Category: Business Insider

• A $61 billion package of US military aid for Ukraine is being signed off. 
• The aid will provide much-needed support for Ukraine over the summer months.
• But it still faces massive challenges in its battle against Russia's invasion. 

Relief swept the front line in Ukraine on Saturday after the US voted to release a long-delayed $61 billion package of military aid to help defend against Russia's invasion.

"We thought that our partners had forgotten about us," a Ukrainian intelligence officer with the call sign Bankir, told CNN.

The US House of Representatives approved the aid package, having been held up for months amid opposition from far-right Republicans. It will now be voted on by the US Senate, where it's widely expected to pass.

But while it's likely to help kill Russia's momentum and give Ukraine much-needed support in the coming months, experts are cautioning that it doesn't ensure victory for Ukraine.

A race against time

Mark Warne, the Senate Intelligence Committee Chair, told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that military equipment should be "in transit by the end of the week."

It's a race against time for Ukraine. Its military is running low on ammunition and artillery supplies, and struggling to fend off intensifying Russian attacks. Meanwhile, its air defense systems are also short of missiles, meaning Russia is increasingly able to target Ukraine's cities and power plants.

In recent weeks, Ukraine's leaders have issued increasingly stark warnings that it faces the prospect of defeat to Russia without more money from its allies.

Analysts said the aid bill will bolster Ukraine's defenses against a possible planned Russian offensive this summer.

US-made missiles have been crucial to Ukraine in targeting Russian supply lines and troop gatherings, while artillery has been vital for defending its positions from attacks.

The aid will allow Ukraine to replenish its supplies of these vitally important weapons, which reports say it had to start rationing on the front line in recent weeks.

Ukraine "will likely be able to blunt the current Russian offensive assuming the resumed US assistance arrives promptly," said analysts at the US think tank The Institute for the Study of War.

The equipment "will help to slow down the Russian advance, but not stop it", one senior Ukrainian official told the Financial Times.

Ukraine's future remains uncertain

Experts have long believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to grind down Ukrainian resistance, exploiting the fact that long-term Western support for Ukraine remains uncertain.

"Please don't forget that Russia's annual military budget is more than $100 billion," noted Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko on X on Saturday evening. "We have won time today, but we have not won the war. We will still need to finish the job."

Even with the huge injection of money, it's likely not enough to enable Ukraine to launch a campaign to drive Russian forces back, George Beebe, a former head of the CIA's Russia analysis unit, told BI recently.

And the long-term future of US aid remains in doubt, with Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, having repeatedly said he opposes funding Ukraine's war effort.

Ukraine's European allies haven't wavered in their commitment to helping Ukraine, but have struggled to produce enough ammunition and equipment to make up for the US aid shortfall this year.

Many believe the best Ukraine can hope for is to use the money to reinforce its current position, continue to inflict losses on Russia, and hope that its allies keep the aid flowing next year.

"Such a large aid package may be the last this year. Moreover, there is a fairly high probability that all subsequent aid packages for Ukraine will be much smaller in size," a former Ukrainian officer who operates the Frontelligence Insight newsletter said, as cited by The Financial Times.

"The aid provided by the US buys us and the European Union time, about one year."

For Ukraine to feel confident in winning the war against Russia, it will need more military aid beyond 2024. There's currently no guarantee it will get it in sufficient amounts.

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• Elon Musk was criticized by an Australian minister for refusing to remove X posts about a stabbing.
• Tanya Plibersek told 7News that Musk is an "egotistical billionaire" after Musk resisted the calls. 
• Social media posts on the attack contained a lot of misinformation, the Guardian reported. 

An Australian minister slammed Elon Musk as an "egotistical billionaire" over his refusal to take down X posts.

The posts included comments on the stabbing of Sydney-based bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, which occurred last week. Video clips of the attack have since circulated on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Tanya Plibersek, Australia's minister for the environment and water, made the remarks on news station 7News after the stabbing was captured on the church's livestream and shared on X, per the Guardian.

Plibersek said on Monday, "It beggars belief, doesn't it, that this egotistical billionaire thinks it's more important for him to show whatever he wants on X or Twitter … for him to have his way than to respect the victims of the crimes."

In a post, X's global government affairs account said that it received a "demand" from Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, or face a "daily fine of $785,000 AUD."

Musk responded in an X post Friday, "The Australian censorship commissar is demanding global content bans."

According to the Guardian, significant amounts of misinformation was spread on social media after the attack, after which there was a riot.

X owner Musk has maintained that the platform is a site for free speech since he acquired the company, formerly known as Twitter, in October 2022.

More recently, the billionaire has resisted calls from a top judge in Brazil to ban accounts that spread election misinformation and are associated with the far-right.

Brazil's supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes responded and said the court would investigate Musk and that he'd face a fine of about $20,000 a day for each blocked account reinstated in Brazil, Associated Press reported.

X has in the past taken action and removed certain accounts, like in January when it banned an account tied to Hamas' military wing. But for the most part, Musk has resisted removing content from the platform as he thinks it can restrict free speech.

In a wide-ranging interview with Don Lemon last month, he defended his position on X's content moderation policies and said, "Moderation is a propaganda word for censorship."

X didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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• We're about to find out if Elon Musk has a plan to save Tesla.
• The EV maker is expected to report a 40% profit drop on Tuesday after a bruising year.
• Demand is falling, competition is rising, and a push to make robotaxis is worrying some investors.

If Elon Musk has a secret rescue plan for Tesla hidden away, now would be a great time to show it to the world.

On Tuesday, the company is due to report first-quarter earnings for Tesla after a decisively brutal year so far that's left his electric vehicle maker looking like a shell of its former self.

Since the start of the year, Tesla's share price has been in freefall, sliding more than 40%, leaving it worth about $460 billion. Musk's own fortune has suffered a $61 billion drop too, though he's still the world's fourth-richest person.

Tesla is facing a host of problems.

Demand for electric vehicles has seemingly been vaporized, with deliveries of Tesla's vehicles plummeting hard and fast. This month, Tesla said it delivered about 387,000 vehicles in the first three months of the year, marking a 20% decline from the previous quarter.

As a result, Tesla is expected to report a 40% profit drop on Tuesday, per Bloomberg, as well as its first revenue drop in four years. Last week, it emerged that it was laying off more than 10% of its staff globally as it adjusts to this new reality.

After the job cuts were announced last week, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Wall Street needed to know the "rationale for the cost-cutting, the strategy going forward, product roadmap, and an overall vision from Musk" on its investor call.

More price cuts

The demand issue has been particularly prominent in one of Tesla's most important growth markets, China. Musk has engaged in a high-risk price war in the country with local rivals such as BYD as they win more buyers with cheaper — and, some say, better — vehicles.

Just this weekend, Tesla slashed the prices of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China that previously sold for 245,900 yuan ($33,900) and 263,900 yuan ($36,500) respectively. It also cut prices in the US and Europe too.

Those cuts look like a significant move to boost sales after a punishing year for Tesla. But they might not be enough to stop a full-blown car crash.

Investors have grown skeptical of Musk's wider strategy to fulfill his ambition of popularizing electric vehicles for the mass market, which would see Tesla hitting an extraordinary sales goal of 20 million EVs per year by 2030.

In part, it's because Musk's promises of delivering a mass-market car significantly cheaper than Tesla's current offerings look less certain than ever.

Robotaxi dreams

As recently as November, there had been suggestions that Tesla planned to build a sub-$30,000 car at its Berlin factory, but a Reuters report this month said Tesla plans to pivot the focus of its small-vehicle platform to robotaxis instead.

Though Musk — who has planned a big robotaxi event for August — denied the report, the emphasis on driverless cars has left people close to the company feeling "unsettled by the changes the CEO wants to push through," Bloomberg reported.

Autonomous driving has been a long-standing interest for Musk, but scaling such technology has proven challenging for the wider industry. General Motors' autonomous unit paused operations in November over regulator concerns after a collision, for instance.

To top it all off, Tesla is voluntarily recalling all the near-4,000 Cybertrucks it's so far produced over a fault with their accelerators, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.

For most CEOs, these issues would be plenty to keep them awake at night. But Musk also faces several other distractions in the face of a big legal battle over his Tesla compensation package, retaining advertisers at X, as well as making headway in the AI industry with Grok.

Will Musk prioritize Tesla over everything else? We're about to find out.

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• An edited image showing Mark Zuckerberg with a beard has raised a lot of eyebrows.
• The image inevitably drew the attention of the Meta boss and his wife Priscilla Chan. 
• The picture has been shared widely, with some users failing to notice Zuck's new beard was fake.

The internet has a new crush: bearded Mark Zuckerberg.

An edited image of Zuckerberg with a fake beard has been going viral on social media.

The original screenshot was taken from an Instagram video posted by the Meta CEO, during which he announced a new version of the company's AI, Llama 3.

But one game designer found a different use for the new video — fitting the tech boss with fake facial hair.

The fake image has proved popular with social-media users, with some enthusiastically sharing versions of the "hot" bearded Zuckerberg.

Some users even took the opportunity to encourage the Meta CEO to grow some real facial hair.

"Bro, grow your beard out," one user commented on Zuckerberg's original post. "I saw what it would look like."

Even Zuckerberg himself acknowledged the trend. After the image was posted on Instagram by The Shade Room, Zuckerberg commented: "Okay who did this?

Zuckerberg's wife, Priscilla Chan, also shared a photo of her bearded husband on her Instagram story, per People. "Anyone seen my husband???" she joked. "And who is this guy?"

While it's not clear exactly how the image was altered, digital manipulation of images has become a wider concern recently, following the furor around Kate Middleton's admission that she edited a picture of her family released by Kensington Palace last month.

As for the Zuckerberg photo, the image was shared so widely on X and other platforms that some users failed to notice it was fake.

"That bearded photo of Zuck wasn't real, but it subtly changed some people's perception of him," entrepreneur Varun Mayya said of the photo in an X post. "Post-truth era."

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• Amazon is spending big on content and new hires as it takes on Netflix, Disney+, and others in streaming.
• It recently listed 255 job openings at Prime Video, 100 of them in the US.
• It's paying up to $350,000 for product and tech roles to grow viewership and advertising.

While most of Hollywood has trimmed its entertainment budget, Amazon shelled out $18.9 billion on music and video in 2023, a 14% increase, according to its annual report.

Despite laying off hundreds in entertainment in January, the company is still hiring to build out Prime Video, home to mainstream fare like "The Boys" and "Reacher" and live sports programming like NFL's "Thursday Night Football."

Amazon recently listed 255 job openings in Prime Video on its site, including 100 in the US, from program managers to software developers.

These salaries represent annual base pay, which varies by geographic market and doesn't include equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation and benefits.

They include salaries ranging from $64,200 to $245,000 for digital program managers, $115,000 to $223,600 for software development engineers, and $63,000 to $151,700 for an advertising insights manager.

Read a breakdown of what Amazon pays Prime Video employees by job title

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• Some restaurant chains and franchisees have increased prices in California to cover a new pay law there.
• Restaurants from Starbucks to Chipotle have marked up menu prices since the law took effect on April 1.
• Other chains have found alternatives to offset the higher wage costs.

Many fast food workers in California have been taking home more money since April 1, when the state's minimum wage for those workers went to $20 an hour.

But restaurant owners, eager to protect profits, have raised the menu prices that consumers pay to help offset the cost.

Often, fast-food joints are operated by franchisees — business owners who run a small group of stores and pay a company like McDonald's for the right to do so. That means that individual franchisees may choose to pass on the higher pay costs, while others don't.

California's new law applies to chains with at least 60 "limited-service" locations in the US — that is, restaurants where customers order and pay for their food before getting it instead of sitting down and being waited on.

Here are the restaurants — and specific franchisees — who have decided to raise menu prices since California's new minimum age kicked in:

McDonald's: Scott Rodrick, who owns 18 Northern California McDonald's restaurants, said he would raise prices. He was also considering changes to his stores' hours and putting off planned dining room renovations to save money.

Individual franchisees make their own decision about increasing prices, the company told The Los Angeles Times.

Burger King: Burger King restaurants in California raised prices by 2%, according to a report from Kalinowski Equity Research that examined prices at several fast food chains in the state before and after April 1.

Chipotle: Prices at the Mexican grill chain rose 7.5% in California after the law took effect, per the Kalinowski report. The company's CFO said on an earnings call in February that Chipotle would increase menu prices because of the higher wages.

Wendy's: Menu prices at Wendy's rose 8% in California, according to Kalinowski.

Starbucks: Beverages at Starbucks' California stores were 50 cents more expensive after April 1, BI reported after the law took effect. The Seattle-based coffee chain's California stores raised by 7%, according to Kalinowski.

Taco Bell: Menu prices rose 3% after the new wage law took effect, Kalinowski found.

Fatburger: Marcus Walberg, whose family runs four Fatburger franchises in Los Angeles, told BI in January that he was planning to raise prices between 8% and 10% in response to the new wage law. He also planned to cut PTO for employees and freeze hiring, he said.

Vitality Bowls: Brian Hom, the franchisee in charge of two Vitality Bowls locations in San Jose, increased prices between 5% and 10% after the law took effect, he told BI. He has also stopped hiring and reduced the number of workers on duty per shift.

Fast food already had an affordability problem, Business Insider reported last year.

Indeed, some restaurant operators say that they've already raised prices more than usual over the last year or two in response to inflation and are worried that another round of increases would scare off customers. One Burger franchisee told BI that he's instead installing ordering kiosks at his restaurants to save money on wages.

Lynsi Snyder, the president and third-generation owner of In-N-Out, told NBC's "Today" earlier this month that she pushed to limit menu price increases in response to both higher wages as well as general inflation.

"I was sitting in VP meetings going toe-to-toe, saying, 'We can't raise the prices that much, we can't,'" she told "Today." "When everyone else was taking jumps, we weren't."

Do you work at a fast food restaurant and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com

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• Saudi Arabia just took its Neom roadshow to China.
• Neom officials visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong in an attempt to court Chinese investors.
• No deals were announced, but one attendee said the event helped demystify the futuristic project.

Saudi Arabia took its Neom roadshow to China amid ongoing speculation about the scope of the project and its finances.

Neom officials visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong last week in an attempt to court Chinese investors and shed more light on the mysterious megacity.

While no deals have been announced, one attendee told AFP that the exhibition helped make Neom "less mysterious."

That observation came from Leonard Chan, chair of the Hong Kong Innovative Technology Development Association, who also told the news agency that reactions to the ambitious project at an invitation-only reception were "mostly neutral."

Chan may not be first in line for The Line, however. "I'll visit for fun, but I won't live there. It's like something out of SimCity," he told AFP.

A private showcase provided attendees with an "immersive experience" exploring The Line, the 105-mile-long futuristic city, along with Oxagon, which promises to redefine the "traditional industrial model," Trojena, Neom's mountain resort; and Sindalah, a luxury island in the Red Sea that opens to the public later this year, per a press release.

Neom officials did not address recent reports that plans for the hugely expensive desert project were being scaled back.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia had significantly reduced estimates for the number of people expected to live in The Line. Officials cut the number of residents expected to live in the "horizontal skyscraper" from 1.5 million by 2030 to fewer than 300,000, according to the report.

Tarek Qaddumi, Neom's executive director, said that the population target of nine million would be achieved in time, per AFP.

Representatives for Neom did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Wider concerns have reportedly been raised about the cost of the trillion-dollar investments in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 project.

The financial realities of the project that could cost as much as $500 billion have started to cause alarm within the Saudi government, Bloomberg reported. Saudi Arabia has also started borrowing to help fund Neom and other Vision 2030 "megaprojects," The Wall Street Journal reported in February.

The Neom project is also planning to issue bonds for the first time, Bloomberg reported last week. The megacity project could raise up to $1.3 billion by selling Islamic bonds, or sukuk, the outlet reported, citing unnamed sources.

The Neom roadshow has also visited Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, New York City, Boston, Washington, DC, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, and London.

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• Severe flooding caused by the heaviest rain in 75 years brought travel chaos to Dubai Airport last week.
• The ongoing fallout has prompted Emirates CEO Tim Clark to issue an apology to customers. 
• 30,000 bags still need to be returned to customers, he said.

Emirates, the world's largest airline group, is still trying to return 30,000 leftover bags to customers affected by the torrential rains and flooding that brought Dubai Airport to a standstill last week.

Over the weekend, the airline's president, Tim Clark, acknowledged that Emirates' response to the disruption had been "far from perfect" and apologized to customers.

"I would like to offer our most sincere apologies to every customer who has had their travel plans disrupted during this time," Clark wrote in an open letter posted online on Saturday.

Calling the previous week "one of the toughest for Emirates operationally," he said that the airline had been forced to cancel nearly 400 flights and delay many more after storms brought the region's highest rainfall in 75 years.

"Flooded roads impeded the ability of our customers, pilots, cabin crew, and airport employees to reach the airport, and also the movement of essential supplies like meals and other flight amenities," Clark wrote.

In total, 1,478 flights had been cancelled at the world's second busiest airport by Friday morning, according to Reuters.

While planes remained stuck on flooded taxiways, submerged roads surrounding the airport left some passengers stranded in the airport.

To accommodate disrupted passengers, Emirates said they had secured 12,000 hotel rooms and issued 250,000 meal vouchers.

Despite the chaos and a government warning telling people to stay at home, Emirates flight attendants in Dubai were also told to report for duty.

However, Clark acknowledged that many passengers had been frustrated by the congestion, lack of information, and confusion at terminals.

In an effort to handle the ongoing fallout, he said that a task force had been created to sort and return 30,000 pieces of left-over luggage to its owners.

The airline officially resumed regular flight operations at Dubai Airport on Saturday, but warned it would still take several days to clear the backlog.

Non-UAE-based carriers were still facing restrictions over the weekend. Foreign airlines with more than two flights in 24 hours were issued with a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) instructing them to reduce operations by 50%, Indian news agency PTI reported.

According to FlightRadar 24's data, all arrivals and departures were largely running to schedule again on Monday morning.

The oil-rich United Arab Emirates has become one of the most attractive economic hubs in the Gulf region.

Its efforts to diversify its economy away from oil, centered around Dubai as a tourism hotspot, have helped the country position itself as a major player on the world stage. In a sign of its growing popularity, the number of passengers traveling to Dubai Airport increased by 31.7% in the last year.

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• Wole Coaxum is the CEO of MoCaFi, which has distributed over $52 million in basic income payments.
• Coaxum, a former JP Morgan exec, was inspired by social justice movements in the Black community.
• He wanted to create a pathway for economic equality to uplift vulnerable populations.

This is an As Told To essay based on a conversation with Wole Coaxum, the founder and CEO of MoCaFi, a B Corporation that has distributed over $52 million worth of guaranteed basic income payments nationwide. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was very fortunate in my career to be one of the most senior people at JP Morgan. I was a managing director and the number two guy in business banking nationally when I saw the images coming out of Ferguson. I thought, "It's 2014, and what we're seeing is no different than what was going on in 1968."

The people protesting were making a statement, and it was coming out of a place of wanting change. I thought, "How can I use my time and talents, which is financial services, to bring an economic justice agenda to the social justice agenda?" And that inspired me to start MoCaFi.

Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about universal basic income and guaranteed basic income just before he passed away, and I feel that we as a company are very fortunate to be standing on the shoulders of others to bring these powerful ideas into the marketplace.

We've done about a dozen UBI and GBI programs around the country. We've facilitated programs in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and San Francisco, among others. Some of them are through MGI, Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. We're finding that what we're doing resonates with cities and counties. They see the value of it.

One of the things I would say in response to the red states opposing this is we're not a political entity. We're just trying to provide a high-quality platform that ensures that a UBI or GBI program fulfills its mission so that the individuals have access to the cash and can move forward. It's hard to argue with the idea of getting resources from government to people more efficiently. Even my most conservative friends can get behind a more efficient government.

We are facilitating payments in a way that reduces all the friction. We have a disbursement platform, and then we have a demand deposit account. We're trying to take individuals receiving a UBI and GBI and bring financial coaching and resources to them. They don't have to operate in cash or cash checks. They can create a MoCaFi bank account that's FDIC-insured. We can open up accounts for undocumented people. We can open up accounts for people regardless of their credit score. Now, they've got a pathway to economic stability.

There's an old narrative demonizing low-income people who receive government resources. That's the wrong lens in my personal view. Most, if not all, Americans are getting some benefit from the federal government. Why is a universal basic income that much different? Why not streamline the process so the most vulnerable among us can get access to those funds?

People use the money for the intended purpose. It increases savings. It decreases poverty. It increases education. It reduces the need for crime. It gives people more dignity. It makes our neighborhoods safer. It enables families to get jobs they couldn't get otherwise because they're paying for childcare or healthcare. The proof is in the pudding.

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• Many think TikTok has transformed into a pseudo-shopping channel.
• The criticism reflects a growing resentment about ads for products influencers don't believe in.
• Some creators are turning away from TikTok and to platforms that serve loyal followers. 

In a recent TikTok, a content creator expressed some frustrations with her fellow influencers.

Manrika Khaira said TikTok used to be a fun place to be, with trends, dynamic discussions with other creators, and hilarious jokes.

But it's morphed into a pseudo-shopping channel, she said.

"I'm seeing some of my favorite creators promoting products that they know don't work or they know don't do what you are saying they do," she said.

Khaira's criticism mirrors the feelings of many Gen Zers who are growing tired of seeing relentless ads on their social media feeds.

Another creator named CeeVan said she believes a lot of aspiring influencers aren't putting in the effort that's required.

"A lot of these people never took the time to build a community to make that community fall in love with you and trust you no matter what," she said.

Instead, she added, they want to be influencers "for the brand deals" to get "nice free stuff."

"And we see through it now," she said.

With the cost of living skyrocketing, a looming credit card debt crisis, and people having to spend so much of their income on bills, the resentment may reflect a culture of money anxiety.

But people are still willing to spend overall. Retail sales increased 0.7% in March compared to the previous year despite prices rising faster than the Federal Reserve's inflation target of 2%.

A disillusionment with what influencers are selling may have more to do with their relatability tanking when it used to be something that set them apart.

Deinfluencing and influencer fatigue

Ashley Rector, the founder of creative marketing agency Quimby Digital, told Business Insider this is why the trend of deinfluencing became so popular last year — influencers who were encouraging their followers not to purchase things.

As social media marketing evolved, so did the opportunity for influencers to work with more brands.

"They accepted deals with brands that weren't aligned, they put up campaigns that were not thought out, and consumers could tell that it wasn't aligned," Rector said.

"When someone feels like you are selling them for the sake of selling, they inherently lose trust."

Samantha Zink, the founder and CEO of the talent management agency Zink Talent, told BI the influencer industry has changed massively since it began in the early noughties.

Back then, it was "more about passion than profit," she said, while now content creation is a fully-fledged career with commissions and subscriptions.

"This shift has made influencer engagements seem less special because what was once a hobby or a passion project is now a necessity to earn a living," she said. "Influencers, some of whom are supporting families, must engage in brand collaborations to sustain themselves."

This evolution may mean some don't view influencers as relatable as they once did.

Research from Meltwater, an online media monitoring company, referred to this perceived lack of authenticity as "influencer fatigue" in 2023.

They found social media users wanted "real, unstaged content to engage with"

Influencers may be losing their command over Gen Z in particular, Yahoo News reported. Data shared with the outlet from a YPulse study found that 45% of 13 to 22-year-old respondents felt influencers don't have the sway they used to.

The influencing days aren't over

This doesn't mean influencing is over.

It's more about the way it's done is evolving, and only creators who understand this will be successful.

A report from Influencer Marketing Hub this year found there was a strong preference from brands to work with small nano- and micro-influencers due to their higher engagement rate and the trust built with their communities.

Sophie Wood, the director of strategy at influencer marketing agency Fohr, told BI the influencer bubble hasn't burst, it's just changing. Deinfluencing in itself is influencing, she said, just in a different direction.

A decade ago, bloggers were the new, shiny type of celebrity that everyone wanted a piece of. Then the influencer boom happened, YouTube took off, TikTok was created, and now millions of people can be given that label.

Smart creators are looking for ways to keep their communities thriving, such as joining platforms such as Substack to give a section of their loyal fans a more intimate look into their lives.

"Those are people who actually have something different to say," Wood said.

Hannah Witton, a YouTuber who has been making content for over a decade, for example, moved away from YouTube last year to Patreon, and many of her subscribers followed.

She told BI influencers, like everyone, will change over time. It's hard to be "relatable" to everyone, but the way to keep followers happy is for influencers to continue sharing things authentically, even as their interests change.

"I think the key is to be honest about changes and take your audience along for the ride," Witton said. "Naturally, some people will fall off, but many will stay, and new people will always come."

In these more niche communities, fans are more than happy to see the influencers they love making money and recommending products, Wood said. It's not that ads are bad, she said, you just need to be able to do it well.

"They're proud of their influencer," she said. "They're like, get your bag. I love this ad. You make the best ads. That is the golden standard."

Viewers don't want to be lied to

Transparency is really important, as some influencers have come under fire recently for not being honest and open about ads — not disclosing that they were paid to promote certain products or trying to hide the disclosure hashtags behind the video's caption.

"Audiences are very smart and I think they don't want to feel duped," Wood said. "They're going to be like, this influencer thinks I'm dumb to believe this ad when I know that this is not something she would create."

Jessica Dante, an influencer and the founder of Love and London, agreed that trust dwindles when viewers see something they perceive as a "money grab."

She also believes people focus on "relatability" a little too much, but that people look for honesty and integrity in whatever they watch.

"Because TikTok has enabled people to go viral for something that maybe isn't authentic or true, this is especially the case," she said. "It's why influencers are often called out when they aren't being truthful or haven't told the whole story."

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request by BI for comment.

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