What the creator economy is and who counts as a creator

If you make photos, music, video, writing, design or anything else people can find online, you have probably heard that you are part of the "creator economy." The phrase gets used a lot and explained rarely. This post lays out what it refers to, who counts as a creator, and what researchers have actually estimated about its size. The numbers vary a great deal, and that variation is part of the story.

What the term refers to

There is no single official definition. Goldman Sachs Research, in an April 2023 article, describes creators as individual people with their own brands and online audiences, and calls their rise a major development of the digital age. The Consumer Technology Association describes its own research on the topic as a study of the attitudes and behaviors of both creators and consumers of online user-created content.

In short, the creator economy is the set of money and activity that forms around people who make things and share them with an audience online. It includes the creators, the platforms that carry their work, the audiences, and the brands that pay for attention.

Who counts as a creator

A report written by Richard Florida and published by Meta in 2022 offers a clear definition. It describes creators as people "who use digital technology to make and publish unique creative content audiences can access and respond to."

Notice what this definition leaves out. It does not set a minimum audience. It does not require income. A person who posts music they recorded, or photographs they took, and lets others respond to it fits the definition.

Why the numbers differ so much

If you search for how many creators there are, you will find very different answers. That is not an error. It is the result of different definitions.

Goldman Sachs estimates there are about 50 million creators globally, and expects that number to grow at a compound annual rate of 10 to 20 percent over the next five years. The Florida report reviews several studies and cites an estimate of 300 million people globally, from Edelman Data and Intelligence in August 2022. It also reports that studies put the number of creators in the United States between 30 and 85 million.

A gap this wide usually means the studies counted different groups of people. When you read a statistic, check which definition sits behind it.

What estimates say about money

Goldman Sachs puts the total addressable market of the creator economy at about $250 billion at the time of its article, and says it could roughly double to $480 billion by 2027. That is a 2023 forecast, and a forecast is not a result.

The Florida report cites earlier exploratory studies that forecast the creator economy could reach more than $100 billion. Those studies came from NeoReach and Influencer Marketing Hub in May 2021.

The difference between that figure and the Goldman Sachs figure shows how much estimates depend on method and date.

For individuals, Goldman reports that about 4 percent of global creators are professionals, which it defines as earning more than $100,000 a year. The same article says brand deals are the largest source of creator revenue, at about 70 percent according to survey data, with the rest coming from a share of platform advertising revenue and direct payments such as subscriptions and donations.

Taken together: only a small share of creators earn at the level Goldman calls professional, and Goldman names a few main sources for the money.

Money is not the main reason most people create

The Florida report makes a point that is easy to miss in the headlines. It finds that most creators are driven mainly by intrinsic rewards. Many are passionate hobbyists, and a growing number are social or political activists. Money, fame and follower counts are not their primary motivation. The report also sees an opportunity for what it calls a creator middle class, made up of creators who want to make a decent living and are able to.

So if you create because you enjoy it, you are in the majority described by that report, not an exception to it.

What to take from this

First, "creator" is a broad word, and you do not need a large audience to use it. Second, any number you read about the creator economy depends on who was counted and when. Third, the Goldman figures suggest high earnings are uncommon, so it helps to know your own reasons for creating before you measure yourself against the totals.