• Influencers have filed a lawsuit against Capital One.
• They allege its Shopping extension hurt their earnings by unfairly claiming credit for sales.
• Capital One said it disagreed with the premise of the lawsuit.

First, the influencers came for PayPal's Honey. Now, Capital One is under scrutiny.

Capital One is the subject of a lawsuit filed this week by creators who allege the company's Shopping browser extension hurt their affiliate-marketing commissions by stealing credit for driving sales.

"We disagree with the premise of the complaint and look forward to defending ourselves in court," a Capital One spokesperson told Business Insider.

Capital One Shopping is a free browser extension that searches for discount codes and coupons, compares prices across about 30,000 online retailers, and lets users earn rewards that can be exchanged for gift cards. It makes money by earning a commission when its users purchase an item from its merchant partners.

In a class-action lawsuit filed on Monday in a Virginia court, two creators who promote products on social media allege the browser extension is designed to "systematically appropriate commissions that belong to influencers."

The lawsuit alleges Capital One Shopping "stole credit" by swapping out influencers' affiliate-marketing browser cookies with its own. Cookies are small data files stored on a user's device that help companies track users' browsing history.

The war for the last click

Much like recent lawsuits filed by influencers against PayPal over its Honey browser extension, the Capital One Shopping case homes in on the marketing practice of "last-click attribution."

In this model, cookies, unique web links, promo codes, and other analytics tags are used to determine the last piece of content a user engages with before they make a purchase. That entity, be it a YouTube video or an ad, gets credit for the purchase.

The practice has fallen out of favor in some marketing circles because it doesn't consider the full cycle of persuading someone to buy a product. There are also concerns that an intermediary may try to game the system to unfairly claim last-click credit for purchases that they had little to do with.

Companies in the affiliate-marketing industry often seek to adhere to "stand down" practices, where they won't override another affiliate's cookies.

In their lawsuit, the content creators Jesika Brodiski and Peter Hayward allege Capital One Shopping took credit for sales and conversions that were originally derived from affiliate-marketing links they shared on social media.

Brodiski shared affiliate-marketing links on social media for products on Walmart.com, and the lawsuit claims that — if a user had the Capital One Shopping extension activated during the checkout process — Capital One would remove her associated cookie and replace it with its own. The lawsuit says Brodiski earned about $20,000 through affiliate marketing in 2024 but that her earnings were hampered by Capital One Shopping.

Hayward is part of the Amazon affiliate-marketing program and similarly alleges Capital One would replace his referral tag with its own.

The lawsuit also says Brodiski and Hayward "face future harm in the form of stolen referral fees and sales commissions because the Capital One Shopping browser extension continues to steal affiliate marketing commissions with each passing day."

A court will need to certify the class action in order for the case to proceed

The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial. If the case is certified as a class action, other influencers could join the suit.

Christopher Roberts, a partner and class-action attorney at the law firm Butsch Roberts & Associates, told BI the most difficult part of such cases is getting the class certified. The court will need to rigorously analyze various factors, such as whether the class is big enough and whether it would make more sense to litigate complicated cases individually.

Certification aside, Roberts said he felt the case would come down to what discovery showed.

"This case, on its face, is very well pled," Roberts said, "and it's pretty specific as to the code for this app being supplanted on the computer so that they can get the affiliate payment."

• Cover Corp, a top virtual influencer company, is expanding its business in the US.
• Its creators, known as VTubers, use digital avatars and are gaining popularity on YouTube.
• The company is using sold-out live events and collaborations with traditional media to grow abroad.

Japan-based Cover Corporation is betting on the US as the next big market for growing its virtual anime-style influencer fan base.

The company manages creators who use technology to appear in videos and other online posts as digital avatars, often resembling anime characters. These influencers are most popular on YouTube. The VTubers, as they're known, typically livestream. Many make music or play games.

Their popularity is small but on the rise. From January 2023 to June 2023, VTubers comprised 1.4% of the active YouTube live gaming community but captured 9.6% of all viewer hours, according to data from the game-marketing platform GameSight. VTuber viewership increased by 28% during the period, while that of other gaming creators on YouTube Live fell by 6%.

Cover is one of several companies that exclusively work with VTubers to expand their businesses. Its agency division, Hololive Production, manages VTubers in Japan, Indonesia, and English-speaking countries, which have been a major area of expansion for the company since 2023.

Last year, Cover opened an office in Los Angeles through its first overseas subsidiary.

Hololive's popular VTubers in the US include Mori Calliope (2.49 million YouTube subscribers) and Nerissa Ravencroft (805,000 YouTube subscribers). Globally, its talent includes some of the most-watched and subscribed VTuber channels on YouTube.

The company's international expansion has helped boost revenue and earnings. Cover's revenue rose 50% year over year to 10,688 million yen, about $67.6 million, during its last reported quarter, which ended in October. It posted a profit of 1,500 million yen during the period.

Cover has a market capitalization of about $160 billion yen, or around $1 billion.

Motoaki Tanigo, CEO of Cover, spoke to Business Insider in an interview conducted through translators. In 2025, he said the company plans to focus on gaming collaborations, pop-up shops, and live events like concerts to grow its business in the US.

Hololive collaborated last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers on exclusive merchandise, for instance. VTuber Gawr Gura (4.5 million YouTube subscribers) also sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on screens throughout the stadium.

Inside the business model of a top VTuber company

While Hololive primarily manages livestreamers, several of the company's creators sing and make their own music. That has opened up avenues for revenue and growth.

Mori Calliope, for instance, is scheduled to headline a solo concert in February in Los Angeles. Hololive's VTuber talent uses 3D technology to bring its digital avatars to the stage.

Tanigo said music is one of the top ways its talent reaches new audiences.

In 2023, Cover held a concert at the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater in LA, which sold out in 30 minutes, the company said. Its August concert at the Kings Theater in New York, another 6,000-seat venue, sold out in 10 minutes.

"The popularity of these events proves that North American audiences have a tremendous appetite for VTuber content," Tanigo said. "Our goal is to elevate VTubers alongside popular Japanese exports like manga, anime, and games."

Cover's top revenue drivers are merchandise, such as made-to-order items and a collectible card game; streaming revenue from super chats and channel memberships; concerts and live events; and licensing and collaborations, per its earnings report. Licensing and collaborations was the fastest-growing segment.

Hololive's international expansion

In 2025, the company is making a behind-the-scenes shift that it hopes will make its VTubers more engaging.

Until now, Hololive's VTuber models had been created through the gaming software Unity. Tanigo said the company is switching to another platform, Unreal Engine, which it believes will create "better quality" models.

The company is also working on finding better ways to sell tickets to and improve its in-person events. Tanigo said he'd love to see a function on YouTube or Twitch for ticket sales and better real-time translation for live videos, for example.

Hololive's international expansion has faced roadblocks.

Tanigo said the company has struggled with music copyright outside Japan, including getting the rights for talent to cover a song.

One of his priorities for the year ahead is to make inroads into traditional US media.

In Japan, the company has placed its talent on TV shows and other traditional media spots, and the team is working on animation projects based on its talent.

"We'd like to have that opportunity in the US as well and try to have more exposure in a TV show and different types of mediums," Tanigo said.

Triller, a would-be competitor to TikTok, is hoping to capitalize on the potential TikTok ban in the U.S. by pitching to creators to move their content from the popular short-form video app to its own. The company has now launched a website, SaveMyTikToks.com, which promises to back up all your TikTok videos by uploading them […]

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• TikTok published its global "What's Next" trends report for marketing creatives on Wednesday.
• It advised marketers to try out AI tech and hire a wider set of creators to reach niche communities.
• TikTok also dove into how marketers should change how they talk about life stages with consumers.

TikTok thinks marketers should lean into artificial intelligence as a creative tool in 2025.

It's one of several trends TikTok laid out on Wednesday in its 2025 "What's Next" report, which breaks down the culture and technology trends the company thinks will shape marketing in the coming year.

It's also recommending brands hire a wider set of influencers to reach niche communities and adjust how they speak to a new crop of consumers who view life stages differently than their predecessors.

Business Insider spoke to Cassie Taylor, TikTok's global creative solutions and trends lead, and several marketing partners who had early access to the report about where TikTok marketing is heading next.

TikTok's deep dive into global trends did not address the elephant in the room: its app could be pulled from US app stores as early as January 19, as mandated by a divest-or-ban law. If that does happen, TikTok would still operate in other markets. Brands would likely shift their US attention to other short-video products, such as Instagram reels or YouTube shorts. Taylor declined to comment on a potential ban.

Here are BI's key takeaways from the 36-page report:

1. AI is a marketer's friend, not a foe (hopefully)

Last year, TikTok announced a bunch of new generative-AI tools for marketers inside a creative suite called Symphony. The product allows creatives to generate ad scripts and trend summaries and translate and dub videos into new languages, among other offerings. One of Symphony's more striking features helps brands use AI-generated avatars built from the likenesses of influencers or paid actors. That tool remains in limited use, Taylor said.

Some influencers and marketers have expressed nervousness about the potential for generative AI to take away jobs. TikTok acknowledged that uncertainty in its report. Still, the company wrote that marketers can gain a "creative edge" if they embrace AI.

"Even a few years ago when we started to see different apps come out with AI, it was a little bit of, 'Do we like this? Do we not like this?' Should we be worried about it?'" Taylor said. "It's now been around just enough time from a trend perspective for people to really see its value."

Bridget Jewell, an executive creative director at Dentsu Creative who sits on a creative partner council for TikTok, said the agency uses TikTok's Symphony suite to come up with video ideas and identify trending sounds.

"It's the tool that allows us to think about things differently," Jewell said.

2. Work with influencers to connect with niche communities

Marketers go back and forth on whether to hire celebrities and mega influencers for reach or to work with creators who have more targeted audiences. TikTok is betting the latter will take off in 2025.

"As communities seek trusted voices, more people are becoming creators, from quiet reviewers to quirky characters," the company wrote in its report. "It's not about the loudest voice, but increasing the number of creators, sometimes even by 50% — to drive impact at scale."

Working with creators who know how to speak to a specific community can help a brand build trust, Taylor said.

"I'm not saying there isn't a time and place for a mass message," Taylor said. "What I'm saying is people will build a relationship with you on TikTok if you're talking to them like the community."

Jamie Gersch, chief marketing officer of the fashion brand Rothy's, told BI the company looks to work on campaigns with influencers who are already engaging with its products on social media.

"The in-house team is living and breathing on the platform and finding people that are naturally talking about us and love us," Gersch said.

3. Brands should treat life stages differently for modern consumers

Marketers should rethink the way they talk about traditional life milestones like buying a home when they speak to TikTok users.

These milestones can induce "FOMO and anxiety about falling behind," the company wrote. It pointed to users on the app who have shared their struggles with student debt and homeownership.

Instead of posting videos that value classic life stages, brands could lean into other goals TikTok users have shown they care about, like improving mental health or going on a hike.

"People are getting married later. People are moving abroad as a milestone. People are having different career goals," Taylor said.

• Instagram has shut down a program that paid creators for ads placed on their profiles.
• Meta began testing the program in 2022.
• Instagram has launched several creator-monetization tests since 2020 — and some haven't survived.

Instagram has ended a program that allowed creators to earn money from ads placed between content on their profiles, the company confirmed to Business Insider.

The Meta-owned platform began testing the program with US creators in 2022 and expanded it in 2024 to eligible profiles in Canada, South Korea, Japan, and Australia.

Meta will continue to place ads in between content on nonteen public Instagram profiles. Businesses will still be able to prevent their ads from running on specific profiles.

According to court documents filed in 2024, Instagram has generated billions in ad revenue for Meta. In 2022, when the platform began testing the ads-in-profile program, it generated $16.5 billion, the same court filing said.

This isn't the first creator-monetization program that Meta has tested and shuttered.

Other programs you may remember include:

• IGTV (Instagram's now defunct YouTube competitor) shared ad revenue with creators from 2020 to 2022.
• Instagram briefly had a native affiliate program between 2021 and 2022 that allowed creators to earn revenue from shopping tags on their posts.

The Instagram Reels Bonus, which paid creators a sum of money based on how their reels performed, was paused in 2023. It was reintroduced in 2024 as a series of limited-time bonuses.

3D design app Rooms just landed more funding. Launched into beta in 2023, the app from ex-Google employees allows users to build and code interactive 3D rooms and mini-games using a library of more than 10,000 items, which can be further edited using the programming language Lua. Now, Google itself has invested $1 million into […]

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As part of a significant overhaul of its content moderation policies announced on Tuesday, Meta admitted that its approach to limiting political content across its platforms had been “pretty blunt” and would now be addressed. The company said it would once again phase in political content into Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, allowing people who want […]

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• Content creators have filed two lawsuits against PayPal over its Honey browser extension.
• The creators allege Honey took some of their potential affiliate earnings by improperly claiming credit on sales.
• Honey disputes the allegations in the lawsuits and said it would defend against them vigorously.

Influencers are suing financial giant PayPal in two class-action lawsuits filed this week. The content creators separately alleged that the company's browser extension Honey, which searches for coupons around the web, took affiliate commissions away from them by improperly claiming credit for driving sales.

A spokesperson for Honey said the company disputes the allegations in the lawsuits and would defend against them vigorously.

The lawsuits ask the US District Court in Northern California to consider what's fair play in the cutthroat world of affiliate marketing. It's a major business that drove about 20% of US e-commerce revenue on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe Analytics.

Affiliate marketing is a practice in which YouTubers and other content creators earn a commission if they inspire a purchase. Honey similarly earns money through affiliate commissions, getting paid if a user clicks on its browser extension to search for a coupon or deal before buying.

The referrer who actually gets paid the commission — and it's generally only one — is determined by a mix of links, browser cookies, and other tags that indicate the final source of referral, a practice known as last-click attribution. In short, the last click wins.

"Honey follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution, which is widely used across major brands," the Honey spokesperson said.

In the lawsuits, the plaintiffs allege that Honey would take credit for driving online sales it didn't actually help with. The suits say that even if Honey couldn't find a coupon, it would get the last click, sometimes taking it away from a content creator who had linked to a product.

"In its simplest form, Honey is not providing benefits that they say they're providing, and they are basically saying to online retailers that they were responsible for a referral for a sale when they are not," Devin Stone, a counsel for one of the plaintiffs who also runs the YouTube channel LegalEagle, told Business Insider.

The Honey spokesperson said the extension helps "millions of shoppers with additional savings on their purchases whenever possible" while helping merchants "reduce cart abandonment and comparison shopping."

Honey's last clicks may be tough to challenge in court

The plaintiffs are seeking damages as well as injunctive relief, a measure that would require Honey to change its affiliate practices. If the lawsuits are certified as class action, other creators who believe their affiliate businesses were harmed by Honey could also sign on to the suits.

But it may be tough for creators to prove that Honey is doing anything unlawful by taking credit for driving sales, said Robert Freund, an advertising and e-commerce lawyer. PayPal could argue that Honey is driving final sales even in instances when it fails to offer a discount coupon. And because it's a browser extension, it's often going to be the last click a user makes before purchasing.

"The difficulty there for the plaintiffs is you're essentially trying to make the system of last-click attribution for affiliates unlawful," Freund told BI. "I can understand why a creator affiliate would think that it's unfair, but I don't know that it's illegal."

"I don't think it's a frivolous case by any means, but there's certainly some challenges ahead for the plaintiffs," he added.

Honey has leaned on creators for its own marketing efforts

Even if Honey prevails in getting the lawsuits dismissed, it may have to adjust its practices in order to make peace with the creator community. The company works with a lot of influencers to advertise its product and could lose a large chunk of that marketing channel if creators believe it's damaging their affiliate businesses.

Honey has been under fire in the creator community since December 21, when YouTuber MegaLag posted a video that criticized the company's affiliate marketing practices.

Since then, other prominent creators like Marques Brownlee and Hank Green have spoken out against the extension.

Back in May, OpenAI said it was developing a tool to let creators specify how they want their works to be included in — or excluded from — its AI training data. But seven months later, this feature has yet to see the light of day. Called Media Manager, the tool would “identify copyrighted text, […]

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• Molly Rutter left her teaching job to pursue influencing in August.
• She's faced challenges online but says it's still easier than being overworked and underpaid.
• Now, she earns money through TikTok's creator program and customized videos for her followers.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Molly Rutter, a 32-year-old TikToker in Buffalo, NY. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

According to Glassdoor, the median pay for teachers at Rutter's former employer is $65,000. Rutter says she made significantly less than that.

If teaching paid me enough, I'd still be doing it. It's the best thing I've ever done as a career.

It's no secret that teachers make next to nothing, and no one goes into it for the money. But after five years and getting my master's in childhood education, I left teaching in August to pursue social media full time.

I started making TikTok videos as a side gig while working abroad in 2022 in the hopes of becoming a home decor influencer account. Over time, I found that people were really interested in me and my life.

I felt overworked as a teacher in the US

Once I realized the income potential, I applied to the creator program in 2023 and finally started making money from TikTok. That's when I started getting pulled in different ways for my career.

My content revolves around anything and everything about my life. I do vlogs, shopping hauls, sharing places I'm going out, sharing my travel experiences, and sharing my dating content.

I taught at a private school in Istanbul from 2020 until January 2024, when I returned to Buffalo. Although I've always struggled financially, I lived comfortably teaching abroad.

It was, by far, the highest quality of life I've ever lived. As a teacher in Buffalo, I was working myself to the bone.

If you love teaching, you'll still do it as long as you can afford rent. If you really want to do it, you can make it work.

I had a different story.

I had to choose

I taught third grade at a prestigious private school in Buffalo, and they were uncomfortable with my public platform on social media. Normally, teachers make everything private, but I had a few viral videos.

I completely stand by my content. I didn't swear online when I was a teacher; I never showed myself drinking. Yet my school still seemed to have a problem with it.

I was going through a roller coaster of feeling like I had a negative spotlight on something that was the only reason I was surviving in the States. I couldn't afford to pay my rent for the last three months I worked as a teacher.

I thought to myself: "No way do I have over $200,000 in student loan debt to work a job where I'm overworked, underpaid, and told I can't do something on the side that brings me financial security."

My job isn't stressful anymore

TikTok's creator rewards program pays out for every 1,000 qualified views. These views must come from the "For You" feed and only count if the viewer stays on your video for over five seconds.

That's what makes me the most money, but I also film custom Cameo videos for $10 to $20 and promote items from the TikTok Shop.

My job now is easy, and I've never made less than what I was making as a teacher. It fluctuates, but I've had months where I've made more than double what I was making as a teacher.

My most viral content so far has been my dating content, but I'm just sharing facets of my life online.

TikTok still has its challenges

People try to pressure me; they want me to fit in a certain box. I'm not dating for content. No way in hell am I going to go on a date every day.

The bigger I get online, the more people's perceptions of me become detached from who I actually am. It's almost like a caricature of Molly Rutter who exists online.

I don't subscribe to the identity that people are trying to force me into because that's not truly who I am.

The value that I've gained with my time and mental health is so significant — on top of the fact that I'm making more than I once was.

Teaching filled my soul, but I don't regret leaving.

A New York Times investigation found that dozens of potential pedophiles have prolifically exploited the child influencer industry.

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• YouTube creators are increasingly optimizing their content for TV screens.
• There was an uptick in 4K videos and creators earning revenue from TV viewership this year.
• YouTube exec Kurt Wilms broke down the top performing content on the big screen.

2024 was a breakout year for watching YouTube on the big screen.

YouTube said this month that creator earnings from TV were up more than 30% year over year, and the share of videos uploaded in 4K was up over 35%.

Kurt Wilms, senior director of product management at YouTube, said more creators are making highly produced, episodic content. Wilms leads teams responsible for YouTube's "living room" efforts.

"2024 was the year of living room," Wilms told Business Insider. "Creators across the board, no matter what content they're making, are leaning into optimizing their content for the biggest screen."

Historically, many creators thought their audiences would be watching on a mobile phone and didn't expect them to watch for an hour or two in one sitting, Wilms said. But now, creators are no longer limited to thinking about making content in bite-sized pieces.

Michelle Khare, who has 4.8 million subscribers, is an example of a YouTube creator focused on episodic content. Her "Challenge Accepted" series is divided into episodes and seasons. She also categorizes her content on YouTube and organizes similar-themed videos into playlists, which makes it easier to watch them all at once on a TV screen.

"One of the things that has happened throughout 2024 is content that's maybe traditionally viewed on television, like sports and kids' content, is performing well for us on the TV," Wilms said. "It's gained a lot of momentum."

In YouTube Studio, creators can see their analytics related to how different videos performed across devices such as mobile, web, and TV.

"I would assume for most creators over time they're going to see a shift and TV viewership pick up," Wilms said. "I just think that's an overall industry trend and viewing trend that's going to happen."

Looking ahead, Wilms said his team is thinking about how to better enable features that let the audience interact with creators more easily on the big screen.

Here are 3 high performing types of content on the YouTube app for TVs, according to Wilms:

1. Watch-along sports content

A popular search term for sports-related content on YouTube is "watchalong," which is what creators call commentary-related videos for live events, including sports.

"You can come before a game to see the news, the predictions, the clips, the interviews, all leading up to a game," Wilms said. "When the game's going on, you can see real-time reaction highlights and commentary on the plays. Then, when the game is over, you can see all the official highlights and pundits talking about what they thought of the game."

NFL Sunday Ticket and NFL RedZone subscribers can watch two to four streams together based on program start and end times with a feature called multiview.

Wilms said next year, his team would continue to pilot a feature called "watch with," where the viewer can watch both an event and a creator at once on screen.

"Watch with was born out of this idea that creators are commentators," Wilms said. "We're in the early stages of development on this feature. But we think it's going to be amazing for creators and viewers."

2. Content geared to kids

Kids' content also performs well on TV, Wilms said.

"I think because one of the big value props of YouTube on the big screen is the ability to co-watch it with others, whether it's friends or family," Wilms said.

In the last year, the Ms. Rachel YouTube channel, which has 12.8 million subscribers, had one of the platform's highest watch times on TVs, the company said this month.

Last year, YouTube combined YouTube and YouTube Kids into one app for the living room. Now, YouTube is rolling out a feature for TVs called Parent Code, which allows parents to set a PIN code to access adult-focused content on the app.

3. Long-form video podcasts

YouTube creators are redefining what a podcast is.

Traditionally, a podcast was thought of as an audio-only experience. But now, many creators make video podcasts that resemble a talk show format.

"With video podcasts in the living room, you can put it on your TV and watch or listen to it while you do something else hands-free," Wilms said.

Wilms said viewers generally choose to watch content on the big screen over a mobile phone or a computer for three main reasons: they are dedicated fans of a creator; they want to watch content with others; or they are at home and watch while they do something else, like clean or make dinner.