Creators are not only popular for their enthralling, creative content but for monetising their passion and turning it into their career. From unstoppable brand promotions to brand endorsements and participating in a ton of campaigns and challenges on several social media websites, they do it all. They have caused a buzz around the term ‘creator economy’ in India’s current startup systems today, despite the word being a decade old.
The creator market, which comprises the influencer marketing industry, incumbent startups, and the entire creator economy, is worth more than $104 Billion with unmatched opportunities. A year or two ago, content creators only earned from paid ads and product placements. However, today, the creator economy is booming like never before! Presently, more significant ways have been launched in the market, such as short-video apps, Instagram reels, and Youtube shorts for quick but engaging promotions. These have introduced massive opportunities for the upcoming creators, especially in the short-video segment.
Another important benefit of the rise in creators is startups. Today, content creators and influencers promote all kinds of startups at significantly lower costs. Some of these content creators have also gone on to inaugurate brands under them. For example, Malvika Satlani, a popular beauty content creator, has recently developed her own product line called “MASIC Beauty”.
This tells us that the creators’ economy is going strong and witnessing a paradigm shift, especially since the pandemic-enforced lockdown irrevocably changed our content consumption methods. The best part? It seems like the transformation is only taking flight now. Following is a detailed discussion on the primary factors that helped the creator economy boom.
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A Giant Shift from Television to Social Media
One major factor why the creator economy is booming is the leap from television to social media sites. People today are spending most of their time scrolling through social media sites, such as Instagram, engaging with the content posted by influencers, and ultimately contributing to the growth in creator engagement. Hence, brands are now relying on web content creators to promote their products online. For example, Sejal Kumar, a well-known Delhi-based lifestyle influencer, promoted a Veet electric trimmer in one of her dress-up videos, created in paid collaboration with the brand owner itself, which subtly drew attention to the brand.
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The Expanding Fabric of Social Media Features
The innovative additions to the already existing social media sites have also helped boost the creator economy. Recently, Facebook announced an array of exciting features, including stars, paid online events, fan subscriptions, and in-stream ads, to help creators fetch a good income through the platform. Simultaneously, Instagram broadened its direct payment culture and added badges, which allow the followers to tip the creators during Live sessions. Creator Shops on Instagram also help creators in enhancing their creations.
YouTube has made massive changes in 2021 to retain its creators. It launched the YouTube Shorts model with a fund of $100 million to make reels and TikTok. Creators could collect payments only through Super Chats, ad revenue, channel memberships, Super Stickers, official merchandise, and premium subscriptions. However, with this new feature, creators get rewarded based on their viewership and overall engagement with the audience. This also means that the better your content is, the more you will earn.
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The Emergence of the Creator Marketplace
The creators’ marketplace is evolving. However, out of only 50 million creators, nearly 4% are able to extract liveable wages out of their content. However, the other 96% falls in the mid-level range. Although these people possess unmatched potential and capabilities to perform, they sometimes fail at understanding the art of leveraging content.
This massive gap in income generation is successfully bridged by creator-first startups, such as TagMango, a mobile and web app-based SAAS platform that provides a creator’s economy with the payment gateway, a chat feature, landing page builder, inbuilt video-hosting, and a wide range of tools for seamlessly hosting cohort-based live courses and workshops. They help evolving creators develop their content, grow audiences, upskill, find better collaborations, and increase the sources of revenue. It leads to equality, especially in monetary terms.
Conclusion
The creators’ economy is still at its initial stage. However, entrepreneurs and investors are betting on its massive growth in the near future. Creators are gaining celebrity status, millions of followers, and a faithful fan following. Also, as the revenue increases, they are all ready to monetise their content for the better. In all, the creators’ economy is booming.
For deeper insights on the creator economy and how creators can monetise, check out TagMango!
