Social media has gone through
multiple iterations since it first took shape in the 1990s, but the
current cohort of social media influencers and creators stands out from
the rest. This unique class is blessed because they have the most
advanced technology to date at their disposal and the most history to
learn from, so it is no surprise that this cohort's elite have made the
fewest mistakes and are on track to change the world.
Venture capitalists view creators as worthy investments.
This
class, per the New York Times, is the group that forced investors to
"finally embrace the influencer economy as a legitimate business."
Another news outlet recently reported that "REMUS, an early-stage
venture capital firm, recently hired an 18-year-old TikTok star, as a
venture partner," as an indication that Silicon Valley elite are finally
realizing that there is something different about the incoming batch of
creators.
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Influencers
have previously tried to cross over into the Silicon Valley bubble and
have had only moderate success. Content-creator trailblazers like
Cameron Dallas and Jake Paul teamed up with a funder to form TGZ Capital
but didn't stick together for a second fund.
Creators have power
through their numbers. In 2021, social following is a kind of currency,
but the key difference between a creator's reach compared to a
traditional celebrity's is the level of engagement, which is where the
real value is. Today’s creators can generate substantial engagement and
add value to the projects or ventures they
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Tech companies recognize influencer status.
Several
technology companies are also legitimizing these creators by developing
software and partnerships that acknowledge them as substantial business
owners, including:
• Stir, a back-end CFO suite for creators.
•
Karat Financial, a credit card company that allows creators to obtain a
credit card with significant credit despite what FICO scores might
dictate to a traditional lending service.
• Breakr, a music
marketplace that allows influencers to seamlessly pair with independent
artists and get paid. It had its round led by A16Z's TxO fund, which
invests solely in marginalized founders.
• PearPop, the
Cameo-like company that allows creators to monetize their TikTok
audiences through duets, creators to run charity fundraisers creatively
and fans to become instantly famous.
• Versus Game, a company that allows creators to monetize, at scale, this or that questions.
These
technology companies are starting to pop up and garner investments from
some of the biggest VCs and angel investors. Stir raised a series A
from Andreesen Horowitz in February of 2021 at a $100 million valuation,
and that is just the start for the rapidly developing creator tech
space.
Wall Street acknowledges that social media creators can be formidable.
After
the fiasco with GameStop's stock due to social media platform Reddit,
Wall Street is now also being forced to take social media influencers
seriously. People follow with their wallets, and now that hedge fund
managers have lost billions, it behooves them to delve into trying to
understand social media and its top users. Waving off creators as futile
children was an understandable first reaction a year ago, but at this
point, an investor ignoring the creator economy is being grossly
irresponsible.
This only proves that besides the power to create a
new marketplace, creators can produce seismic shifts in the economy
over time as well because trends change and technology advances, as in a
split second.
The future is creators.
In a
forever-changing world, the internet is certainly playing a big part in
driving the future. The internet has offered widely available access to
information, decentralized media and opened the doors to the creator
economy. In turn, society now has a hunger for a wide variety of content
that will only continue to grow. It is only logical that creators who
are native to the internet will have an advantage over traditional
talent.
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