State of the Creator Economy in 2022 Continued
Part II: More notes from Adobe, Patreon and company.
Hello Everyone,
Here we continue from our post last time.
As the Newsletter Clone Wars continues for written Creators, most of the fun is happening obviously in video.
But we sometimes forget the global nature of the rising excitement around the Creator Economy. The Survey by Adobe is pretty fine.
Glamorous Venture Capitalists paint a pretty picture.
If you aren’t rich and famous, the reality is actually a bit different.
More than 165 million creators joined the global creator economy in the last two years with significant growth in the U.S. (+34 million new creators), Spain (+10 million), South Korea (+11 million) and Brazil (+73 million)
One in four people are contributing to online spaces, reshaping the future of work, social causes and mental health
17% of creators are business owners, while 39% aspire to become a business owner one day
Adobe did a 15-min online survey in May, 2022.
They focused on US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Brazil markets.
Adobe also paints a rather optimistic cheer around the Creator Economy, which I suppose is in their best interests.
SINCE 2020, THE CREATOR ECONOMY HAS GROWN EXPONENTIALLY - Adobe Survey of Spring of 2022
I think they mean to say in new countries where it wasn’t a big deal before.
Over 1 in 2 (52%) creators began posting social content in the past two years. Markets like Brazil, South Korea, Spain and France show significant jumps in new creators.
Markets like Brazil, Spain and South Korea have the highest concentration of creators while markets like the US, Brazil, and Germany have the biggest creator populations.
It makes sense that the home of K-Pop (South Korea) and Brazil’s carnival like culture would embrace some aspects of the Creator Economy.
While many creators aspire to be “influencers”, it’s not clear if they understand that being a micro-influencer is okay too.
Only 14% of Creators are Influencers
There is a difference between a creator and influencer. Influencers make up a small share of all creators—only 14% of all global creators—or 3% of the population in surveyed markets. However, they are more prominent in markets like Brazil, Australia, UK, and US.
Also we have to mention here that social commerce (i.e. the role of influencers in E-commerce is vastly different between the East and West). While influencers sometimes have Shopify stories to sell stuff, it’s relatively rare.
NOT In it for the $ money
The reality is the Creator Economy is about a deep intrinsic exploration of self-expression. While less than one-third of creators create for monetary reasons. Which is good since it’s pretty hard to monetize for some of us.
Fame and Fortune?
Being an influencer does bring in money. More than half (51%) of influencers are making in the top income bracket or the US equivalent of bringing in over household income of $100K+ (value equalized across countries).
We have to assume the majority of these are video creators, on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram.
What Compounds is actually Art
The more creators post and the more time they spend creating—the more positive they feel especially among business owners and influencers.
Forget the gimmicks that tell you audience growth compounds, focus on the art, creativity and positivity of the act! Follow your bliss!
Creation vs. Consumption
Those who actively creative content tend to be higher on the spectrum of well-being.
In the case of creators who find and derive pleasure from sharing their work, there is an inverse relationship with social media. The more time spent creating and posting social content, the higher the reported positivity.
That’s weirdly good news!
Being Part of a Larger Cause
Creators agree that creating online content has a big impact on advancing causes— especially influencers (74%) and social cause creators (73%).
Unlocking Thy Inner Activist
For those fearing an impact on monetization, many social cause creators earn money from social despite posting potentially sensitive content. Similarly, influencers don’t shy away from social cause activism—in fact, they embrace it.
Addicted to Building a Tribe ?
Brazil, Spain and South Korea have the highest percentages of Creators among the total populations. It is substantially higher than in the United States. Don’t assume the Creator Economy is an American thing. Check out how Chinese use mobile live-streaming to sell E-commerce items, - it’s off the charts!
Creators globally skew Millennial and Male, which makes sense Millennials are a pretty big cohort active on the internet today.
MORE THAN 40% OF CREATORS, GLOBALLY, ARE MILLENNIALS AND THEY SKEW SLIGHTLY MALE AT 52%.
I’ve always wondered why the most dominant YouTube, TikTok and Twitch Creators tend to be male? Nobody has explained the reason well to me.
Influencer Entrepreneurs
2 IN 10 CREATORS OWN THEIR OWN CONTENT RELATED BUSINESS—WITH THE US, UK, AUSTRALIA, AND GERMANY NOTING THE HIGHEST SHARE.
Owning your own content is important if you want to diversity and maximize its monetization potential. Many platforms don’t actually share much of the revenue with you and you don’t always own your own content, Email lists and so forth so be careful.
So in this sense in the U.S., the Creator Economy is a movement for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses.
26% of creators in the US are business owners—and this translates to 22 million business owners in the US
This will only get higher in other places as more platforms and possibilities occur for Creators to actualize their self-expression in Web3 and in new unexpected ways.
Do Many Creators Want to Become Influencers?
IG and TikTok have created incentives for glamor, but YouTube is still the place where the most hungry creators go to make it big. Few will ever make it on smaller platforms like Twitch, Snap, Twitter, Pinterest, etc…
Your chances of becoming an influencer outside of Video are slim. However micro influencers can still make an income.
On Substack: politics, finance and edutainment for professionals content has struck a chord in recent years. Who would have thought?
Tangible Benefits of Living in Creator Hotspots Uncovered
This is more insightful a realization then it seems. As actors once moved to California, Creators could consider moving to a better town for their own pursuits.
Here ends our second edition of the Adobe Survey on Creators summary.
Thanks for reading!