Forecast for the economy of creators The 2023 forecast -
The economy of the creator featured a myriad of viral videos in 2022: ChatGPT made its entrance as did the Corn Kid and Chrissy Wake Up played on repeat (IYKYK), and the creators were constantly on our newsfeeds with new things to know or share a laugh with. At the same time the market for creators and the companies that support it, saw a number of changes. The industry saw dozens of technological layoffs at companies like Patreon, Thinkific, and Meta, and there was the 50 percent drop in the amount of funding available to creator-related startups. Many are thinking, what's the next step for the industry?
As 2023 approaches, organizations that operate in the creative economy will need to prioritize creator-first solutions that help solve the core issue around monetization.Before we dig into our key predictions as well as the key starter kit for creators this year, let's first take a look at our findings on trends in the creator economy in 2022.
Trends for creators in the top 10 from 2022
To get a pulse on the lives of creators in 2013, we conducted a survey of creators about the sources of income, methods to monetize, and social media use. Three major trends were identified:
- A majority of creators don't make enough money income to sustain their businesses 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 make money on their works.
Tendencies in the income
In the digital age, where you can go on the internet one moment and get numerous brand sponsorship opportunities every day, people want to know what creators make, especially amateurs looking to determine if it's an option for a career.
We asked creators to tell us how much they earned from online sources over the last 12 months. Not surprisingly, 42 percent of creators earned at least $10,000while just 9% of the creators earned over $250,000. The average is 22percent of creators made less than $1,000from their work.
For creators who earned income from their work, YouTube with 23% was the most popular platform where they made most of their money. TikTok placed second in third place, followed by Instagram as well as in-person events.
Historically, YouTube was one of the few social media platforms that share ad revenue with creators through AdSense which is what explains its popularity among creators. Still, the payouts are minimal because 97.5% of YouTubers don't make enough to make it over the U.S. poverty line. In TikTok as well as Instagram the feeds of sponsored videos and posts for branding deals tend to be higher-paying than the creator fund payouts which are too small for the amount of creators who use the platforms.
Furthermore, there are multiple ways for creators to earn revenue from their content including direct monetization (charging customers via their website or tools, or an online platform such as ) and third-party revenue generation (brand advertising or sponsorships for another company). We asked creators whether and how they monetized these types of their content. These included online course, live webinars, coaching, newsletters, podcasts, live events, books, blog posts and social media posts. blog posts. Creators also had the option of choosing if they offered their content in exchange for a fee or did not offer them.
at 40% an online course was found to be the most popular product to directly profit from. Third-party monetization was the most popular. Coaching at 35% was the most popular. Finally, newsletters and blog posts ranked 39% to be the most popular kinds of content creators that are offered at no cost.
In the aggregate, third-party monetization was the most-loved strategy among creators--for example, getting sponsorships from podcasts or putting up an #ad on social media. This relates back to the reality that 60% of creators believe they rely on third-party monetization such as brand deals to make money.
Social media trends
The creators are a part of social media as it's an essential tools for communication and audience building. With regard to platforms for social media, YouTube had the most creators using the platform, with 77%. Facebook came in second with 72% followed by Instagram at 70%, and TikTok at 62%. The least popular social media site was LinkedIn which was rated at just 27 percent. YouTube's rise in popularity confirms our earlier results that YouTube is the best platform on which creators earn the majority of their creator-related income.
We'll talk about people who use social media. There's rhetoric within the world of creators that to be a successful creator one must have hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers. In our research findings, the majority of creators are just a few thousand social media followers cumulatively across every social media platform. The majority of them reported following numbers between 1,000 and 999, while 26% said they had under 1,000. The majority of creators fall at the micro-influencer level (less than 50k followers) that can prove advantageous and appealing to companies as micro-influencers have an exceptionally loyal and niche following with an increased engagement level.
Also, we asked creators about the events on social media that they participated in. In other words, did they work in conjunction with a brand for an initiative or organize an event live via a feed on social media? at 48%, the most popular task creators have reported was replying to comments and inquiries about stories or posts. In second place, just 36% of authors stated that they created digital products as a complement to the influencer-based marketing they do. Being connected to your online audience is essential for all creators; responding to the comments or questions posted in posts is an excellent way to build a genuine image and increasing engagement with customers.
The overall results of 2022 reinforce that creators are constantly creating a wealth of material, particularly for social networks, however only the most successful have the greatest success.
Economic predictions of the Creator for 2023
There's already been plenty of predictions about what's going to happen to the economy of creators in 2023. There are hot innovative AI applications popping up, YouTube and TikTok going head to head to win over viewers, heightened burning out of the creator, and eventually, TikTok replacing Google as the next search engine.
The most important problem is that creators are increasingly finding that relying on social platforms to get paid doesn't work. Many of the most popular creators have started to call this out. The influencer Hank Green revealed his earnings amounted to only $0.02 to $0.03 per 1,000 viewers on TikTok as well as the world-renowned influential MrBeast claimed he earned less than $15,000 a year on TikTok despite the fact that his content has garnered billions of viewers.
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 economy space, we have three key forecasts for the coming year:
1. The more creators are likely taking control of their online communities.
2. Creators will rely on social media for traffic sources, and not of an income stream.
3. The ability to interact with people live could make a full comeback.
It's been 3 years since the onset of the epidemic in 2022, and the year 2023 is expected to see the return of in-person events fully. Even though events saw a slight revival at the end of 2022 the attendance of events was still down as people chose to avoid the crowds with hybrid options. Going into 2023, we're expecting more creators to host live events in person, be it meetups, workshops, online classes or retreats. In-person events have been an element of the top three methods creators earned the bulk of their money. It's likely they'll continue to build in this area.
4. Creators are increasingly relying on AI tools to run their operations.
If you've not been living under a rock for a while, you know that ChatGPT is now the dominant internet. It's a model that has been trained by OpenAI that can help with content creation--long stories in short. You choose a topic or question and ChatGPT creates the content for you. It's also worth noting that (spoiler alert) it's usually pretty good. Creators will start to use software such as ChatGPT to aid them in increasing the quality of their output and speed up their process. This helps to prevent creator burnout.
The Starter pack of the creator for 2023.
Regardless of what happens this year Creators must ensure the security of their businesses with the right devices. If you're a creator rearing to get started this year's business, here's the best starter kit:
- Direct-monetization tool- In order for creators to pursue the things they enjoy full-time as well as earn what their work is worth direct monetization is crucial. We call this the direct-to-creator economics. Instead of relying on third-party sponsorships like ads or brand partnerships, creators should be in the forefront of their business in determining the cost of their content. Creator-first tools allow creators to do just that through directly monetizing digital content including courses, coaching, podcasts, memberships, and communities--plus, helps simplify your business, so that all of it can be centralized. Creators have earned more than $4.3 billion in revenue--and they keep all of it.
When we enter 2023, one thing's obvious: creators should remain in control in deciding what their content is worth. Social media, while it will be essential to establishing brand recognition and engaging with audiences those who depend solely on social media for their own business play an unwise game.
aims to be a key component of the creative economy debate. Through data-based findings and anecdotes, we hope to make the path to making money easier for all creators. We've found one in three makers on who work full-time on their online ventures earn more than six figures.
Methodology:
The findings in this survey are first-party data. We sent a survey to over 1,900 creators who do not use . We got 1,046 responses, with a 95% confidence interval. Please note we cannot access the email addresses of customers who use an alternative email marketing service We are unable to collect revenues for transactions or revenue processed outside of the platform. Data is provided to be used only for general research purposes. The individual responses are private, and we don't share your identity in public or with any third-party. If you would like access to the data, or for a discussion about collaborating contact us at [email protected].