What is the Creator Economy

How big is the Creator Economy?

As per the report by CB Insights, the investment in the creator economy has increased threefold to $1.3 bn in 2021.

The Creator economy is on fire at the moment. Investors are pouring a deluge of money to support the creators. Interestingly, the investment in the creator economy startups in 2021 ($1.33 bn) equated to the last five years combined ($1.17 bn).

This signals the interest given to this economy and the huge growth prospects of influencers. This makes it enticing to discover more. Hence, we, at Fujn, would like to educate our women readers to take advantage of it.

What Exactly is the Creator Economy?

The creator economy refers, mostly, to self-employed individuals who run their businesses or side hustles and earn money from platforms. A broader definition of it is any money earned by producing content for online users. There are endless creative ideas that could be presented or shared through videos, blogs, vlogs, reels …etc.

This content is then published, distributed, and monetized through various content-sharing platforms. Some of the prominent ones include Youtube, Google, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, Clubhouse…etc. Together with 50 million individual creators and nearly 500+ new startups, the creator economy has become billions of dollars industry.

As per influencer marketing hub, the total creator economy market size is estimated to be around $104.2 bn in 2021.

Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the growth of the creator economy. Consequently, we have witnessed ample investments in 2021, with a few startups turning into unicorns.

• March 2021: Cameo, a personalized video shout-out app, raised $100 Mn in a Series C funding, at a $1 bn valuation.
• April 2021: Patreon, an online platform that connects musicians and other creators with fans, raised $155 mn in Series F financing, at a $4 bn valuation.
• April 2021: Clubhouse, an audio chat app that raised $300 mn in Series C funding at a valuation of $4 bn.
• May 2021: Kajabi, an all-in-one platform for knowledge entrepreneurs, raised $550 mn at a $2 bn valuation
• May 2021: Masterclass, offers courses taught by celebrities, athletes, and business leaders, raised $225 mn in a Series F funding, tripling its valuation to $2.75 bn.
• March 2021: Substack, a regular email newsletter platform raised a total of $82 mn in a Series B funding at a valuation of $650 mn.

Creators usually target multiple digital platforms to grow their revenue streams but this needs efforts and effective strategies.

Which Platform is Widely Used by Content Creators?

As per influencer marketing hub, Instagram is the most widely used platform for monetization.

This survey was based on the data from over 2,000 creators. 72% of creators consider Instagram as their primary platform, followed by TikTok (~13%) and youtube (~9%). Nonetheless, the competition is stiff and the platforms are constantly upgrading their features.

Recently, Facebook launched Live Audio Rooms. In another move, Storyblocks, an image and video stock and editing tools for creators, launched “Re: Stock,”. This is focused on inclusive videos of underrepresented communities, including Native Americans and first nations.

How to Measure the Success of a Content Business?

The majority of the creators (~70%) consider the combination of money, engagement, followers, and positive impact to measure success. Surprisingly, only 17.11% of creators value engagement. 10.7% believe that money defines their success. And only 1.34% of creators make content to positively impact society.

Although engagement is important, macro-creators usually score low on this parameter. So, attention is given to nano-influencers. These influencers, usually 1,000 -10,000 followers, have a much higher impact on their fans.

How to calculate Engagement?

Engagement measures the level of interaction and connection of creators with their followers. It is calculated by dividing comments and likes by the total number of followers. What matters is not the number of followers, but rather the engagement with the followers.

What is a good engagement?

It varies but most experts agree that an acceptable engagement rate should lie between 1% and 5%. As per the industry standard guidelines for Instagram, an engagement rate between 1% and 3% is generally good. Higher than 3% indicates a high engagement. Anything below 1% indicates that the audience is not engaged.

What is the Major Revenue Source for Creators?

For almost 77% of Creators, the highest revenue source is brand deals.

The engagement rate is undoubtedly the most crucial metric. However, most creators still depend on brand deals to earn revenue.

What is the ad share in the total content revenue?

Even if brand sponsorships continue to be the highest revenue source, ad revenue share is going up. Social media companies are increasing direct monetization for creators. For instance, in March 2021, Facebook announced that creators can earn revenue from videos as short as one minute, via advertisements. Previously, the eligibility duration of the videos was three minutes. Besides, it announced to give away $7 mn in free facebook stars. These stars can be paid as a tip to creators by live users.

Platforms are racing to compensate creators

In a race to attract content creators, many tech rivals are sweetening their offers.

• Snapchat owner Snap Inc. pays $1 mn each day to creators who make viral short videos on its feature, Snapchat Spotlight.
• Twitter launched “Super Follows” feature, to allow creators to provide exclusive premium content to subscribers and monetize tweets. This is launched with $2.99, $4.99, or $9.99 per month tier options for subscribers. It will allow creators to keep up to 97% of their subscriber revenue until they hit $50,000. Post that, they will earn up to 80% of revenue.

Alternative techniques for monetizing content

Several startups have emerged with alternative offerings to reward creators. These offerings include OTT apps, online course creation platforms, membership access, app-specific editing tools, and multichannel analytics.

Tip jars from Ko-fi, selling creative work on Gumroad, and course-launching platforms like Thinkific or Teachable. In April 2021, Clubhouse rolled out its first monetization feature, where creators can receive tips from users. Furthermore, Spotify announced not to take any cuts of their profits until 2023.

“With the internet and YouTube, there’s always the concern of being demonetized and having your channel canceled, so people are always looking for alternative ways to earn money. You never know where the platforms are going to take you at the end of the day.” — YouTuber Joshua Wanders

Conclusion

The creator economy has a broad value chain, including content creation, subscriptions, analytics & operations. With the massive income opportunities ahead, we highly recommend that our women readers leverage their creative skills and find their niche as creators.

Educate yourself about the creator economy, create and show your creations to the world!

Authored by Ekta Bhatia for Fujn