Platform Problem

Memo #3: The platform playbook is total control. Creators are finally starting to take note.

Welcome to Creator Economy Dispatch, where research meets reality. Insights, interviews, and observations on how creators, brands, and platforms actually work together—part case study, part cultural commentary.

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about platform power. I know that sounds obvious, but maybe not in the way you think.

Most would agree that the platforms (Instagram/Meta, YouTube/Google, TikTok/ByteDance) set the rules. But fewer people talk about just how much they quietly own. Not just the terms of engagement, but the actual outputs. The tools. The data. The relationship with the audience.

Case in point: a recent CapCut terms of service update. The video-editing app (owned by ByteDance) now gives itself sweeping rights over anything created in-app. The new language lets it remix, reuse, and redistribute your content however it wants.

It’s not just your video. ByteDance made it easy to argue that it’s theirs, too.

Some creators panicked. Most kept editing. But something feels different this time. After years of chasing virality, adapting to trends, and riding algorithmic whiplash, more creators are starting to ask a harder question: what do I actually own?

To be fair, that question isn’t new. CapCut’s earlier terms included similar language. And it’s not just ByteDance. These dynamics are baked into the system more broadly.

But this year, with the looming TikTok ban and the rise of increasingly extractive tools, there’s a deeper unease in the air. A kind of collective realization: the platforms aren’t just gracious hosts. They’re landlords. And they might already own more than we think.

For a long time, the trade-off felt fair. You brought the content. They brought the audience. You played by their rules, using their formats, adapting to their incentives, and accepting their opacity in exchange for reach.

But over time, the edges of that trade-off start to blur. As platforms moved from distributors to full-stack ecosystems, they began shaping every layer of how content is made, seen, and sold.

• Creation: Tools like CapCut and Instagram Edits steer how content gets made.

• Distribution: Recommendation engines decide what gets seen, and by who.

• Monetization: Payouts, partnerships, and even shop integrations flow through platform rules.

The full-stack verticalization is slick and mostly frictionless. Creators get enormous reach, infrastructure, and monetization tools at zero upfront cost, which is a wonderful thing. One I certainly don’t take for granted.

But two things can be true at once. The system is also at best, limiting, and at worst, extractive. In a lot of ways, what you lose is the thing that matters most: the relationship with your audience.

Followers aren’t customers. Views aren’t users. If a platform shuts off your reach, your business can evaporate. That’s why more creators are quietly pivoting to Substack, Shopify, Patreon, Discord. Email lists. DTC brands. Private communities. Platforms that (at least for now) don’t rely on advertising as their primary business model.

They’re trying to exit the landlord’s economy.

Some know they’ll never fully leave. But they can build parallel infrastructure. Systems that let them speak to their audience directly. Launch products. Own the relationship. Get real insights instead of analytics designed for ad buyers.

Because here’s the core tension of the creator economy: To grow, you need the platforms. But the ceiling (real ownership, long-term leverage) can really only be broken outside their walls.

Look at the biggest names: Alex Cooper went from podcast host to media CEO. MrBeast launched Feastables and is hosting his own competition show. Emma Chamberlain built a coffee brand. Creators who thrive long-term don’t just post. They transcend.

Others will stay inside the machine, optimize for it, and make it work. For some, the bargain still feels worth it. They’d rather create than operate, and the scale, structure, and simplicity platforms offer is enough.

But more and more are starting to ask: what are the limits of my ownership in someone else’s ecosystem? And how do I build something they can’t take away?

CapCut’s TOS update didn’t change the game. It just reminded everyone who’s winning it.