#creator-economy

#creator-economy

"The popularity of YouTube podcasts among conservatives is driving a boom in small businesses tailoring ads to their millions of listeners, paying hosts like Joe Rogan and Candace Owens to read out promotions in the hope that fans will place orders. The phenomenon has enriched both the hosts and YouTube, supporting further growth of the businesses using ideology to sell."

But what sets "Two Sleepy People" apart is that it was funded and produced entirely by digital creators. The Austin-based creator collective Creator Camp was established in 2021 as a way to disrupt Hollywood by giving creators the funding, tools and distribution they need to expand beyond social media. And Ryan's drifting, cerebral romantic comedy is Camp Studio's first bet out of its three-feature theatrical deal with Attend Theatrical Marketplace.

My first job out of college was at Microsoft, where I worked as a program manager and product manager from 2018 to 2023. In January 2023, I left my Big Tech job to work for a creator commerce platform. There, I developed an AI product, which led to me landing a senior AI role at Microsoft in July 2024. In the current job market, AI feels like the safest domain to be an expert in.

The creator economy has spent the last decade quietly normalizing one assumption: if a platform enables you to earn, the platform deserves a percentage of what you make. Subscription fees, digital product marketplaces and course platforms all typically operate on take rates, turning creator revenue into shared revenue, often heavily shared. Tyler Denk, the CEO and co-founder of Beehiiv, believes that assumption is overdue for a reset. And his company's latest product expansion is designed around challenging it.

After officially recognizing creators as small businesses in 2024, Visa 's newly released "Monetized: 2025 Creator Report" provides new insights, demystifying the creator landscape and informing better financial infrastructure to support creators. Since the advent of Web 2.0 and social media platforms in the early 2000s, a "creator economy" fueled by independent, user-generated content has flourished. Now, a quarter into the 21st century, the creator economy is expected to reach an industry valuation of $500 billion USD according to Visa, further cementing content creators as legitimate business owners.

Key Stat: 32% of US and UK consumers say AI is negatively disrupting the creator economy, up from 18% in 2023, according to July 2025 data from Billion Dollar Boy. Beyond this chart: Gen Z's AI tolerance depends on the use case. Some 54% prefer no AI involvement in creative work, but only 13% feel this way about shopping, according to an August 2025 Goldman Sachs survey.

Trump threatens $1bn lawsuit against BBC Trump has threatened a USD$1bn (£740m) lawsuit against the BBC over a Panorama episode aired before the 2024 US election. Trump's legal team claims the program misrepresented his speech on 6th January 2021 by editing remarks to suggest he encouraged violence at the Capitol. Trump accuses the BBC of making "false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements" about him.

"This is something that was overdue in our country, and we're glad to have the leading position and be able to bring these opportunities to our students," said Mark Lodato, dean of Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

iHeartMedia, the leading audio company in America, and TikTok, the world's leading destination for short-form mobile video, today announced a groundbreaking, multiplatform partnership that will bring TikTok creators into iHeart's ecosystem. This collaboration includes the launch of the TikTok Podcast Network, which will feature up to 25 new podcasts hosted by TikTok creators, as well as a national broadcast and digital radio station, and a series of live event integrations.

Open the YouTube app today, and a Short starts playing before you've even tapped anything. Your subscriptions and recommendations are pushed a layer deeper. This is the hostile takeover of your user experience. For most of its life, YouTube was a place you visited with a purpose. You searched for tutorials, watched creators you followed, or looked up something specific.

In the bright, brand-new lobby of a Back Bay advertising agency, a step-and-repeat bearing the city of Boston's seal is set up like a Fashion Week photo wall. Mayor Michelle Wu, cradling her infant daughter, leans in for snapshots with a steady stream of visitors: a woman in a crimson corduroy coat, another in a cardigan dotted with three-dimensional flowers.

The platform simplifies social media engagement by automating conversations through Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. What started as a messenger automation startup has evolved into a global community of over one million users across 170 countries, backed by a team of more than 350 employees. In April 2025, Manychat announced it had raised $140 million in growth capital led by Summit Partners to accelerate AI innovation, global expansion, and product development. This milestone underscores the company's accelerating momentum and growing influence in the creator economy.

It seems like you have to be a little bit more online or up to date with how fast culture moves just to determine, yes, this is a 'safe brand' - a brand that I'm willing to work with versus a brand that's [in] a little bit of hot water right now,

Here's what most people don't understand about this industry: it's still the Wild West. Some brands are sophisticated and know industry rates cold. Others are winging it completely. I've seen deals vary wildly for similar deliverables, and frankly, those "industry standard" rates you find online? They're largely suggestions-and often irrelevant. This reality presents both opportunity and challenge. One popular question becomes: who should make the first offer?

"As the definition of talent continues to evolve, so must the systems that support it," said Andrew Ruf, Managing Partner at Paradigm. "Reign Maker Group has built a scalable process that meets creators where they are, with an eye towards where they're going. By combining our global reach with their innovative infrastructure, we're able to accelerate opportunities for a new generation of talent and the professionals who represent them."

The center, the first of its kind in the U.S., is a joint project between the university's communications and business schools, and aims to attract students planning to participate in the $250 billion creator economy. With rising unemployment rates, and a college degree no longer unlocking the career opportunities it once did, the creator economy could be a beacon of hope for young graduates in a dismal job market.

For decades, telecommunications companies have been the quiet power behind the world's digital transformation. They connect billions, fuel global commerce, and enable nearly every modern convenience. Yet despite that foundational role, telcos have often struggled to capture the consumer imagination or command the kind of loyalty enjoyed by tech and social media brands built on top of their networks. Today, two converging forces can change the equation: the rise of the creator economy and the rapid maturation of artificial intelligence.

Individuals trying to support themselves via subscriptions are as dependent on the whims of the marketplace as those working for large corporations, and it's not just the lack of health care and 401ks that make the career of a patron-supported creator precarious - it's the rawness and immediacy of the relationship.

Inside a historic aircraft hangar in Playa Vista, crowds of people gathered on Thursday to browse the latest fashions from handbags to clothing and shoes as they prepared for the holiday shopping season. These weren't shoppers or retailer buyers searching for the latest products. Instead, they were YouTube video creators who were being courted by brands from Lowe's to Shark Beauty to encourage online audiences to buy their products.

By the numbers: Gospel Stats tracked 65,759 sponsored videos in the first half of 2025 that drove 19.1 billion total views, up nearly 28% year-over-year. News aggregation app Ground News was the top brand sponsor based on number of sponsored videos with 1,863 integrations in the first half of 2025, up 202% year-over-year, followed by Squarespace, BetterHelp and DraftKings. Ground News also ranked first based on total video views at 664 million, followed by Shopify, BetterHelp and Incogni. MrBeast was the top creator by views on sponsored videos at 1.4 billion, followed by The Ramsey Show, Linus Tech Tips and MeidasTouch.

"I remember back on my agency days, seven years ago, that the upfront conversation started around Christmas," says Cohen, who worked at Magna prior to IAB. "CES was the kickoff to upfront conversation. So there was nothing magical about May for the NewFronts."

Now, a new crop of storefronts want to make it easier to shop what we see on our favourite creators' feeds by positioning them as the curators of their own online stores. As the traditional wholesale model falters, it's shaping up to be the next creator economy battleground. In the last three months, ShopMy launched direct-to-consumer (DTC) creator storefronts on its platform, which currently provide affiliate links to creators to tag their recommendations.

What makes Reid a slam dunk for the role is her rare combination of real athletic experience and creative expertise. A professional basketball player, she most recently made her mark on the NBA's Digital and Social team, where she played a key role in shaping the league's on-site coverage strategy, traveling to major events to capture viral moments and produce real-time digital content across multiple platforms.

I still remember when social media first felt like magic, a place where creativity could travel the world in seconds. But as my audience grew, I also realized something else: the platforms owned the data, the content, and the rewards. That imbalance is what SocialFi is changing. And Growing. Per Micro Marketing Insights, the global SocialFi market is projected to exceed $10 billion by 2033.