The creator economy keeps rolling. For those unfamiliar, it’s comprised of music teachers, Etsy artists, and cooking shows of the world. It also includes traditional fields like graphic design. The common thread is online personas or micro-brands that distribute knowledge or goods online.
This segment has expanded in the Covid era as SMBs like yoga instructors and music schools were forced to join these ranks of digitally-distributed pros. Correspondingly, the trend has attracted a new breed of software providers that build production and operations tools for creators of all stripes.
Some of these tools aren’t new, as they mirror the dynamics of any eCommerce business (plus video production in some cases). Among other things, this includes transactional functionality, order fulfillment, and other logistics. Alleviating these pain points is the opportunity for creator platforms.
Market Snapshot
Broader tech-world evolutions have meanwhile addressed the creator economy. These include TikTok, Instagram and Snap as they continue to ratchet up competitive features and tools for creators. Established SaaS players like Vista (formerly Vistaprint) and Adobe likewise continue to make moves.
So to characterize the current state of the creator economy, we continue to track its moves and machinations. Here’s a snapshot of the latest action:
- Facebook’s new website lets fans buy ‘Stars’ without paying the app stores’ commissions
- TikTok’s newest app lets sellers manage their online stores via their smartphone
- Superside nabs $30M to connect and manage freelance creatives
- Facebook tests a new ‘Professional’ mode for creator profiles
- Adobe Launches Express Lane for SMB Creators
- Google’s Area 120 launches Qaya, a service offering web storefronts for digital creators
- Upmesh closes $7.5M, launches its livestream shopping app for Instagram Live
- Snap paid $250 million to creators on its TikTok clone this year
- Linktree partners with Shopify to allow users to add storefronts on its platform
- Vistaprint Doubles Down on the Creator Economy
- Pinterest gets into live shopping with launch of Pinterest TV
- Meta rolls out a suite of new features and discovery tools for Facebook Live creators
- Instagram now lets all users share links in Stories via Link Stickers
- Small creators are big business
- Discord is working on premium memberships, a new monetization option for creators
Stream Sport
As shown in the above examples, one of the things that differentiate the creator economy from traditional SMB segments that are inherently “creative” (e.g., graphic design) is video production. Along with that is streaming, as a wide swath of creator-economy players focus on QVC-like functionality.
This includes StreamElements which recently raised $100 million and announced 1.1 million creators on its platform. It provides video production software, analytics, and easy ways to live stream to YouTube, Facebook Live, and Twitch. It also claims to have grown 233 percent year-over-year in usage.
As for more etablished players, TikTok recently boosted its transactional capabilities with a slate of new eCommerce integrations. And YouTube recently expanded its live shopping program, including a week-long event called “YouTube Holiday Stream and Shop” starting November 15.
This will continue to be an opportune space, given the headroom for video-enabled SMBs. And that opportunity goes beyond startups like StreamElements. Ecommerce players like Shopify and website giants like Automattic could likewise move into streaming. We’ll watch closely for that in 2022.
