WeAre8 launches creator fund and ‘friends feed’ to rally users onto the social media startup
WeAre8 has launched its own Creator Fund, alongside a suite of new features designed to improve the experience of users and creators on the social platform.
The WeAre8 Creator Fund is open to content creators, filmmakers, musicians and visual artist who are ‘Verified Creators’. Creators can apply for grants between $5,000-$100,000, designed to help tell untold stories that champion good and align with WeAre8’s impact areas: Education, Climate, Poverty, Peace, Equality, Health, Water and Animal Welfare.
The fund’s first Australian recipient is Sydney-based actor and writer Zufi Emerson, who is set to create five short-form videos featuring leading but underrepresented artists, with each film exploring themes that include radical self-acceptance, resilience, stereotypes, adaptability and courage.
WeAre8 Australia CEO Lizzie Young said: “Since we launched WeAre8 locally last month, we’ve seen some incredible creativity from our first Australian Verified Creators, including Zufi, and we’re excited to give back to the creative community. WeAre8 is the only social App committed to giving 5% of its profits to the Creator Fund to help our citizens share stories with heart that help bring communities together.
“Zufi has an eye for exploring stories that are often untold and delivering them in such a breathtaking and authentic way, and we know that her work will have a lasting impact on our citizens.
“A huge point of difference with WeAre8’s Creator Fund is that we are awarding funds based on the quality of the artistic idea and its positive impact on the world rather than people’s follower numbers or the number of views their account has. We can’t wait to see what brilliant ideas our Australian creative community come up with.”
Zufi Emerson said: ” I am thrilled to be collaborating with the team at WeAre8 through their creator fund to the creative arts. It was a no-brainer for me to be on a platform that actively gets to the heart of what social media aims to do; connecting with others and sharing what’s going on in our different worlds, which is synonymous with the work I set out to create. My mission as a filmmaker and writer is to use my work to ensure our screens reflect and bring to life a short series that will share the stories of unsung artists and trailblazers in our streets and champion the underrepresented.”
In addition, WeAre8 has introduced a raft of new features, including a ‘Friends Feed’ that is free from ads, algorithms and filters. The platform has also introduced an audio feature in partnership with Spotify, allowing users to add a personal anthem to their account,
The new ‘Friends Feed’ will for the first time allow all users to contribute content to the app – a function previously reserved for ‘Verified Content Creators’. The new feature sets content private as a default, meaning content is only accessible to each user’s friends.
On the new features, Sue Fennessy, founder and global CEO of WeAre8 said: “These new features are some of the biggest platform enhancements we have made to WeAre8 since launching in the UK in early2022 and are quite possibly the most important as we continue to scale the platform in new markets.
“Data shows that more than 54% of people say they use social media to follow family and friends, yet it’s quite possibly one product feature that many social platforms are no longer delivering, with people’s social feeds often coupled with influencer content and advertising. The separate friends feed will only display content from those that matter most to you and is completely decoupled from advertising and the creator experience.
“As the social app is geared towards good and reconnection, we hope these new features help create a greater sense of community and provide more ways for people to express their personality, all while knowing their time on social media is also helping make the world a better place.”
Last month Mumbrella’s Calum Jaspan sat down with WeAre8 Australia CEO Lizzie Young to talk about the platform’s local launch and why it may not be for some advertisers.
