Economic predictions for the creator economy: The forecast for 2023 --
The creator economy was full of viral moments in 2022. ChatGPT was introduced as did it was the year that Corn Kid and Chrissy Wake Up were rerun (IYKYK), and Creators regularly graced our screens with something to learn or to laugh at. At the same time, the creator economy, and the companies that support it, experienced a variety of shifts. In the industry, there were numerous technological layoffs at companies like Patreon, Thinkific, and Meta as well as the 50% decrease in funds for creator-related startups. Many are wondering, what's next for the creator-related industry?
Going into 2023, companies that operate in the creative economy will need to prioritize creator-first solutions that address the core issue around monetization.Before we dive deep into our top predictions and the most important starter kit for creators this year's calendar, we'll first review the top our findings on trends in the creator economy in 2022.
The top trends for creators from 2022
For a better understanding of the life of creators last year we conducted a survey of creators about the sources of income, methods to monetize, and social media use. Three key trends emerged:
- Most creators can't afford to pursue their creator company full-time.
- The video content as well as the platforms supporting it rule supreme.
- Most creators depend on third-party monetization as a way to earn money from their content.
Tendencies in the income
In a digital world that can be viral one minute and have several brand sponsorships every day, people want to know what creators make, especially amateurs looking to determine if it's possible to make it a viable career choice.
We asked creators what they made from their online accounts over the last 12 months. Not surprisingly, 42% of creators made $10,000 or lesswhile just 9% of the creators earned over $250,000. About 22% of creators earned less than $1000from their work.
Creators that earned income from their work, YouTube at 23% was the best platform which they earned the majority of their income. TikTok came in second, in third place, followed by Instagram as well as in-person events.
The past was when YouTube was one of the sole social networks to offer ad revenues to creators through AdSense which is what explains its popularity among creators. Still, the payouts are minimal since 97.5 percent of YouTube users aren't making enough to reach the U.S. poverty line. In TikTok and Instagram there are sponsored feed content and videos that promote brands are usually much more profitable as compared to the creator fund payments, which are small for the amount of creators on the platforms.
Furthermore, there are multiple ways for creators to earn revenue from their work, including direct commercialization (charging customers using their website or tools, or a platform like ) as well as third-party commercialization (brand sponsorships or ads to another business). We asked creators whether and what they used to monetize the following types of their content. These included online course, live webinars, coaching podcasts, newsletters online events, ebooks blog posts and social media posts. blog articles. Creators can also choose if they offered the content types for free or not.
At 40% the online course proved to be the most popular option to directly earn money from. For third-party monetization, coaching at 35% was most sought-after. Finally, newsletters and blog posts ranked 39%, which is the highest number of type of content that creators could offer for free.
Overall, third-party monetization was the most popular method for creators, such as accepting sponsorships for a podcast or posting an #ad to social media. This is in line with the fact that 69% of creators say they depend on third-party monetization such as brands to earn money.
Social media trends
Social media because it's an important social media tool for building audiences and communicating with them. When it came to social media platforms, YouTube had the largest percentage of creators on the platform, with 77 percent. Facebook came in second at 72%, Instagram with 70% and TikTok with 62 percentage. The least-popular social media site was LinkedIn which was rated at just 27%. YouTube's rise in popularity confirms our earlier research that found it to be the most popular platform where creators make most of their creator-related earnings.
Let's talk about people who use social media. There's an argument about the creation economy and in order to become a successful creator, you need to amass hundreds of thousands and even million of fans. But, according to our results, the vast majority of creators are just a few thousand social media followers cumulatively across every social media platform. Around 35% reported follower counts between 1,000-9,999 and 26% had less than 1,000 followers. Most creators are at the micro-influencer level (less than 50k followers) which can be advantageous and appealing to companies since micro-influencers enjoy an extremely loyal and niche following with an increased involvement level.
Also, we asked creators about the activities on social media they took part in. For example, did they work in conjunction with a brand for campaigns or even host a live video event via a feed on social media? With 48% of the votes The most used activity creators reported doing was responding to comments and inquiries about stories or posts. In second place, 36% of creators reported that they developed digital products as a complement to with their marketing via influencers. Being connected to your online audience is a non-negotiable for creators. Responding to the comments or questions posted in posts is an excellent starting point for building a unique brand and improving customer engagement.
Overall, these findings from 2022 confirm that content creators are constantly creating a wealth of material, particularly for social media, but only the most successful get the highest returns.
Economic predictions of the Creator for 2023
There's been plenty of predictions about what's going to happen to the economy of creators in 2023. There are hot emerging AI applications popping up, YouTube and TikTok going against each other to gain over viewers, heightened burning out of the creator, and eventually, TikTok replacing Google as the new search engine.
The most important problem is that creators are increasingly finding that using social media platforms to get paid doesn't work. Even the most successful creators are beginning to point this fact out. The influencer Hank Green revealed the amount of his earnings was $0.02 to $0.03 for every 1000 views on TikTok the world's most famous influential MrBeast claimed he earned less than 15,000 dollars a year through TikTok even though his videos have racked up billions of views.
As we move into 2023, creators will lean towards solutions that are creator-first and that let them make money from what their work is worth. As a leading player in the direct-to-creator market there are three main expectations for the year ahead:
1. More creators will start to own their online communities.
2. Creators can count on social media as traffic sources, and not of a revenue stream.
3. Live interaction with the public will be a huge comeback.
It's been three years since the outbreak of the pandemic which will be a factor in 2023 when the return of in-person events with full force. While events made a mini-comeback in 2022, the attendance of events was nevertheless down because people decided to remain at home and use alternatives that were hybrid. As we move into 2023, we'll see many more creators to hold live events in person, be it meetups, workshops, events that are live, such as retreats or classes. The events that were held in person were an element of the top three ways that creators earned the bulk of their earnings. It's expected that they'll keep expanding in this area.
4. Creators are increasingly relying on AI tools to help run their businesses.
If you've not been living under a rock, you are aware that ChatGPT has taken over the internet. The model is trained by OpenAI that can assist in the creation of content--long stories in short. You give a subject or query and ChatGPT creates the content for you. Also, (spoiler warning) the text is usually quite good. Creators will start to use software such as ChatGPT to assist them to increase and accelerate their content output. This helps to prevent creator burnout.
The Creator starter pack designed for 2023.
No matter what will happen during the year ahead Creators must ensure the security of their business with the appropriate devices. If you're a creator rearing to take on this year's business, here's the best starter kit:
- Direct monetization toolin order to enable creators to be able to focus on the things they enjoy full-time and also earn the amount their work is worth Direct monetization is essential. We call this the direct-to-creator market. Instead of relying on third party sponsorships such as ads or brand deals, creators should be in the forefront of their business deciding the price of their content. Creator-first tools like empower creators to do just that through direct monetization of digital products such as courses, coaching podcasts, memberships, websites as well as communities. It also helps to streamline your company so that everything can be centralized. creators have generated over $4.3 billion in revenues and manage all of it.
In 2023, one thing's obvious: creators should be in the driver's seat in the decision of what their work is worth. While social media will remain crucial to build brand awareness and connecting with an audience those who depend solely on social media to run their own business play an unwise game.
The goal is to become a major component of the creative economy discussion--through data-supported findings and anecdotes, we hope that we can make monetization easier for all knowledge creators. We've discovered that that one-third of creatives with whom we have a full-time online businesses earn over the six-figure mark..
Methodology:
The insights in this survey come from first-party sources. The survey was sent to over 1,900 creators who don't use . We got 1,046 responses, with a 95% confidence interval. It is important to note that we are not able to get email data from customers using another email marketing platform as well as we are not able to record the revenue figures for transaction or income that is that is not processed through the platform. Data is provided used for general analysis only. Individual responses are confidential, and we will not divulge information about the individual's identity with any third-party. If you would like access to the data, or to inquire about collaboration you can contact [email protected].