Creator Economy — the Future of Work is here

“A new class of content creators has emerged that is writing, recording, filming and producing incredibly unique and compelling media and then connecting directly to audiences to showcase and sell their creative products” — Eric Feng

Image Credit — Elanstreet

More than 500k Instagrammers have 100k+ followers. 22 thousand Youtube creators have more than 1 M subscribers, that’s an insane number of fans. A lot of big and successful brands around us in our hypermarkets don’t have that kind of followers, even with all the resources at their disposal. And there is a huge commercial value in this fandom and attention.The economy built around creators and followers is Creator Economy also known as “Passion Economy” term coined by Li Jin of Atelier Ventures a startup early stage venture fund focussed on Passion Economy and ex-Andreessen Horowitz.

Gen Z is moving towards the passion economy (Creator Economy) which allows them to convert their passion into livelihood. Get flexibility to work when they want to and from where they want to. Freedom to pursue their passion and monetise their unique skills. As against the gig economy where individuality of the workers is ironed out.

Gig Economy Vs Passion Economy

Above infographic is taken from Eze Vidra article in VcCafe

Gig economy where you rent your time and are paid per hour. Gig Economy gives you some flexibility but no leverage. No individuality, just repetitive uninteresting mostly manual work with no creativity. Creator economy on the other hand enables you to pursue your passion, express your individuality and create assets which make money for you even when you are asleep.

As described by Tim Ferriss in Tools of Titans, to be a successful creator you don’t need millions of dollars, customers, or fans. To make a living as per Kevin Kelly (former Wired editor), you only need 1,000 true fans that will each buy products from you for $100 a year to make $100,000. Now, imagine making $100k in Gig economy.

If the last decade belonged to on-demand marketplaces or Uber for X this decade will be owned by the creator economy. Li Jin has brilliantly captured everything one may want to know about Creators Economy in her essays here and here.

According to a new report by VC firm SignalFire, today’s global Creator Economy is only poised to grow as 50 million people already consider themselves a “Creator.” But what’s more noteworthy is the financial opportunity that come along with becoming a Creator — a new classification of “small business.” Two million global Creators are already making six-figures, with many more amateurs aiming to achieve similar status.

Followers or fans on the other side of the equation are also GenZ and millennials who love niche and high quality content from creators they love. And want more of it every day, yes every single day. Demand for niche content and different content styles has gone up as the tastes have matured. Every segment of consumers want creators and content tailored to their likings. This demand of unique and specialised content from a very small group of audience is served only by individual creators.

Millions of new creators are joining platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok (and the likes), SoundCloud, Twitch, Snapchat, Facebook, as creators to make content that connects with a small and niche set of audiences get followers and make money from these platforms.

Image Credit — Influe.in

The platforms are designed for the ad supported business model and not the creator economy and thus to make money on these platforms one needs millions of followers to be able to make decent money on these platforms through ad revenues like on YouTube - or from brand endorsements or sponsorships like on Snapchat , Twitter or Instagram.

Startups globally are working on the gaps in the creators economy and trying to connect creators with followers directly. And making the experience of digital content discovery, purchase and consumption offered by creators seamless. Startups are building platforms from ground up for digital contents like newsletters, podcasts, videos, courses, consultancy, webinar etc. There are both marketplaces and specialised SaaS products tailor made for creators and content. And enable them to connect with followers.

Hugo Amsellem a great proponent and thought leader of creator’s economy has mapped the entire landscape very beautifully in the infographic below and you can read his article on Creator’s Economy Mapping here.

Hugo Amsellem has a very interesting take on creator economy. According to him “a creator isn’t someone who creates but an individual who scales without permission. They are to the individual what startups are to the organization. They are the future of scalable entrepreneurship”.

The Creator Lifecycle

Hugo further maps Creator Economy categorize the companies according to their function in the creator lifecycle.

1. Create Content

• Photo: Mojo, PhotoRoom, Lightricks, VSCO, Later, Unfold, Instasize
• Video: Aria, Kapwing, Triller, Trash, Vochi, Snippet
• Audio: BeatStars, Landr, Splice, eMastered, SoundTrap, Castbox,SquadCast, Descript, Artlist
• Livestream: Restream, StreamElements, StreamLabs, Xsplit,StageTen
• Highlights: Lowkey, Athenascope, Donut, Replai
• Games: Roblox, Manticore, Hiber, Unity, Epic Games

2. Grow audience

• Media networks: Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Caffeine, Medium,YouTube, Twitter, Periscope, Audius, SoundCloud, Udemy, Twitch,

3. Own audience

• Website builders: OnUniverse, Carrd
• Community: MightyNetwork, Zebra, Community, DSM, Fourthwall,Notify.me, Circle, Discipline Media, Oooh.tv, Laylo, Geneva Chat,Bunches, Commsor, Discord, Vibely, Wavium
• Livestream: Reach Live, Crowdcast, Mandolin, Stream Club, Maestro
• Email: ConvertKit, Substack, Revue, Ghost, Letterdrop

4. Monetize audience

• Memberships: Patreon, Memberful, SpecialProjects, LaunchPass,Glow, Supercast
• Courses: Teachable, Thinkific, Podia, HeightsPlatform, Virtually,SkillShare, Uscreen, Didactic, GamerzClass, Airsubs
• Link in bio: Flooz, Koji, Beacons, LinkTree, Snipfeed
• Fan interactions: Superpeer, OnlyFans, Jemi, Starsona, Fundo,Cameo, Looped, StreamLoots
• Events: MomentHouse, RunTheWorld, Luma
• Donation: BuyMeACoffee, Ko-fi
• Digital Downloads: Gumroad, Ejunkie, Payhip
• Brand deals: HashtagPaid, PopularPlays, Tribe, ThePlug, Popcorn,Loots

5. Manage business

• Business-in-a-box: Shopify, Pico, Sounder, Anchor, RedCircle,Strydal, Playbook, SamCart, Kajabi, CreatorOS, Quorum
• FinTech: Karat, ReleasePlan
• Analytics: Stir, Kobalt, VidIQ, TubeBuddy
• Project management: FamePick, CloutJam, MoeAssist

In the next articles in the series we will cover Challenges faced by Creator Economy globally, Creator Economy in Indian and Opportunities in the creator economy. Follow me on Linkedin or twitter so that you don’t miss my next article. Feel free to email me or message me if you would like to discuss creator economy or have a different take on it.