The Rise of Creators🌱

Who and How

Almost 8 years ago, in 2013, I discovered Lilly Singh as Superwoman and started enjoying her comedy content on YouTube. Then, I was obsessed with Bethany Mota and her routine videos. For me, she is the OG lifestyle blogger. Now, I have discovered many creators who are entertaining (and educational) and they are thriving across many platforms.

Over the years, people have started to create various kinds of content. This has also given rise to niche platforms for fields like writing, teaching, fitness, and more. In 2019, 86% of young Americans wanted to become content creators. This will become a reality in the next 5 years as there are many tech startups supporting their ambitions and Venture Capitalists pouring money 💸.

A creator is someone who builds or originates anything and gains an audience. They scale without permission. These creators have many homes where they connect with their audience.

This is a small table.

Creators are everywhere and have amassed a huge following. Where there are people, there has to be a way to make money as well. This is very well defined by Li Jin as creator or passion economy.

At the moment there are innumerable ways for a creator to monetize: join a platform, launch their own Shopify kind of a page, link-in-bio tools, sell subscriptions, etc. The OG is Patreon 😎 which was launched in 2013 and offered a membership plus subscription offers to a creators’ audience. But, it only recently took off. I noticed it in early 2020 when Molly Baz got onto Patreon and marketed it on IG stories. In reality, by the birth of these 3rd party apps and services, IG and YouTube have become audience generating and marketing platforms.

In India, the number of creators has boomed and they are earning but they don’t actively use any platform or app to monetize. Their main focus is “influencer marketing”, sponsorships with brands, and collaboration. The biggest example that can be seen is Netflix using Indian YouTubers to feature on their YouTube channel and creating content promoting Netflix’s content (such a brilliant move!).

Recently, big influencers on YouTube and IG have started to release their merch but it’s still not a proven success. Prajakta Koli, known as MostlySane and one of the biggest YouTubers in India recently launched her merch on Merch Bay (nascent Indian merch selling tool).

The best thing about Indian creators is they will adopt any social media platform, grow an audience on it and start getting sponsored by brands. This happened a month after Clubhouse launched in India and there were rooms with Tinder sponsorship.

This post was about creators, I will write more with more content about the passion economy with a focus on the Indian economy as well. Stay with me! 💌