Former Twitch employees Jenny Qian and Youri Park saw a gap in the streaming landscape for quality, inclusive, community-driven beauty content
For die-hard beauty and skincare content consumers, digital video and social media platforms have, over the past few years, become treasure troves of infinite knowledge and inspiration—from YouTube skincare routines to TikTok mascara videos to Instagram eyebrows, there's something for everyone.
But while other creator communities such as gaming and productivity have engendered a raft of live digital engagement opportunities and interactions between the audience and the personality, longform beauty livestreams haven't really taken off in a massive way. Until now.
Newness, which is still currently in Beta, is a livestreaming personality-driven platform where creators can curate personal profile pages around their favourite products and routines. And it could become the next big thing.
Here's what we know, so far, about Newness, a platform co-founded by two ex-Twitch teammates, Youri Park and Jenny Qian.
What is Newness?
Newness is a video livestreaming platform dedicated to beauty and the beauty community. "It's a place where you can watch your favourite creators talk about what they know and love, ask them questions, and discuss it with other cool people," the site description says.
According to a report in WWD, beauty brand Tatcha is the first to sign a sponsorship deal with Newness. Tatcha will debut its Silk Powder, a skincare powder, on the platform with a series of expert-led panels and keynote livestreams this week.
"I have been going on to QVC and we realized how powerful it is to talk directly about our products," Tatcha founder Vicky Tsai told WWD. "You can get so much more information across. On Newness, I thought the two-way interaction helps you tailor information to what’s most important to the community watching. It’s nice because beauty is very personal, and there are so many tips and tricks with each product."
How is Newness different from other social media and streaming platforms?
Newness is a livestream-first platform and previous livestreams seem to be archived on the site for later viewing. For the beauty community, livestreaming means more candid interactions, no opportunities to edit or add special effects, frank off-the-cuff conversations, and an overall heightened sense of authenticity.
Newness also touts a four-pronged community mission around inclusion, compassion, learning, and joy, that could potentially mean it becomes a gentler, friendlier corner of the internet—especially in light of all the drama that's infiltrated the beauty space on YouTube over the past few years.