“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I asked my daughter who was 6 or 7 years old at the time. She enthusiastically replied, “A YouTuber!” “Is that a real job?” I silently asked myself.
This conversation occurred roughly 5 years ago. I was initially surprised by her response, but later realized that her response represented a new and important trend toward the continued growth and popularity of creators and the creator economy. According to a 2019 Lego and Harris poll, children between the ages of 8 and 12 in the UK and US were three times more likely to aspire to be a YouTuber (29%) than an Astronaut (11%). See chart below:
In 2022, there was an estimated 50 million creators around the globe whose economic contribution had surpassed $100 billion (2). According to Oberlo, YouTube is the dominant video streaming platform that creators use to post content. There are over 500 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute and people around the globe collectively watch one billion hours of YouTube every day (3).
The creator economy has become so important, that service providers across multiple industries have been eager to find new ways to customize business tools and services to cater to creators. Mastercard, the second largest credit card company in the United States, stated the following in its North America Insights report:
“The creator class has created a true paradigm shift in what it means to work, succeed and be your own boss. Scaling up from a hobbyist to a full-time entrepreneur has never been easier, thanks to democratization around social media, as well as advances in payment technology, Web3 principles and monetization models. In fact, our research suggests that more than a quarter (29%) of creators today have already reached the $50,000 revenue threshold to be considered “microbusinesses.” The rise of the creator class is unlikely to become just another short-lived headline.” – Ginger Siegel, North America Small Business Lead. (4)
Serac Ventures’ portfolio company, BUMP, also provides an invaluable software that helps creators to track, consolidate, and obtain credit based on the creator’s various income streams. In less than two years, BUMP completed a beta test with 4000 creators, helping creators obtain a business credit card (backed by Mastercard) and discover over $2 million in unclaimed creator revenue.
Now that my daughter is a little older, when I ask her what she wants to be she says a scientist, or something of that ilk. However, if she were to say that she wants to a Youtuber, I might not think that’s so farfetched.
Cheers – KM
Sources:
(2) Hubspot
(3) Oberlo
(4) Mastercard
Photo by Videodeck .co on Unsplash
TheJCurve 