“Now that people don’t have to make sure their likes correlate to their following, one of the easiest ways to spot fraud, this will create more fake influencers in my opinion,” Joe Gagliese, the CEO of the influencer-marketing company Viral Nation, told Amanda.
The shift is yet another milestone in the evolution of Instagram, and its relationship with a giant community of influencers who make a part- or full-time living from creating on the platform.
Others have used Instagram to launch their own business. Julia Engel, who goes by Gal Meets Glam online and now has 1.1 million Instragram followers, in 2018 launched a dress collection that releases limited products every few months. Since launching, Engel’s collection has earned $35 million in revenue, she told Amanda.
The rise of the influencer economy is nothing new, of course. But this week’s debate over hiding “likes” is another reminder that for platforms like Instagram and YouTube, it’s not just those scrolling through their feed when they have a spare moment who notice a design change.
There’s a whole economy of folks who rely on the platforms for income who are also impacted.
Betting boom
Gaming, media, and tech companies are clamoring to corner pieces of the US sports-betting market, which Morgan Stanley estimates could generate $7 billion in revenue by 2025.
Plenty, a futuristic farming startup, raised $260 million from Jeff Bezos and SoftBank on the promise of upending agriculture. Insiders are raising questions, Erin Brodwin reported.
Goldman Sachs made a splash earlier this year when it announced the hiring of a top executive from Amazon Web Services, the online retailers’ cloud service.
Magic Leap Chief Financial Officer Scott Henry is stepping down and will help train a successor before transitioning into an advisory role, Business Insider has learned.
The Dell-owned developer software company Pivotal is facing significant job cuts as it prepares for the closing of its $2.7 billion acquisition by VMware, Business Insider has learned.
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