TCG invests $100M in Night Capital, co-founded by Mr. Beast’s manager Reed Duchscher, which plans to buy DTC businesses and pair them with top online creators (Benjamin Mullin/New York Times)

Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Sources: Andreessen Horowitz is the investor behind Android founder Andy Rubin’s new hardware startup Smart Things  —  Reed is Semafor’s Technology Editor, joining us from the Washington Post.  Sign up for the Semafor Tech newsletter to get his scoops and coverage on the industry’s biggest stories in your inbox twice a week.

Tom Warren / The Verge:
YouTube begins rolling out Twitch-like YouTube Emotes, available in the emoji picker across comment sections and live chats, initially focused on gaming  —  YouTube is starting to roll out its own custom emotes.  The Twitch-like emotes, dubbed YouTube Emotes, can be used across YouTube …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube announces “handles”, letting creators identify their channel using the @username format across channel pages, video descriptions, comments, and Shorts  —  YouTube is making it easier for creators to direct viewers to their channels.  The company today announced “handles …

Jem Aswad / Variety:
YouTube says Music and Premium together have 80M+ paying subscribers, up from 50M in September 2021, and payments to creators and others reached $50B since 2019  —  It’s a dramatic leap, especially for a platform where so much can be had for free, and would seem to place YouTube …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube unveils Creator Music in beta, which lets creators browse a catalog and use songs by buying rights or sharing revenue, debuting in the US this fall  —  In addition to the groundbreaking news that YouTube would begin to monetize Shorts videos and revamp its Partner Program …

Kenneth Shepard / Kotaku:
Some creators are protesting YouTube’s policy changes to regulate swearing and violence, which demonetize gaming videos and retroactively impact old content  —  YouTube’s policy changes on swearing and violence are being retroactively applied to old gaming content