Content creation is a wild and wide space and if you’re an avid consumer of content on the internet then you would know that there are plenty of creators on this planet who’ve made it BIG! And by “making it big” we, of course, mean them having a massive following but we also mean them making “content creation” a supremely lucrative career for themselves.
Content creation is no longer just a side hobby, it’s actually a supremely profitable career option for many people out there. The creator economy is estimated at a whopping $104.2 billion and it’s growing by the minute. According to a report by Kalaari Capital - Out of the 1.5 lakh professional content creators, a majority of them can earn anywhere between $200-$2,500 (more than Rs 16,000-Rs 200,000 per month), depending on the reach and engagement they can drive on respective platforms.
"Less than 1 percent of professional creators (those with over 1 million followers) have the potential to earn anywhere between $2,500-$65,000 (more than Rs 53 lakh) per month”
In this blog, we’re going to be taking you through how the creator economy works - basically how various social media platforms on the internet earn their revenue, which in turn helps creators get their share of the pie.
For starters, let’s first break down how these platforms work. The traditional relationship between creators and social media platforms has been a simple tradeoff - these platforms offer creators an audience and creators supply these platforms with content that keeps users engaged on the platform. These platforms then monetize that scaled engagement by running advertisements. While creators do get a chunk of that ads revenue, they mainly access these platforms for building an audience base. In fact, creators end up making only ~5% of the total revenue that comes from social media advertising.
Here’s a breakdown of the various social media platforms and how they distribute their ads revenue share:
| Platform | Requirements for monetization | Ad revenue share | Subscription revenue share | Tipping (superchat etc) |
| Youtube | 1K Subs, 4k Public watch hours | 55% | 70% | 70% |
| Youtube shorts | 10M Shorts views (in 90 days), 1K Subs, 4k Public watch hours | 45% | NA | NA |
| None | 0% | 55% | NA | |
| Tiktok | 100K Followers | 50% | 70% | NA |
| Twitch | None | 55% | 50% | 50% |
| Snapchat | Engagement Metrics | Yes (??) | NA | NA |
| None | 0% | 97% (till $50k earnings) - then 80% | NA | |
| NA | 0% | NA | NA | |
| Spotify | None | 70% | NA | NA |
| Onlyfans | None | NA | 80% | 80% |
| Loco | None | 0% | NA | ?? |
| Rooter | NA | 0% | NA | NA |
As you may have observed from the table above, Youtube ends up giving more revenue for a creator versus other platforms, hence we chose to deep dive on this a bit further.
According to the guidelines mentioned on Youtube, a creator can start earning from the platform once they join the Youtube Partnerships Program. The YouTube Partner Program (YPP) gives creators greater access to YouTube resources and monetization features. It also allows revenue sharing from ads being served on your content.
The minimum eligibility requirements to join the program are as follows:
- Follow all the YouTube channel monetization policies.
- Live in a country/region where the YouTube Partner Program is available.
- Have no active Community Guidelines strikes on your channel.
- Have more than 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months.
- Have more than 1,000 subscribers.
- Have a linked AdSense account.
Once you meet the criteria, you can earn in the following ways:
| Ways to earn | Requirements | |
|---|---|---|
| Ad revenue: | Get ad revenue from display, overlay, and video ads. | Get ad revenue from display, overlay, and video ads. |
| Channel memberships | Your members make recurring monthly payments in exchange for special perks that you offer. | Your members make recurring monthly payments in exchange for special perks that you offer. |
| Shopping | Your fans can browse and buy products, like merch, from your store on YouTube. | Your fans can browse and buy products, like merch, from your store on YouTube. |
| Super Chat & Super Stickers | Your fans pay to get their messages or animated images highlighted in chat streams. | Your fans pay to get their messages or animated images highlighted in chat streams. |
| Super Thanks | Your fans pay to get their message highlighted in your video’s comments section. | Your fans pay to get their message highlighted in your video’s comments section. |
| YouTube Premium revenue | Get part of a YouTube Premium subscriber’s subscription fee when they watch your content. | Get part of a YouTube Premium subscriber’s subscription fee when they watch your content. |
Having said that, it’s not an easy task to grow on Youtube, it requires consistent effort and experimentation to understand what works for you and your audience, especially since it is a relatively more ‘mature’ platform in terms of daily active users, especially when compared to their more recent social media platform counterparts.
And always remember, everything is content these days and anyone can create, that’s always been our motto. There’s no one specific genre of content creators out there and anyone can do it if they put their heart and soul into it. You just have to choose the platforms that you’d like to grow on and invest your time in strategizing and creating content for it. Go create some magic now!