Content creators

Content creators are people who earn money by making content on the Internet. Unlike earlier concepts such as ‘user-generated content’, which reflects the ability of Internet users to generate content on digital platforms, content creation has been defined in relation to social media content monetization. New business models facilitated by platform affordances allow content creators to develop monetization portfolios across different industries, content categories, and forms of commodification of their online presence and identity. A visible group of content creators are social media influencers. While traditionally, the appeal of being an influencer was built on the promises of native commercial advertising on social media, influencers can now be found way beyond the commercial sphere. This complex landscape knows no clear delineations, as the concept of ‘influencer’ remains highly unclear. In this entry, we define and delineate the concept of ‘content creators’, and discuss its relationship to ‘influencers’, by discussing relevant classifications.