I’ve been digital natives for almost 10 years since I created it first with Quora, then LinkedIn, then Twitter, and finally A Junior VC. The joy of creating and connecting millions of people is a major motivation.
I have personally seen creating as a way to help large people.
All creators have a predominantly social motivation. That’s because we started creating on platforms with zero or few financial incentives. What they earn is what I call social capital, in the form of likes, followers and comments.
Social capital is powerful and helps many creators become mainstream and become “influencers”.
Not all influencers are influencers, but all influencers are creators. The word creator is cast on many people without understanding what a digital creator really is.
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I define a digital creator as someone who regularly creates digital native content that is created and consumed entirely digitally. This can be one or more of the four storytelling formats (voice, text, image, video) used by humans.
Therefore, creators are almost always storytellers.
They can be found on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Each of these platforms has grown to millions and even billions of users with “user-generated content.”
The creator was behind this “user-generated content”.
For the first decade, creators loved these platforms. This is because we have provided creators with an unprecedented canvas. With just a push of uploads available to millions of users, creators have begun spending hours on these platforms.
But when the platform began to become a money-spinning machine, creators began to get the end of the bargain.
The platform creates engagement that is entirely driven by the creator. YouTube’s advertising revenue exceeds $ 30 billion annually, some of which is paid to creators. YouTube is probably the best. Other platforms share almost nothing with creators.
As a creator, I didn’t have to rely on my income to make a living. But if I had to do it, I would be scared.
A friend of my “influencer” creator who makes some money tells me it’s very difficult. Their main reason is that they are “hostages” in the algorithm and have little leverage. All of these big creators complain that it’s difficult to make money from these platforms.
Obviously, the influencers we see can’t do that easily. Creating is one of the most difficult tasks that everyone finds easy. It’s difficult, so I think the market built around creators will be very profitable.
History is an excellent teacher of human behavior. Surprisingly, it’s true that “working for an organization” is only a 300-year-old concept. Before the Industrial Revolution, I didn’t have an office, so I actually worked at home.
The Renaissance of the 1600s gave birth to the first set of documented creators.
The similarities are striking. Creators such as Da Vinci have created works of generations like the Mona Lisa. They were funded by “super fans” like the Medici family called patrons. The creators worked independently. They also told the story through their creation. Thousands of them existed.
Today’s creators live in the Digital Renaissance.
The missing part of today’s creators is how they raise money. Creators have a hard time making money if there is no economy that is completely captured by large platforms. Tools like Patreon (I know the name comes from) were created to have regular customers that creators can directly support.
Enter NFT or non-fungible token
Money is substitutable. In other words, one rupee is equivalent to another. A non-fungible token is, by definition, not equivalent to another non-fungible token. This means that every NFT is unique.
Who makes something unique? Of course, a digital creator.
Therefore, anything digital can be an NFT. It could be one of four storytelling formats: image (Beeple’s record-breaking NFT), audio (Grimes NFT), text (Jack Dosey’s first tweet), or video (Crossroads NFT). These NFTs are added to the “mint” or blockchain to ensure that there is only one original digital copy.
Therefore, the creation of the blockchain ecosystem has made NFT possible.
Digital creators can now sell their work directly as NFTs. Fans can buy their work and support it directly. Where is the Big Tech Platform? Anywhere.
NFTs are a viable and effective way for creators to fund their work. Approximately $ 11 billion worth of NFTs were sold in the last quarter and are becoming an important way to fund creators. Platforms such as Open Sea have democratized access to creators beyond the biggest celebrities.
The waves have also arrived in India, and Bollywood celebrities are on the move with their own NFTs.
I’m very skeptical of Bollywood stars doing NFTs, but I think it helps raise awareness about them. After all, there is no bad publicity, and Indian NFTs now make up an order of magnitude lower in the world.
Indian creators are generally very struggling to monetize their work, so it’s a little helpful. Those who can do it are usually those who have a large audience. As mentioned earlier, even they rarely feel that economics is justified.
Empowering Indian fans to “own” their work and build relationships with creators is a move in the right direction. Like the Medici, “super fans” are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of rupees to own or support the work of their favorite creators.
Being a full-time creator will be a viable career for many in the near future. Those who give them shovels for their careers will be part of the “creator economy”. The gold that creators find in these shovels is very likely to be in the form of NFTs.
We are in the digital renaissance.
Read again:
Their use beyond NFTs and art
Reiters are investors in the early-stage seed fund Venture Highway.He is the founder of
Junior VC,
A platform to democratize insights into start-ups in India and Southeast Asia. The view is personal.
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