TINTIN O., is a teenage content creator on both Facebook and Instagram and makes less than P100 a week from her small audience. In 2021 Ryan Kaji, a 9-year-old Fil-Am made $29.5 million from his YouTube channel “Ryan’s World.” Actresses like Ivana Alawi took over YouTube as a leading content creator and displaced other non-celebrity content maker. Senator Raffy Tulfo’s show has become the biggest YouTube content producer with 25 million followers.
Globally, the creator or influencer economy has skyrocketed especially during the pandemic when everyone was at home and online, looking for or creating content. According to a study by OnlyAccounts.io, the lengthy time invested online as well as the variety of content created has enabled individual creators, influencers, podcasters, TikTokers, and YouTubers to monetize “relatively well” from publishing their content.
“Still, just a small part of content creators make six-figure earnings from their businesses. Most of them still struggle to monetize their audience,” Jastra Kranjec, an author and researcher for OnlyAccounts.io said. According to data presented by the online research outlet, the total number of content creators jumped to over 200 million last year. Still, over half of them make less than $100 a year.
The creator economy has allowed ordinary people to become creators and find success with social media. Anyone can participate, with no degree or experience required. People gravitate towards content creation because this job brings huge opportunities, with many brands willing to spend on sponsorships.
The need to monetize from their audience, is always dependent on the frequency and variety of content produced. According to Linktree`s 2022 Creator Report, around 70 percent of content creators spend less than ten hours a week on making content. Another 16 percent spend between ten and 20 hours per week. The Linktree data showed 9 percent of respondents spent between 20 and 40 hours on content creation and only 5 percent more than an average of 40 hours a week.
The report also gave interesting facts about the creators’ average annual income and time spent making content. Over half of all content creators in the countries studied (including the Philippines) who make under $100 a year spend less than five hours a week on content creation. On the other hand, nearly half of creators who earn between $100K and $500K spent more than ten hours a week on content creation, just like 32 percent of them earning between $100 and 10K.
Analyzed by their experience level, 59 percent of beginner creators haven’t monetized their audience yet. Around 35 percent of them have monetized but earned below what can be considered a livable income, and only 6 percent of beginner creators have made over $10K in a year. When talking about full-time creators, 46 percent make less than $1K a year, while only 12 percent earn over $50K.
During the pandemic, many celebrities began using social media platforms like Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube and Facebook which completely changed the ecosystem as celebrities had an easier time to gather followers. While many novices look up to expert content creators with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, they make less than 2 percent of the total creator count. Most content creators, or 67 percent, have between 1K and 10K followers.
Another 20 percent are at a “professional” level, with between 10K and 100K followers, and are able to use the platform to as an actual livelihood. The Linktree report showed recreational creators, with up to 1K followers, make 11 percent of the total count.
Analyzed by platforms, 12 percent of beginner creators consider TikTok their biggest platform, up from 6 percent of experienced creators. Facebook is the number-one platform for 16 percent of beginners, compared to 22 percent of experienced creators.
