millions. This happened quite a few time and IG refused to take them down 🙃

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TikTok's rival platform Kuaishou Technology has unveiled a new AI model called KLING for generating videos. Despite recent setbacks, including - talent departures - layoffs - and project shutdowns Kuaishou appears to be placing a significant bet on this AI technology. ↳ KLING is currently available through the Kwaiying app for invited beta testers in China. ↳ Early examples suggest that the model's performance surpasses Google's Veo. ↳ One notable advantage of KLING is its open access, although it requires a Chinese phone number and a waitlist. ↳ This accessibility makes the technology immediately relevant to a broader audience, not just researchers or tech enthusiasts. ↳ The emergence of KLING shows us that Chinese researchers and companies are making significant strides in AI. ↳ The model can generate videos lasting over two minutes, doubling the duration showcased in Sora's preview. ---- P.S. Is KLING going to rival Sora? Sign up to my newsletter: https://bit.ly/4aQFHxJ

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And just like that, we are 3. There is a saying that one year in TikTok is equal to 3 years in normal workplaces. (There are days that it feels like 5-7 years) Maybe it’s cos of our insane pace, the speed that things are being executed, rolled out and results being generated, in such a way that often we find ourselves huffing and puffing and completely burnt out. Which is why I chose this photo to celebrate my 3rd anniversary in #TikTok. I believe that to thrive in a rocketship, you need to be in a particular season of your life- it’s nothing to do with your age, your family situation or your career background- but rather your personal drive and how far you are willing to go to get things done. And at the same time, as seasons come and go, you also have to accept that there will be ebbs and flows in your career. It’s honestly hard to keep doing well every single month but while there are peaks and troughs in our performance, what we can ensure is a constant growth of ourselves. This growth is not an upwards chart, it’s one that keeps growing deeper. Allowing you to know more about yourself, what you are able and unable to do- and how you need to complement your weaknesses with those you hire and surround yourself with. As a parent, we often say “Days are long but the years are short” and when I know how much has been done and achieved in the last 3 years, it’s really like watching our business grow from infancy to a teenager now. And we have still much more to do… so onwards to 2025! #lifeattiktok #techminion

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