Creator economy predictions: The forecast for 2023 --
The world of creators was full of viral moments in 2022. ChatGPT was introduced as did it was the year that Corn Kid and Chrissy Wake Up played on repeat (IYKYK) as well as, of course, creators regularly graced our screens with something to learn or laugh about. However the market for creators and the companies fueling it, saw a number of changes. There were a lot of tech layoffs from players like Patreon, Thinkific, and Meta, and there was a 50 percent drop in the amount of funding available to creator-related startups. The result has many in the dark about what's to come for the industry?
Going into 2023, companies in the creator economy must focus on creator-first solutions to address the core issue around monetization.Before we get into our key predictions and the most important starter kit for creators the coming year, let's examine the creator trends we discovered in 2022.
Top creator trends in 2022
In order to gauge the lives of creators in 2013, we asked creators to provide feedback on their the sources of income, methods to monetize and use of social media. Three major trends were identified:
- Most creators can't afford income to sustain their business full-time.
- Videos and the media platforms supporting it rule supreme.
- The majority of creators rely on an external monetization service to make money on their work.
Trends in income
In a digital world where you can go viral one minute and have several brand sponsorships the next, everyone wants to know what the creators are earning--especially amateur creators that are interested in determining if this is possible to make it a viable career choice.
We asked creators what they had earned from online sources in the past 12 months. Not surprisingly, 42% of creators made at least $10,000while 9 percent of creators made above $250,000. The average is 22% of creators made less than $1,000from their content.
For creators who earned revenue from their content YouTube at 23 percent was the top platform that they generated the bulk of their earnings. TikTok was second in third place, followed by Instagram as well as in-person events.
The past was when YouTube was the only social platforms to share ad revenue with creators through AdSense which is what explains its popularity with creators. Still, the payouts are minimal because 97.5 percent of YouTubers do not earn enough money to make it over the U.S. poverty line. In TikTok and Instagram the feeds of sponsored posts and videos for brand deals are typically much more profitable in comparison to the creator fund payouts which are too small for the amount of creators on the platforms.
Furthermore, there are multiple methods creators can earn money from their work, including direct commercialization (charging customers via their own tools/website or through platforms like ) and third-party revenue generation (brand sponsorships or ads for another company). We asked creators whether and how they monetized the following forms of their content. These included online courses, live webinars, coaching newsletters, podcasts, in-person events, ebooks, blog posts and social media posts. blog articles. Creators also had the option of choosing to offer their content in exchange for a fee or didn't offer them.
At 40% the online course proved to be the most sought-after option to directly earn money from. For third-party monetization, coaching at 35% was the most popular. Finally, newsletters and blog posts ranked 39% to be the most popular type of content that creators could offer at no cost.
Cumulatively, third-party monetization was the most-loved technique for creators, such as accepting sponsorships for a podcast or posting an #ad on social media. This is in line with the reality that 69% of creators believe they rely on third-party monetization, such as branding deals to generate revenue.
Trends in social media
Social media as it's an essential tools for communication and audience building. With regard to social media sites, YouTube had the most creators using the platform at 77%. Facebook came in second at 72%, Instagram at 70%, and TikTok at 62%. The least-popular social media site was LinkedIn at 27%. YouTube's popularity supports our previous results that YouTube is the best platform for creators to earn most of their creator-related income.
We'll talk about the social media users. It's a common belief in the creator economy that in order to become a successful creator one must have hundreds or thousands, and perhaps million of fans. In our research findings, the majority of creators have under 10,000 social media followers cumulatively across every social media platform. About 35% of respondents reported following counts between 1,000 and 9,999 while 26% had less than 1,000. The majority of creators fall at the level of micro-influencers (less than 10,000 followers) which can be advantageous and appealing for brands as micro-influencers have an extremely loyal and niche following with an increased involvement level.
We also asked creators what actions on social media they were involved in. Like, for instance did they collaborate with a brand on a campaign or host a live video event through a social feed? At 48% of the time, the most frequent action creators were able to report was responding to comments and questions on posts and stories. Second in the list was just 36% of authors said they designed digital products in order in order to supplement their influencer marketing. Being connected to your online audience is an essential requirement 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 have been busy creating tons of content, especially on social networks, however only the top few are reaping the most rewards.
Economic predictions of the Creator for 2023
There have already been plenty of predictions about the future of the creator economy in 2023--hot innovative AI applications popping up, YouTube and TikTok going in a battle to win the hearts of audiences, increased creator burnout, and even, TikTok replacing Google as the next search engine.
But, the most poignant problem is that creators are increasingly finding that using social media platforms for payment isn't working. Some of the top creators are starting to figure this fact out. The influencer Hank Green revealed his earnings amounted to only $0.02 to $0.03 for every 1000 views on TikTok as well as the world-renowned influencer MrBeast said he made less than $15,000 a year on TikTok despite the fact that his videos have racked up billions of viewers.
As we move into 2023, creatives will be leaning into creator-first solutions and methods that allow them to get paid for what their content worth. In its position as a leader in the direct-to-creator market, we have three key predictions for the new year:
1. The more creators are likely taking control of their online communities.
2. Creators can count on social media to be an avenue for traffic, not as of income streams.
3. The ability to interact with people live could make a full comeback.
It's been 3 years since the onset of the pandemic in 2022, and the year 2023 is expected to see in-person events return in full force. Although events had a brief revival in 2022, the attendance of events was still down because people decided to stay home with hybrid options. In 2023, we expect more creators to host in-person events whether that means meetings, workshops, live classes, or retreats. We found in-person events were an element of the top three methods creators generated the largest portion of their earnings. It's expected that they'll keep expanding in this area.
4. Creators are increasingly relying on AI tools to run their business.
If you've not been living under a rock, are aware that ChatGPT has overtaken the internet. It's a model that has been trained by OpenAI that can assist in the creation of content--long stories in short. You provide a topic or a question and ChatGPT can generate the text for you. Also, (spoiler alert) it's usually pretty good. Creators are likely to begin using software like ChatGPT to help them increase and improve the quality of their work. This helps to prevent creator burnout.
The Creator starter pack designed for 2023.
Whatever happens during the year ahead Creators must ensure the security of their businesses with the right equipment. If you're an aspiring creator looking to take on this year's year of innovation, this is your ultimate starter pack:
- Direct-monetization tool- In order for creators to pursue what they love full-time, as well as earn what their work is worth, direct monetization is key. This is known as the direct-to-creator economics. Instead of relying on third party sponsorships like ads or brand agreements, the creators must be at the top of their game when it comes to in determining the cost of their content. Tools that are geared towards creators allow them to achieve this through directly monetizing digital content like courses, coaching memberships, podcasts, websites, and communities--plus, helps streamline your business so everything can be located in one place. Creators have generated more than $4.3 billion in earnings and manage all of it.
In 2023, one thing is clear: creators need to take the lead when it comes to the decision of what their work is worth. Although social media is essential to establishing brand recognition and connecting with a target audience but creators who solely rely on social media in their businesses are playing an unwise game.
The goal is to become a major part of the creator economy conversation. By presenting data-based research and stories, we aim to make the path to making money easier for all creators. We've found one in three creators that work full-time on their online businesses earn over six figures.
Methodology:
The findings in this survey are first-party data. We sent a survey to more than 1,900 creators that do not use . We received 1,046 responses that have a 95% confidence interval. We are unable to access the email addresses of customers who use another email marketing platform We are unable to collect revenue numbers for any revenues or transactions that are that is not processed through the platform. All data is for general analytical use only. The individual responses are private, and we do not share information about the individual's identity with third parties. If you would like access to the data, or to inquire about collaboration contact us at [email protected].