The Creator Economy

Crypto nug of the day: Web3 is being built on blockchain tech and one important reason why is it provides news ways to coordinate economic incentives. On an episode of the Bankless Podcast titled “The Creator Economy”, Li Jin from the panel broke down the Creator Economy into 4 chapters:

1. Rise of social networking (everyone was a user/creator, but influential creators emerged that we didn’t know in IRL and gravitated towards. Think MySpace, early Facebook, etc)
2. Creators started to monetize that following primarily through advertising (creators had the audience but exist as a conduit for some other business that they promote or sponsors and the business is uses the creator to achieve its goals. In other words, brands used these influencers as a new channel for advertising. Think Influencers on Instagram, Youtubers, etc)
3. Creators become the business, don’t need to promote someone else’s product. In other words, creators become their own brand and business. (Creators have a transactional relationship with their audience selling goods from their own brand and get paid directly from their audience. Think Patreon, Substack, etc.)
4. Creators are blending the line between audience and creator, creating micro-economies with richer ecosystems beyond a 1-dimensional monetization model. (Communities are built and interact and share and create value together, no necessarily in a transactional manner. Crypto lives in this space and represents the emerging market and is in its infancy. We do not yet know what it will look like exactly, but a version of that picture is emerging).