The company announced Wednesday an undisclosed Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, whose portfolio spans the buzziest consumer platforms from ByteDance to Cameo.
Using up to 30 "multivariate tests," Jellysmack said it can determine what titles and editing tricks will help videos rack up views and engagement across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Youtube.
About 200 content creators use the service, like YouTubers like PewDiePie, MrBeast and Bailey Sarian. The startup trims down the length of their videos and edits thumbnails and subtitles. Once videos go live on YouTube, Jellysmack runs paid advertisements and targets "an audience that is highly likely to be interested," said spokesperson MK Glenning.
Take Brad Mondo, a hairstylist and social media personality with nearly seven million YouTube subscribers. A year after joining Jellysmack, the company said his Snapchat followers grew by ten times and his Facebook followers by four.
"Media consumption has pivoted massively in recent years with mobile video content rapidly outpacing TV," Yanni Pipilis, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said in a statement. "There are now 50 million creators but only 0.1% are able to make a full-time living from their content.
The startup, founded in 2016, boasts 10 billion global video views and 125 million viewers across social platforms each month. It also publishes videos on Jellysmack's own social channels, spanning beauty, soccer, gaming and entertainment.
Jellysmack went profitable in 2020, and doesn't charge creators. Instead, it makes money instead through a revenue share model using income generated from the social platforms under their management.
And it wants to go global. The investment from Softbank's CEO and Chairman Masayoshi Son will help the company expand internationally. Glenning would not disclose the amount of this funding round, but prior to it, said the unicorn had raised $40 million.
One day after the family of Carson Bride filed suit against Snap Inc., accusing it of failing to protect the 16-year-old from cyberbullying, the Santa Monica-based company said it would suspend the anonymous messaging apps — YOLO and LMK — Bride was using before he killed himself.
"In light of the serious allegations raised by the lawsuit, and out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the Snapchat community, we are suspending both YOLO and LMK's Snap Kit integrations while we investigate these claims," the company said in a statement.
Bride endured scores of lewd, mean-spirited messages from anonymous senders via the two apps on Snapchat, according to the lawsuit. Both apps have been integrated into Snapchat since 2019 through the company's Snap Kit software.
Snap representatives noted that Snap Kit apps like YOLO and LMK are not a default part of Snapchat, but rather must be downloaded by users.
They added Snap sets safety standards that Snap Kit partners must comply with, which include ostensible safeguards against cyberbullying of the sort to which Bride was subjected. Among other charges, the lawsuit alleges Snap fraudulently misrepresented its safeguards regarding Snap Kit, claiming the company did not live up to its own standards.
Correction: An earlier version of this post said Snapchat had banned the apps. YOLO and LMK have been suspended.
The family of 16-year-old Carson Bride alleges Snap Inc., the Santa Monica-based parent company of Snapchat, has been negligent in safeguarding against cyberbullying after the Oregon teen committed suicide last year.
Carson's mother Kristin Bride, who is leading the lawsuit, filed on Monday and asked the U.S. District Court for Northern California to consider the suit a class action on behalf of 93 million Snapchat users in the U.S.
Carson endured scores of lewd, mean-spirited messages from anonymous senders via the anonymous apps YOLO and LMK on Snapchat, according to the lawsuit. Both apps have been integrated into Snapchat since 2019 through Snap's Snap Kit software.
Lawyers said Carson attempted, in vain, to request the apps enforce their anti-bullying safeguards, such as banning those users. But it never happened. He took his own life in 2020 after being unable to stop cyberbullying.
"Clearly, no one was policing YOLO when my son received hundreds of abusive messages during the first 3 weeks of June. These offenders may very well be continuing their bullying practices, especially now that they know the power of their words," Bride's mother wrote shortly after her son's death, according to the filing.
The lawsuit said Snap Inc. should have foreseen the harm it could cause teens and that YOLO and LMK's very design allowed for it. All three apps are accused of failing to safeguard against cyberbullying.
Bride's family is seeking financial damages in excess of $5 million and the immediate discontinuation of YOLO and LMK. The New York-based anti-bullying nonprofit Tyler Clementi Foundation joined in the suit. They are also demanding Snap remove all third-party apps that fail to set up appropriate safeguards from Snapchat.
Neither Snap, nor L.A. based YOLO or Bay area-based LMK replied to requests for comment.
Carson's mother, according to the suit, unsuccessfully attempted over many months to contact YOLO about her son's suicide. Nobody responded.
"If you create an app which provides a platform for the anonymous bullying of vulnerable teens, the very least you can do is take accountability and assist the parents of your app's victims so that more YOLO deaths do not occur," she wrote.
Lawyers argued Snap Inc. knew about the dangers of anonymous apps. They cited Sarahah, another anonymous-messaging app that was banned from the Apple and Android store after reported incidents of cyberbullying were made public. They also pointed to numerous complaints about cyberbullying on YOLO from users via the Apple App Store.
According to analytics firm Apptopia, YOLO has been downloaded over 53 million times, about 33 million of which have been in the U.S. LMK has been downloaded 7 million times, 5 million domestically. Snap recently disclosed it had 280 million monthly users, the majority of whom are between the ages of 13 and 24.
For Snap, the lawsuit comes on the heels of a separate court ruling that found the company liable for the death of users of a Snapchat feature that shows one's velocity.