Turning clicks into cash: why the Creator Economy is booming

The Creator Economy is a class of businesses built by more than 50 million content creators, curators, social media influencers, bloggers, and videographers. 2.3 million people say they’re doing it on a full-time basis.

They use social media, platforms and finance tools to assist them with their growth and monetization. The total market size is over €92 billion and increasing daily. The pandemic has been a big factor in fuelling that growth and investors are keen to be a part of it. Business analytics company CB Insights has reported €1.1 billion raised by creator-focused companies in 2021 alone.

So how exactly do brands turn clicks into cash? And, as social media continues to disrupt the ways we connect with each other, will those companies yet to embrace content creation get left behind?

Most people on the planet have become familiar with social media. It’s become normal for the world’s biggest brands to work with independent content creators on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok as they battle to stay relevant and attract new customers. The content Creator Economy has become very big business.

Generation Z and millennials make up most of the content creator demographic. That’s people born between 1981 and 2012. Many are drawn to the flexible working hours, creative control and being their own boss.

Someone who’s been capitalising on this trend is the social media star and entrepreneur Abdullah Al-Ghafri, known to his followers as QQQ. It took him less than 1 year to reach a million YouTube subscribers.

“I started it all from Snapchat because it's an amazing app,” he says. “Snapchat is different. Why? Because it's direct. Because nowadays we can see on Instagram a lot of people have like two million,