Creator Economy is one of the buzzwords in India’s startup ecosystem that has gained lots of traction in the last 2 years of the pandemic when the whole world was sitting inside the four walls of their homes and had nothing to do.
But what is a Creator Economy?
The Creator Economy is the class of businesses that includes over 50 million independent players who are content creators, influencers, bloggers, photographers, videographers, etc. It also includes the software products and tools designed to capitalize on their growth and monetization.
The advent of affordable internet facilities and the popularity of social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc. opened doors for creators from tier 2 and tier 3 cities to leverage their talents and gain the opportunity to become digital stars.
These creators are now able to launch their brands also because of a significant boost in content consumption all across the world which enables the independent businesses to tap various economic markets simultaneously. For instance, Nikhil, popularly called YouTube ka Salman Khan, with over 3.69 million subscribers on YouTube has launched his brand LabelMN which sells t-shirts and other fashion accessories.
The boom of the creator economy helped not just the content creators but also the social media giants to expand their businesses by launching short-term video segments to engage a high user base and generate revenue with the help of creators and influencers over the internet.
The pandemic-induced lockdown was a major instrument that led to the growth of this economy by forcing businesses and content creators to move to the digital space for survival.
Influencers and their marketing economy have seen massive growth during this time. Initially, the influencers build their personal brand and create a huge follower base through their content which is later capitalized by businesses to market their products by offering various brand endorsements, personalized coupon codes, exclusive discounts if purchased through the influencers’ pages.
Influencers can generate potential income streams through their brands these days as they can establish high user connections that the brands failed to build.
Creator Economy Trends
Instagram took multiple steps to catalyze creator economy marketing. In 2021, it came up with tools like creator shops, gated content, and subscriptions during the inaugural creator week and also launched direct payments to creators with badges that allow viewers to tip creators during live sessions.
We can even witness a wave of memes on Instagram that have become a better source for the latest news and information than the news channels themselves.
In early 2021, Twitter acquired Revue and launched Super Follow to enable monetization newsletter, pay-to-access tweet feature, and Tips. Tips allow users to make direct payments to the creators.
YouTube was falling behind the rising influence of Reels, TikTok, and Moj apps. Realizing the need, it launched a $100 million YouTube Shorts Fund in May 2021, to take on the short-term video segments. The fund enabled creators to get rewarded based on their engagement and viewership.
Domain expertise of creators today extends to many areas such as photography, baking, painting, fashion, lifestyle, and even essential business skills which they aren’t just using to entertain their audience but also to teach and upskill them at affordable rates or sometimes even free of cost. But one major drawback of this ecosystem is the content redundancy, saturation, and upfront criticism.
It has become way more difficult for influencers to keep up with the expectations of their viewers and only the top 10% of creators make the 90% of revenues.
Ankur Warikoo’s Do Epic Shit goes viral
Besides these challenges, some influencers are able to maintain their engagement through techniques like viral marketing. Ankur Warikoo, the digital sensation for youngsters published his first book recently, ‘Do Epic Shit’. The book is a compilation of all his learnings that he already keeps sharing on his social media.
Had he not been a social media, his book would not have gained the popularity and readership that it has gained in such a short span of time. Ankur used viral marketing and buzz over the internet through his LinkedIn posts, giveaways, early booked signed copies, collaborative seminars with Ed-techs, etc.
This helped the book gain immense fame and over 60 million views due to an already established presence of the influencer all over the internet.
Kacha Badam Reels Trend
With the crux of social media, not just content creators but normal people are also becoming sensations. The recent trend that has taken over the internet is the song ‘Kacha Badam’. The song is originally composed by a poor peanut seller Bhuban Badyakar has become the talk of the town after Nazmu Reachat gave them a peppier feel.
The song has over 10 lakh streams on Spotify with millions doing the Kacha Badam challenge on Instagram Reels. The views on these videos keep crossing millions with people not having enough of the song. The challenge was not only taken up by Indians but also saw people from Korea, Tanzania, and even from a plane jump to the trend.
What the future holds for the Creator Economy?
The rise in Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain models holds the future of the creator economy and its monetization. Crypto integration is the way forward for this economy in the near future. Indian app Chingari, built on the Solana Blockchain, is joining the crypto race early by adopting a token-based reward system for its users.
And as the monetization models will continue to expand, millions of content creators and influencers would be able to become microentrepreneurs and dominate the startup and creator ecosystem.
Written By- Muskaan Khandpur
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