Locals Delivers Ownership Security, Platform Flexibility and 3x More Revenue for Content Creators.
NEW YORK, April 20, 2021 – Locals Technology, Inc. today announced a $3.8 million seed round to accelerate the growth of its vision and tools that empower independent content creators with a unique multimedia platform – integrating video, audio, text, and community under one roof. The round was led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Naval Ravikant, Balaji S. Srinivasan, Mark Gogelowski, Joe Lonsdale, Christian Angermayer, Alexander Lloyd, Anthony Pompliano, Patrick Byrne, Tony DeNicola, Tulsi Gabbard, and Andrew Conru.
Locals Co-founder Dave Rubin commented, “If you think about the relationship between the big social media platforms and the content creator, the equation is backwards. The content creator is why people visit these big tech platforms, and yet they are the ones who make the lion’s share of the money, own all of the creator’s content, and control what, when, and even if that content gets distributed. That is a perfect recipe for suffocating creativity and innovation. It doesn’t make any sense”.
“We created locals.com to give creators more—more money, more control, and true ownership over their own content and audience,” Co-founder and CEO Assaf Lev explained. “Content creators work hard to entertain, educate and facilitate conversation, and at the end of the day, they’re making a fraction of the money that the platforms that host them are making. At Locals, subscription prices are set by the creator, and subscribers are not served any ads.”
Unlike other subscription-based solutions, Locals enables creators to harness the power of communities. The community mix of creator-based content plus supporter-based content allows for a dynamic and flexible platform that supports diverse creator models including more traditional social media, continuing education, and interest-based subscription communities. By leveraging supporter interaction, creators are able to utilize supporter-based content to complement their own work, producing a network effect.
Co-founder and CEO Assaf Lev elaborated, “More than 95 percent of Locals content is being generated by supporters who are paid subscribers. This means more content and more revenue for our creators. We call it the ‘Locals flywheel’ and it is one of the main reasons creators are moving to our platform.”
“Locals is a phenomenal product for content creators to connect with and monetize their audience in a community that they control. This is an important addition to the creator economy,” commented David Sacks, co-founder and general partner at Craft Ventures.
Creators agree: “Locals has far exceeded my expectations. Before Locals, I couldn’t control what anybody saw because Twitter could shadow ban me, YouTube could demonetize me and it looked like one wrong move and I would just be out of business. I was putting tons of work into something that I had no control over. These platforms could just snap a finger and I’d be out of business. That’s why I came to Locals – I control my own destiny,” added Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert comic strip.
Former congresswoman and 2020 Democratic candidate for president, Tulsi Gabbard adds, “Locals creates the opportunity and the platform to bridge the divide and bring people together through a community-centric conversation and respectful dialogue. This is not a platform for one party or the other, but for all who value freedom of expression without fear of being silenced or cancelled.”
About Locals
Founded in 2019 and based in New York, Locals is a platform that empowers independent content creators to publish their content, engage with their supporters, and make money from subscriptions. Creators include: Scott Adams, Tulsi Gabbard, ZDoggMD, Max Lugavere, Robert Barnes, Bridget Phetasy, Dr. Drew, Karlyn Borysenko, Greg Gutfeld, and Michael Malice. To learn more, please visit Locals.com or follow us on Twitter @OnLocals.