#creator-economy

#creator-economy

Observer's inaugural New Media Power List recognizes the individuals who are defining how information, influence and capital move in the digital age. This is not a list about celebrity or follower counts alone, but a rigorous assessment of who holds real power in the new media ecosystem: the creators building loyal audiences outside traditional structures, the builders designing the infrastructure everyone else depends on, and the intelligence leaders whose tools determine where billions of advertising and PR dollars flow.

As an Asian-American kid growing up to an immigrant mom in North Carolina, I was taught to follow the rules (no exceptions). I was a Boy Scout, graduated top of my class and was hired by Goldman Sachs immediately after graduating undergrad. I had followed what I thought was the "right" path. I was living in the greatest city in the world (New York City, of course) and working at one of the best companies in the world ... but none of it felt right.

As the media landscape evolves, content creators are increasingly prioritizing audience ownership over algorithmic reach. Platforms driven by engagement algorithms - automated systems that determine what content users see based on factors such as past behavior, interests, interactions, and overall engagement - often dictate who actually receives a creator's posts. Since these algorithms constantly change and favor content that drives clicks, likes, and shares, it can be difficult for creators to maintain consistent, reliable relationships with their followers. This has fueled demand for tools that allow creators to communicate directly with fans and monetize engagement on their own terms.

I think the critical unlock here is having multi-year partnerships, having relationships that endure as opposed to just kind of the one-off partnership,

How it works: After years of building fan communities for major entertainment clients, TopFan is now offering creators a place to publish content, sell merch, livestream and own their audience data on one platform. Creators can launch custom-branded websites and mobile apps under their own URL and name. Artists can upload songs and albums for fans to purchase. TopFan can also host podcasts and provides video direct sales and distribution tech.

Naru Force will focus on developing "social-first formats, owned platforms, and AI-assisted content ecosystems," and create unscripted formats and IP for emerging streaming apps, creator platforms and social media distribution. AI tools will be integrated "to optimise workflows across the development, production, and brand-matching processes." The first format from the company will be K-pop-themed, and launch across social channels before an in-app debut follows.

Beauty and fashion influencer Eni Popoola first learned she'd been deepfaked the way many creators do: from her audience. A YouTube ad sent by a follower featured her face and her voice, promoting an online course she had never heard of. "People were sending screenshots saying, 'Hey, there's this video of you, and we obviously know it's not you, because this is not something that you would talk about,'" Popoola said. She's far from alone, as the experience of finding one's AI doppelganger - promoting unknown supplements, self-help content or beauty products - is becoming increasingly commonplace in the creator economy.

Inspired by '70s assembly lines and workshops, the duo-floor space offers personalized service to the brand's range of smartphones and audio products, and comes with studio space for social media content creators. It also features a community hangout zone with vending machines, claw games and conveyor belt displays, and a coffee shop in collaboration with Practically SoBar. The brand said the store will also host meetups and collaborations with local creators in the future, and offer Nothing brand merch.

The job reductions, which hit a variety of roles including software engineers and staffers who worked with creators, affected a low single-digit percentage of LTK's overall head count, which numbers over 550 employees, they said. "LTK recently completed a targeted organizational restructure to ensure we are aligned around the skills and priorities required for our next phase of growth," the spokesperson said. "This was not a broad-based layoff, but a strategic realignment focused on strengthening performance and positioning the business for long-term success."

Step, which raised half a billion in funding and has grown to over 7 million users, offers financial services geared toward Gen Z to help them build credit, save money, and invest. The company has attracted celebrity investors like Charli D'Amelio, Will Smith, The Chainsmokers, and Stephen Curry, in addition to venture firms like General Catalyst, Coatue, and the payments company Stripe.

A digital product is any non-physical item sold online and delivered electronically. This category encompasses a wide range of offerings: ebooks that teach specific skills, online courses that provide comprehensive training, design templates that save creators hours of work, stock media libraries offering photography and video, printables like planners and checklists, software tools that automate tasks, and audio files ranging from music to guided meditations.

Anyone in marketing gawking at the near-billion price tag attached to TikTok creator Khaby Lame and his deal with Rich Sparkle Holdings isn't really looking at innovation. They're witnessing faith. Faith in what this industry has collectively agreed to let numbers represent. Because that $975 million valuation doesn't seem to be rooted in the nuts and bolts of Lame's company Step Distinctive Limited's financials so much as the gravitational pull of his audience.

For years, the creator economy has rewarded founders who built audiences and companies simultaneously, serving as talent, brand, strategist and executive all at once. But as teams grow, revenue diversifies and operational complexity increases, that model is increasingly under pressure. One of the clearest examples comes from Smosh, one of YouTube's longest-standing creator businesses. Nearly two decades after its founding, Smosh has survived multiple platform evolutions, monetization resets and cultural changes by intentionally separating creative leadership from executive control.

Segal developed ELLO over seven years, drawing from his background operating a licensed YouTube Multi-Channel Network. The result is a hybrid platform that merges media publishing with secure messaging, eliminating reliance on social algorithms or third-party dashboards. ELLO supports video, audio, livestreaming, and digital publishing within a unified interface. For legacy media brands, the platform enables mobile-native magazine publishing-eschewing PDFs in favor of scrollable, interactive formats optimized for smartphone consumption.

What Patreon is referring to is the mandate Apple announced in 2024 around subscription billing changes. It said that Patreon must move all its creators to subscription billing using Apple's in-app purchase system by November 2025 or else Patreon would risk removal from the App Store. Apple made this decision because Patreon was managing the billing for some percentage of creators' subscriptions, and the tech giant saw that as skirting its App Store commission structure.

"Net-30 is still the most common, but it's definitely extending," said one talent agency executive. "I'm seeing a lot more 60, 45[-day payment windows], or 30 days from the end of the month [as opposed to from the date the campaign went live]. I've occasionally seen 90 and 180, but that's been a little rare. But it's extending a lot."

Despite selling Step Distinctive Limited to Rich Sparkle, Lame will remain as the controlling shareholder of the company. "This is not just an equity acquisition, but a revolution in the global content e-commerce model," Rich Sparkle said in a statement. The content creator also signed on for an AI likeness of himself to take shape, allowing more of his multilingual content to be shared on the global stage.

Michela Allocca, founder of the personal finance brand Break Your Budget, got started with just her iPhone and an Instagram account. She had a friend take pictures of her around Boston, where she was living and working at the time, "and I would literally post a picture of myself and write a long caption about three steps to start investing," she told Business Insider.

Duetti, a financing platform for independent artists, has raised $50M in Series C funding led by The Raine Group. Founded by Lior Tibon and Christopher Nolte in 2022, Duetti has now raised a total of $143M in reported equity funding. Benepass, a benefits administration platform, has raised $40M in Series B funding led by Cenana Growth Partners. Founded by Jaclyn Chen, Kabir Soorya, and Mark Fischer in 2019, Benepass has now raised a total of $74.7M in reported equity funding.

In a Financial Times op-ed late last month, he pointed to a major milestone in the creator economy: an analysis from WPP Media indicated that creator-generated content would fetch the same share of global ad revenue as the radio and newspaper industries would in 2025. "Advertising revenues are not flowing to traditional platforms," Donovan wrote. "To get a message across in the modern world, you need to find a 15-year-old with a smartphone and a nice set of dance moves."

According to XCreators, the initiative is designed to encourage creators to produce high-quality, original content that sparks conversation, breaks news and shapes culture. The winning article must be original, a minimum of 1,000 words and will be primarily judged based on Verified Home Timeline impressions. The official announcement states that content that violates X's policies or is hateful, fraudulent, or manipulative will not be taken into consideration, and that only users in the United States are eligible.