Content monetization on social media

Activity: Talk or presentationInvited talkPopular

Description

A little over five years ago Kylie Jenner enthusiastically posted a video to her Snapchat Story in which she proclaimed that the release of her latest Lip Kit had “broken Google”. She meant Google Analytics, which tracks visitors to her website in real time, not the search engine, but it’s quite the achievement nonetheless. The success of her makeup brand is exemplary of the way influencers capitalise on their celebrity nowadays. The days when you could only make money as a content creator by getting a share of YouTube’s advertising revenue if your video had enough views are long gone. Nowadays, influencers are posting ‘paid partnerships’ on Instagram and YouTubers are taking time in their videos to thank and promote their sponsors.

In recent years, platforms eager to grow such as TikTok and Snapchat’s Spotlight, have started ‘creator funds’ where the most popular creators get paid for posting videos. Meanwhile, more established platforms such as YouTube and Instagram have sometimes made it difficult for creators who were already making money, thanks to large numbers of followers, by adjusting their terms for being able to ‘monetise’ videos, or making a change in the algorithm that makes it harder for accounts to grow. There is also a growing a number of podcasters, writers and other creators who offer exclusive content for their most dedicated fans behind a paywall on platforms like Patreon or Substack.

The ways you can make money as a creator on social media have grown and broadened considerably. And with that growth, the mutual dependence that popular creators and large social media platforms have on each other seems to have only grown more tense. What are the consequences of being financially dependent on creating content on social media? How do these economic systems shape the content itself? And how do platforms and lawmakers respond to creators monetising their content? During this event we’ll explore these questions and get deep into the creator economy.
Period5 Oct 2022
Event titleThe Hmm ON the Creator Economy
Event typeExhibition
LocationAmsterdam, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational