RJ Phillips Talks ZOOP and Enhanced Games

ZOOP is stepping into the global social media market with a bold promise: Reward creators more fairly, give fans a more active role, and build communities around culture rather than forcing every user through one centralized feed.

The new platform, founded by serial entrepreneur RJ Phillips, launched globally on April 23 as the official social platform partner of the first-ever Enhanced Games, which is scheduled for May 24 at Resorts World Las Vegas. The partnership puts ZOOP at the intersection of sports, creators, fan culture, and digital rewards, and gives Enhanced Games a dedicated social hub focused on athlete storytelling and community participation.

Phillips brings experience from the creator economy, including leadership experience connected to OnlyFans, which provides ZOOP’s creator-first compensation model with added context. Rather than positioning ZOOP as a replacement for existing platforms, he frames it as an added economic layer where creators can deepen fan relationships and retain more of the value they generate.

For Phillips, the mission is direct. ZOOP is built to challenge the big-tech model by shifting more value back to the people creating the content, culture, and engagement that drive online attention.

“Creators and athletes have built the modern internet, yet they’ve captured only a fraction of the value they generate,” Phillips said in the company’s announcement. “ZOOP changes that by paying creators more and rewarding fans for genuine engagement. Enhanced shares that same commitment to fairness and performance, which makes this partnership a natural fit.”

A New Social Hub for the Enhanced Games

The Enhanced Games will bring together athletes from swimming, track and field, and weightlifting, including Olympic-level competitors and elite performers. More than 40 athletes are already producing content ahead of the inaugural competition, with names including Ben Proud, Cody Miller, Reece Prescod, Shania Collins, Boady Santavy, and Beatriz Piron among those highlighted in the company’s launch announcement.

Andrii Govorov, Max McCusker, Shania Collins, Shania Collins, Arley Mendez Perez, Mouhamadou Fall – Courtesy of Enhanced Games

ZOOP will serve as the digital hub for athlete content, creator-led coverage, and fan participation before, during, and after the event. The platform is designed to help fans follow athletes in real time, interact with creators, participate in community-led moments, and earn rewards tied to meaningful engagement.

That approach gives the partnership a larger purpose than standard event promotion. ZOOP is using the Enhanced Games as an early proof point for how live events can become active digital communities, where the story begins before competition day and continues after the final results.

The Business Behind the Platform

ZOOP’s market position is built around three central ideas: community-based discovery, creator-first economics, and fan rewards. The company says creators can earn revenue shares of up to 80%, while fans can be recognized for active participation.

The platform has also partnered exclusively with TLC Worldwide to provide locally relevant rewards and benefits to creators and fans in more than 50 countries. Its infrastructure is powered by Hedera, which supports scalable and transparent participation across global communities.

Ahead of its launch, nearly 1 million users had already participated in ZOOP’s web version, beta testing, or waitlist. That early momentum gives the platform a stronger starting point as it enters a crowded social media space dominated by Meta, TikTok, and other major platforms.

ZOOP is also supporting its launch with a bold campaign from the Dor Brothers, the viral filmmaking duo known for work connected to Snoop Dogg and Hugo Boss and for generating more than half a billion online views. The campaign adds a cultural marketing layer to the platform’s debut, reinforcing ZOOP’s positioning around creator-first compensation, fan participation, and a more equitable digital economy.

But ZOOP is not trying to win by becoming another version of the same feed-driven model. Its strategy is rooted in channels, communities, trust, and direct participation.

In this exclusive interview, RJ Phillips, CEO of ZOOP, breaks down the platform’s strategy, its creator-first revenue model, its position on AI transparency, and why the company believes the next phase of social media will be built around channels, communities, and shared value.

Rethinking the Social Feed

ZOOP is entering a market dominated by algorithm-driven feeds like Meta and TikTok. Why did the platform choose a channel-based community model, and how will it still support broad content discovery?

ZOOP is not anti-algorithm. We absolutely believe personalization matters, and we use algorithms to help surface relevant content and pull together a broader feed based on people’s interests. What we do differently is combine that with a channels model that is much more intuitive for users.

The easiest way to think about it is traditional television. If you want music, you go to MTV. If you want cartoons, you go to Cartoon Network. If you are not interested in cartoons, you do not subscribe to Cartoon Network. That structure gives people more control over the kind of content they want to engage with, instead of forcing everything through one giant feed.

We think social platforms should work more like that. People should be able to move through distinct channels and communities based on their interests, while still benefiting from algorithmic discovery within and across those spaces. That creates a better experience because discovery becomes both broad and intentional. Users can find new things, but in an environment that feels relevant and contextual, not random or overwhelming.

It also gives us a stronger foundation for trust. As AI becomes more common, users need more transparency about what they are seeing. That is why we believe in clearly labeling content that has been altered or created with AI, and giving users more control, including an AI kill switch.

So the strategic foresight was not rejecting algorithms. It was recognizing that the future of discovery is a combination of smart personalization and clearly defined channels people actively choose to be part of.

A Creator-First Philosophy

With leadership experience connected to OnlyFans, how does ZOOP improve on the monetization limits creators face on major platforms?

ZOOP was built around a simple belief: the people who create the value should receive most of the economic upside. On many major platforms today, including Meta and TikTok, creators drive attention, culture, and engagement, but too often the monetization available to them is limited, inconsistent, or controlled by platform priorities rather than creator effort. We think effort should more directly equal reward.

ZOOP is designed as an ecosystem that gives creators more ownership, more flexibility, and more ways to earn—from free and paywalled content to virtual and physical goods. We also believe distribution should not feel like a black box. That is why our model combines algorithmic discovery with channels and communities, giving users clearer pathways into the content they actually care about and giving creators more contextual, durable visibility. creators can build deeper relationships around interests, culture, and live moments.

Ultimately, it’s not just better monetization. It is a broader philosophy: fairer economics, more transparent discovery, more ways to participate, and a platform designed to help creators and communities do more than just post online.

How the 80% Creator Revenue Share Works

ZOOP offers creators up to 80% of generated revenue. What economic model allows the platform to support that share while still remaining profitable and scalable?

ZOOP’s model is simple: up to 80% goes to the creator, 5% can go through referrals, and the platform keeps the remainder. The premise is straightforward—the majority of the value should go to the people creating the content, culture, and engagement.

That is possible because ZOOP is built with a more focused approach than traditional platforms, concentrated on building a lean platform centered on creator and community value.

Our view is that as AI gives people more time and content becomes even more abundant, human creativity, participation, and cultural relevance become more valuable, not less. In that world, it is even more important that the people making the effort receive the majority of the economics, because that is what keeps the ecosystem healthy and gives more people the ability to create, participate, and be entertained.

Digital attention is highly profitable, but today much of that value is retained by platforms rather than shared with the people driving it. ZOOP is designed to rebalance that equation with a model that returns more value to creators and their communities.

Addressing the Enhanced Games Debate

The Enhanced Games has sparked debate because of its approach to performance-enhancing substances. How does ZOOP balance that partnership with its responsibility to users and platform safety?

ZOOP’s role is to build technology that helps creators, talent, and communities connect with their audiences in a safe, transparent, and commercially fair way. We are not in the business of acting as an unelected editorial authority over every legal subject, sport, or cultural movement that appears on the platform. Our responsibility is to operate within the law, follow applicable government standards in the markets where we operate, and design the platform in a way that protects users.

The approach is to operate within the law, follow market-specific regulations, and ensure content is distributed responsibly under clear platform standards. In the case of the Enhanced Games, the partnership reflects ZOOP’s broader mission to give talent and communities better tools to reach audiences and generate revenue. Many athletes, especially outside a small number of top-tier global stars, remain under-monetized despite extraordinary levels of commitment and performanceSo for us, the principle is consistent: if something is lawful, compliant, and can be supported responsibly within our platform standards, our job is to provide the infrastructure, the transparency, and the user protections, not to close off access simply because a topic is debated. That is how we reconcile openness with responsibility.

Building Culture Across Different Communities

ZOOP is launching with a wide range of creators, from unconventional athletes to opera singers and ballerinas. How will the platform build and moderate a culture that supports such different communities?

We are not trying to throw every type of content into one giant pool on day one and hope culture sorts itself out. ZOOP is launching in preview mode, and that is intentional. We are starting with three channels, which gives us a more controlled environment to shape the product experience, understand behavior, and build culture with more care.

Anyone can sign up to the platform, but content creation in the early phase is more limited by design. To create initially, users need to be invited, find a physical QR code, or receive an invitation from someone already creating on the platform, and those invitations are limited. That allows us to grow in a more deliberate way and build quality communities before opening things more broadly.

The channels model also creates structure, helping users navigate content more clearly rather than placing everything into one undifferentiated feed.

As the platform evolves, algorithmic discovery and AI-powered curation will play a larger role in surfacing relevant content. But that growth will build on a clear channels framework, ensuring the experience remains organized, intentional, and trusted.

Giving Athletes More Than a Place to Post

More than 40 athletes are creating content ahead of the May 24 competition. What tools or monetization options will ZOOP provide to help them deepen fan engagement and generate revenue?

For the 40-plus athletes already creating ahead of May 24th, ZOOP is focused on giving them more than just a place to post. We want to help them build real fan connection and real commercial opportunity around who they are, not just the competition itself.

We have had a team in Abu Dhabi following many of these athletes during training, and what is exciting is that the content is not just about training regimes or performance. It is about their individual journeys, their personalities, their motivations, and the stories behind what brings them to this moment. Each athlete is different, and that allows us to bring fans closer in a way they are not getting elsewhere.

That matters because access is a huge part of engagement. We are excited to be dropping these stories and offering a level of behind-the-scenes access that helps fans feel connected much earlier and much more deeply. As we move out of preview mode, that engagement can then be supported by a broader product suite, including free content, paywalled content, fan club calls, and physical goods, so athletes have multiple ways to build revenue directly from the audiences they attract.

The broader goal is to help them turn attention into relationships, and relationships into earnings. Not just one viral moment, but a more sustained connection built around story, access, and community.

An Added Economic Layer for Creators

Established creators already have audiences on major platforms. How does ZOOP reduce the risk for creators who may be hesitant to shift attention to a newer platform?

We are not asking creators to abandon the platforms they already use. Most creators today are active across TikTok, Instagram, and other major platforms, and we think that will continue. What we are saying is: if you already have a funnel where attention is being generated, why not direct some of that attention to a place where you can monetize it more effectively and keep more of the value you create?

So the proposition is not ‘leave everything behind.’ It is ‘add a better economic layer.’ ZOOP gives creators another destination for their audience, one designed around stronger monetization, deeper engagement, and more direct participation. That includes multiple revenue pathways across content, commerce, and community, and over time, it will also include advertising revenue sharing, which we believe becomes a very meaningful differentiator.

Beyond monetization, ZOOP also offers a more intentional experience through its channels model, helping creators build stronger identities and connect with more relevant audiences. As the platform expands globally through exclusive partnerships and new channel launches, it is designed to unlock new distribution opportunities at scale.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead 18 to 24 months, how does ZOOP plan to expand its offerings and introduce new monetization opportunities as the creator economy continues to evolve?

In the next 18 to 24 months, we see ZOOP growing beyond a single social product into a broader cultural ecosystem. That means expanding channel IP, bringing more global culture across borders, creating more ways for communities to connect offline around shared interests, and building a year-round home for creators with more services to support their fan bases. For us, the future is not one monetization tool. It is an ecosystem where culture, community, and commerce all reinforce each other.

Why This Moment Matters

ZOOP’s Enhanced Games partnership is more than a launch announcement. It is an early look at how sports, creator culture, digital rewards, viral storytelling, and platform economics may begin to converge in real time.

The Enhanced Games has also attracted high-profile venture backing, including early investment from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, adding another layer of tech-disruption attention to an event already drawing debate around science, sport, athlete compensation, and performance enhancement.

The platform is entering a competitive marketplace, but it is doing so with a clear point of view. ZOOP is not asking creators to abandon existing platforms. It is offering them another layer, one built around better monetization, more intentional audience development, and deeper community participation.

The Dor Brothers campaign also signals that ZOOP understands the cultural side of platform adoption. Creator-first economics may be the business model, but storytelling, visibility, and entertainment value are what help that message move across the internet.

For fans, the value proposition is also clear. Instead of passively consuming posts in a feed, users are being invited into dedicated spaces where they can follow athletes, support creators, join conversations, and earn rewards for meaningful engagement.

That may be the larger story behind ZOOP’s arrival. Social media has spent years rewarding scale, speed, and attention. ZOOP is betting that the next phase will reward context, participation, trust, and shared value.

The Takeaway

With the Enhanced Games serving as its first major sports platform partnership, ZOOP is stepping into the market with both a high-profile cultural moment and a broader argument about the future of social media.

Its creator-first revenue model, global rewards partnership, Hedera-powered infrastructure, AI transparency posture, channel-based discovery system, and Dor Brothers launch campaign all point toward a platform designed to address several long-running frustrations in the creator economy.

Execution will determine how far ZOOP can go. But the company’s opening message is strong: creators should capture more of the value they create, fans should be rewarded for genuine participation, and communities should have more control over the digital spaces they choose to enter.

In a crowded social media ecosystem, that is a meaningful challenge to the status quo.

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