iWorld
YouTube goes big at Mipcom Cannes 2025 with 20th anniversary blowout
PARIS: YouTube is pulling out all the stops for its 20th anniversary, marking the occasion with a heavyweight presence at Mipcom Cannes this October—the global television industry’s biggest annual market.
For the first time, the Google-owned platform will anchor itself at the Palais des Festivals with a branded hospitality space dubbed the YouTube Space, a daily schedule of creator economy workshops, and a headline keynote from Pedro Pina, YouTube’s vice-president for EMEA. The festivities will span both Mipcom (13–16 October) and MipJunior (11–12 October), as the platform ramps up efforts to forge deeper alliances with global TV players.
“Mipcom Cannes is where the industry is, and 2025 is the year of the global creator economy,” said Mipcom Cannes and MipJunior director Lucy Smith “YouTube’s presence is a strong signal of how creator-led content is reshaping traditional models.”
The platform’s participation ties into a broader Mipcom push to bridge the gap between digital-native creators and legacy media, with new initiatives designed to foster fresh storytelling, co-production, and monetisation models.
Chief among these is the international debut of BrandStorytelling—a summit born at Sundance and now making its European bow. The forum aims to link brands, digital creators, and producers in funding and distributing brand-backed narratives, with showcases and networking slated for 13–14 October.
The event also sees the Producers Hub reimagined as the Mip Creative Hub, transforming a beachside venue on the Croisette into a buzzing nexus for creators, studios, and brands. Meanwhile, the expanded MIP Innovation Lab inside the Palais returns with a slate of summits and demos on AI, Fast channels, CTV, and streaming. YouTube will host a series of practical workshops on audience building, monetisation, and format strategy.
Pina called the collaboration “a strategic move to bolster our international TV partnerships and showcase YouTube’s evolving role in the global content ecosystem”.
Last year’s Mipcom drew over 10,500 delegates from more than 100 countries. With YouTube now in the mix, the 2025 edition looks set to be the most creator-powered yet.
iWorld
Snapchat parent Snap cuts 16 per cent of workforce in AI-driven restructuring
The Snapchat parent is axing around 1,000 jobs and closing 300 open roles to save $500m, as artificial intelligence makes smaller teams the new normal
CALIFORNIA: Snap is snapping. The Snapchat parent has confirmed plans to cut around 1,000 employees, roughly 16 per cent of its full-time workforce, as it bets that artificial intelligence can do what headcount once required. Shares jumped more than 10 per cent in premarket trading on the news, a brisk vote of confidence from a market that has watched the stock shed about 31 per cent this year.
The restructuring, which also closes more than 300 open roles, follows pressure from activist investor Irenic Capital Management, which holds an economic interest of about 2.5 per cent in the company and has been loudly pushing Snap to tighten its portfolio and lift performance. The firm got what it asked for, and then some.
Chief executive Evan Spiegel told employees the cuts would reduce annualised expenses by more than $500m by the second half of the year. The company expects to incur charges of between $95m and $130m related to the layoffs, mostly severance, with the bulk landing in the second quarter. Staff in Snap’s North America team were asked to work from home on the day of the announcement.
The financial backdrop is not without bright spots. Snap expects first-quarter revenue to rise around 12 per cent to approximately $1.53 billion, broadly in line with analyst estimates. Adjusted core profit for the January to March quarter is forecast at about $233m, comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s expectation of $186.8m.
The harder question surrounds Specs, Snap’s augmented reality smart glasses subsidiary, which Irenic has urged the company to spin off or shut down entirely. The unit has absorbed more than $3.5 billion in investment and burns through approximately $500m in cash annually. Snap is pressing ahead regardless, with a consumer product expected later this year, even as Meta leads the market in the segment.
Spiegel is betting that leaner teams, smarter machines and a consumer AR play can restore Snap’s credibility with investors who have run out of patience. The redundancy notices have gone out. The harder restructuring, the one that requires a hit product rather than a headcount reduction, is still very much pending.
