In this article
In this article

Key Takeaways

  • The creator economy is a dynamic system driven by independent content creators on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
  • The sector comprises an estimated 50 million creators, with a cumulative value exceeding $104 billion, showcasing its substantial economic impact.
  • A wave of startups, such as Passionfroot, Pallet, and Stir, has emerged to support creators with tools for content planning, financial management, community-driven hiring, and more.

What is The Creator Economy?

The Creator Economy represents a dynamic system fostered by independent content creators across various social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. In this intricate realm, creators generate captivating content, engaging their followers and receiving monetary compensation in return. By curating, producing, and distributing their own unique content, creators aim to expand their follower base while actively nurturing existing connections.

The advent of monetization opportunities on social media platforms has birthed an entirely new professional class, comprising individuals who derive their livelihoods from content creation. In addition, an increasing number of creator economy startups have emerged, aiming to provide support and resources to these innovative content producers.

Diverse Content and Platforms: Tailoring Expertise for Growth

Creators specialize in various content types and platforms, shaping their expertise. While they have a primary platform, they actively engage with other major social media platforms, encouraging followers to connect across channels. However, meaningful engagement goes beyond amassing followers and views; creators must foster audience interaction through thoughtful comments and content sharing.

How Big is the Creator Economy?

The creator economy’s remarkable magnitude surpasses expectations, with quantifying the exact number of creators proving challenging due to the multitude of platforms and individuals involved. According to the 2022 State of the Creator Economy Report, an estimated 50 million individuals identify as content creators, with 6.6% (two million) being professional creators relying solely on content creation for income, while 93.4% consider themselves amateurs.

YouTube’s pioneering role in creator monetization has made it the platform of choice for over half of these creators, with 12.5 million identifying as Instagram influencers and 300,000 dedicating themselves to Twitch professionally. The creator economy’s cumulative value exceeds $104 billion, with individual earnings challenging to calculate due to diverse revenue streams. However, Fortune Magazine reports that the top ten YouTubers earned $30-50 million in 2021, showcasing the industry’s lucrative potential.

Understanding the vast landscape and exponential growth of the creator economy allows individuals to grasp its significance and the opportunities within this thriving sector.

10 creator economy startups to watch

Now that we have established that the creator economy is an ever-growing market there are a lot of creator economy startups out there offering services to support creators. We will break it down for you and present the 10 most noteworthy creator economy startups.

1. Passionfroot: Empowering Creators to Thrive

Passionfroot, a Berlin-based creator economy startup, is dedicated to empowering creators by providing a comprehensive workspace to efficiently manage their businesses. With robust tools for content planning, payment processes, collaboration management, and more, Passionfroot streamlines the back-office operations for creators. Be sure to secure your spot as the platform prepares for beta launch!

2. Pallet: Unleashing Talent through Community

Pallet envisions a future of distributed and community-driven hiring. As a creator economy startup, Pallet offers a dynamic job board where communities can monetize by posting jobs to their audience or directly recommending candidates to businesses. Pallet fosters a thriving two-sided marketplace, facilitating a mutually beneficial value exchange between creators and their audience.

3. Stir: Revolutionizing Financial Management for Creators

Stir revolutionizes financial management for creators, providing a cutting-edge platform to handle revenue streams, analytics, collaborations, and revenue sharing. Bid farewell to transaction fees, as Stir enables instant bank-to-bank payments without additional charges, offering a compelling alternative to platforms like PayPal. Trusted by renowned creators such as Casey Neistat and Colin and Samir, Stir has earned recognition as one of the top 50 most promising startups by “The Information.”

4. Kajabi: Monetize Your Passion with Ease

Kajabi, a leading creator economy platform, empowers creators to transform their expertise into a profitable venture. With Kajabi, creators can effortlessly build, market, and sell online courses, membership sites, coaching programs, podcasts, and more. Equipped with comprehensive marketing tools, CRM management, and robust analytics, Kajabi provides creators with a single dashboard to efficiently access websites, products, marketing strategies, and vibrant communities.

5. Fanhouse: Unlock the Power of Exclusive Content

Fanhouse offers a premium subscription platform that enables creators to monetize their content, share exclusive behind-the-scenes material, and actively engage with their devoted fan base. Creators retain 90% of their earnings, while Fanhouse keeps a minimal 10% for operational services, making it an attractive choice among creators. Renowned creators like The Chainsmokers have already found success on this platform.

6. Bildr: Empowering Creators in App Development

Bildr empowers creators with a robust visual web development platform, allowing them to effortlessly build their own apps and browser extensions. With an extensive toolbox and unparalleled design freedom, Bildr provides creators with an efficient infrastructure to seamlessly launch their apps and engage their audience.

7. Karat: Tailored Financing and Support for Creators

Karat is a creator economy startup that caters to Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok creators, as well as creative-led businesses. By offering customized financing, rewards, and support, Karat addresses the unique challenges creators face when seeking financial services. Unlike traditional banks, Karat considers creators’ engagement rates and follower counts, providing capital based on the size of their audience. Additionally, Karat offers exclusive rewards and financial planning support tailored to creators’ needs.

8. Customuse: Create and Sell Your Designs with Ease

Customuse simplifies the process of creating and selling custom designs in popular games and on social media platforms. Creators can develop fully customizable, professionally designed AR outfits optimized for various platforms, enhancing their brand presence and captivating their audience.

9. Easol: Building and Selling Experiences Made Easy

Easol, a London-based experience commerce platform, empowers creators to build and sell their unique experiences directly to their audience. Developed by former experience creators themselves, Easol offers an all-in-one solution that seamlessly syncs creators’ websites with smart booking, payment, and marketing tools. With Easol, creators can

10. Wonnda

Wonnda is the operating system for the sourcing and the launch of innovative consumer products enabling anyone (including creators) to get their very own product on the market. Wonnda is a berlin-based start-up that was built to take out the guesswork when it comes to sourcing and launching your own product line through private label. Here at Wonnda, we work with top European manufacturers for private label production and contract manufacturing. The first step in getting your product to market is probably the most crucial – finding the right production partner for your project.

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How does the creator economy actually work?

The “creator economy” creates a mutual relationship between content creators, their audience, advertising brands and platforms. Those are the main stakeholders of this ecosystem, and together they generate value for each other. Each one plays an essential part in the relationship, either producing, consuming or paying for the content.

It’s a symbiotic relationship, none of the parties can survive without the others, and they all give and take something. The creators need the audience to consume their content, and the platforms and the advertising brands to support their content. The audience exchanges their time and attention for good content. The brands use the creators as a tool to get to the audience. And the platform needs them all to have a purpose to the existing. It’s all a delicate balance.

The creators

The creators are the creative side of the equation. They come up with their own content and develop personal branding to attract the attention of a specific public. Their content can vary between a range of topics and motivations. The most popular, the vloggers will document their daily life and show it to the internet. There are teachers and experts who will dedicate their lives to spreading information and educating others. Some will dedicate their time to niche content, like fashion or gaming.

Brands will look for these influencers to establish partnerships and sponsor their content, and this plays an important part in the brand’s online marketing strategy since they make use of the relationship of trust the creators established with their audience to sell their products. In exchange, these brands will send them samples and freebies of their products in the form of PR packaging or pay them for a sponsored video.

Audience

The audience will sign up and create their own account on the social media platforms, and use it mainly to consume the content the creators produce. They are the reason for the success of their favourite creators and support them by engaging with the content, liking, commenting and furthermore, buying the brands that those creators advertise.

Advertising brands

The brands are the monetizing motor of this whole circular economy. They make partnerships with influencers and pay for their time and content, and in exchange the influencers use their -well- influence, to motivate people in favour of that brand.

Platforms

The platforms are the place where this whole ecosystem works. Sometimes, the platform itself will reward the content creators for their followers, likes or views. They do this for two main reasons. First, to keep the content more organic and less influenced by brands, and second, to give all creators a fair chance of making a living out of their platforms, encouraging people to join their community.

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About the author
Adriana Schatz
Adriana Schatz is an Austrian-born author with a passion for product sourcing and market trends. She earned her Masters's degree from the Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck and has since focused on educating others about the intricacies of product sourcing. Her unique perspective and insights into market trends make her a valuable resource for businesses seeking to improve their sourcing strategies. When she's not writing, Adriana enjoys exploring new cultures and cuisines.
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More resources and trends
In-depth sourcing resources and consumer product trends curated by the Wonnda team.

https://www.theinformation.com/projects/the-information-50

https://fortune.com/2021/06/02/youtube-creator-economy-advertising-revenue-war-for-talent-yt-influencers/

https://influencermarketinghub.com/creator-earnings-benchmark-report/

https://influencermarketinghub.com/state-of-the-creator-economy/#toc-0

https://creatortrends.kajabi.com/

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