The new buzzword in town is Creator Economy. We are certain you have heard it. Some know what it is about; some are still grappling with the concept and learning how to wrap it around their heads. In simplest of terms, Creator Economy is a software-facilitated economy that allows creators to monetise their skills and content they create.
The Creator Economy has finally arrived in India. If you think otherwise, then let’s look at the hard facts that show it to be true and also look at the potential growth. Key findings in a report by Kalaari Capital maps what Creator Economy or Universe is and their findings. Here are the facts:
1. The Rise Of Smartphones And Data Consumption
As of 2022, there are 637 M smartphone users in India. They are estimated to reach 900 M by 2026.
When it comes to Data consumption per smartphone, India is the highest in the world. It is at 15.7 GB per month. It is likely to reach 37GB per month.
The average time an Indian spends on his/her/their smartphone is 4.6 hours a day. The consumption pattern shows that primary categories they consume content are from fields like fashion, education, motivation, music, food and comedy.
2. Social Media Users In India
Presently, there are 448 M social media users in India. A large subset of this figure is first-time internet users who self-curate the content and products they consume. And by 2026, it is expected to be over 650 M social media users. A minimum of 160M users have used one of the Indian short-video platforms.
3. Dawn of Creators
The total size of the global creator economy is $104.2B. There are 80M Creators and knowledge professionals in India alone. At the moment in India, there are 1200 YouTube Creators with over 1M subscribers, 2500 YT Creators with over 100K subscribers and about 5000 YT Creators with over 10,000 subscribers. In the last 7 years, the number of YouTube channels with 1M subscribers has increased by 7400%.
That’s just YouTube, but the Creator Economy is not limited to online Creators. We are seeing an entire generation of first-time Internet users who are building a direct channel with their fans to monetise their unique offerings and even products. The rise of the individual product Creators is exponential too. Right from an artisan to fashion designer to product designer to more, these Creators now set up their online stores and sell directly to the customers, thereby building a direct relationship with them.
4. Monetisation
In India, about 150,000 Professional content creators have been able to monetise their services effectively. Out of these 150K Creators, majority of them earn anywhere between $200 – $2.5K per month (Rs 14,928.49-1,86,606.13 per month), depending on the reach and engagement they can drive.
Moreover, 50,000 professional Creators are on regional short-form video platforms. More than 60% of their audience are from outside metro cities. So the potential to monetise content there is immense.
5. Monetisation Platforms Getting Funded
Over $2B in VC funding has gone into startups building for India’s creator economy over the past 4 years, with nearly 75% of it coming during 2021. Nearly 85% of this funding went into creator discovery platforms. Short-form video platforms got more than $900M in funding in 2021 alone.
Coming to monetisation platforms, nearly $200M has been raised in funding by platforms. Not only startups, but large platforms be it Meta, TikTok, SnapChat, YouTube, etc have also launched their own Creator-focused funds. They have realised the importance of directly supporting their Creator communities.
TagMango has raised $2.3 M so far from YCombinator (YC W20), JAM Fund, Pioneer Fund, Creator Rising, ASAP Capital, TA Ventures, Soma Capital, Belief Partners, mainstream creators from India and 20 strategic angels have invested in the company.
Creator Economy’s Growth
The impetus for unprecedented digitisation and adoption of a digital-first model across industries came because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Independent stores went online, educators started online classes, entertainers adopted short-form media, Creators monetised their skills with TagMango, and so much more.
Thanks to the growing exposure of the Internet among middle-class Indians, the Creator Pool is growing. More and more people want to build themselves as a brand, hone their online identity and also convert their skillset or talent into their livelihood.
The Future:
The fact remains that Creator Economy is increasing. While we see the rise and empowerment of Creators over the last decade, the monetisation of their skills has not been fully achieved. A large section of the Creators still depends on brand sponsorship and collaboration and ad revenue-sharing model. The new wave of Creator Economy will see Creators owning their relationship with their community, thereby, directly building monetisation channels with them.
The world is witnessing the rise of monetisation platforms and we, at TagMango, want to enable all Creators out there to monetise their skills. So let’s get you started on your monetisation journey.
Information Source: Kalaari Capital
Written by Rachna Srivastava
