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    Why tech founders are building creator economy monetisation businesses

    Synopsis

    The creator economy in India is fighting for respect from industry veterans. At the same time, it has the backing of some of the startup world’s biggest names.

    Creator Economy_MonetisationETtech
    Illustration: Rahul Awasthi
    Whether through nirvana or crushing boredom, it seems nothing quite gets people’s creative juices flowing like being locked away in their homes for a few months. The creator economy, unlike the real one, has boomed during the pandemic, at a pace that would put even the most nimble startup to shame.

    The creator economy is like startups on steroids

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    Three days ago, an investor in a ‘creator economy’ platform told us that everything that has happened in the startup world in the past 20 years will happen in the creator world in the next 10.

    A founder, who is building a creator economy platform, said it’ll happen in the next three years itself.

    Given all the activity this space has seen in just the last three months—from creators turning investors and investees—we cannot wait to see what even the next three weeks will bring about.

    So, we tried to unpack it all for you this morning.

    But first, some context.

    The creator economy has pretty much exploded amid the ongoing pandemic.

    Every day, someone we knew or knew of either started a podcast or a newsletter or a good ol’ YouTube channel. More recently, it was a Clubhouse room.

    But just like their predecessors in the ceWebrity world (it’s a legit term), they too were quick to realise that for all the followers and hearts creators rake in, only the top 1-2% end up making enough money off their fandom to call it more than just a “side hustle”. (ETtech has written about this in two separate stories last year. They can be read here and here.)

    This time, though, the creator economy has the blessings of the tech community as entrepreneurs and investors in the West, and back home, look to develop and support businesses that solve the problem of monetisation for creators either by creating tools or strong community-led platforms for them.

    Since the start of the year, for instance, Silicon Valley has shown extraordinary interest in building for the creator economy.

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    We see it in Twitter’s announcement of an upcoming feature, Super Follow, that will allow users to ask their followers to pay to access some of their tweets. And in its acquisition of newsletter startup Revue.

    Even as Twitter gears up to compete with Substack, a writer’s collective on Substack called ‘Everything Bundle’ spun out of the subscription newsletter platform to start their own content and newsletter software company, Every, with $600,000 in seed funding.

    Last month, Li Jin, a tech investor who coined the term “passion economy” in 2019, announced Atelier Ventures, a $13 million fund to support said passion economy.

    Jin, who was previously with Bay Area’s leading VC fund, a16z, is currently running a limited-entry, three-week ‘Creator Economy' course that costs $1,250.

    Meanwhile, a16z just invested an undisclosed amount in creator economy startup, Stir, which helps creators manage their income streams, at a valuation of $100 million.

    ION: At least 40 popular Clubhouse members have come together to form the “Audio Collective” with the aim to help brands, businesses, and creators optimise their impact on live-audio platforms like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, et al.

    India Stack Coming Together

    Techies back home have also been busy building for the creator economy and raising institutional funding for their respective early-stage startups.

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    However, their journey will be very different from that of their counterparts in the US.

    As one founder building for this sector says, “We operate across two different worlds. One is on Twitter, where you see the likes of Li Jin talk about building a community of 100 true fans.”

    “The other is offline (these days on Zoom calls), where the marketer we signed a deal with watches an obscure TV channel every day to track their ad placements!”

    At present, the creator economy in India is fighting for respect from industry veterans. At the same time, it has the backing of some of the startup world’s biggest names.
    ( Originally published on Mar 09, 2021 )
    The Economic Times

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