Everyone knows that YouTubers and other developers are popular with Internet users of all ages. Today, however, the real business of these influencers is also driven by many software tools and service providers who help weave videos, photos, clips, memes and other types of content into sustainable success. The epidemic has added fuel to the conventional trends of growth in this segment. Today, the platforms are bigger and more diverse than ever before and many creators have a growing audience and monetization experience online.
Parallel to this industry, the rapid overall growth of enterprise technology has allowed the creation of many new types of creator-centric products. Top space investors are looking at new opportunities to create tools for startups that help creators monetize and grow or solve specific needs with creator subverticals such as gaming or coaching / learning. For this particular investor survey, we dug notes from the following:
- Brian O’Malley, general partner, Forerunner Ventures
- Li Jin, founder, Atelier Ventures
- Benjamin Grubbs, founder, Next10 Ventures
- Josh Constine, principal, SignalFire
- Eze Vidra, managing partner, Remagine Ventures
Like many industries under the broader banner of technology, digital makers have seen acceleration from COVID-19, investors said. The simple fact that we have millions of people inside and on our phones has helped manufacturers expand their audience. (More details about this in our Digital Media Investors Survey in Other Weeks.) More people became creators. Jean noted that the epidemic “experimented with people with creative hobbies and passions”, which from our point of view smelled like a growing creator Tam.
A broader definition of what constitutes a creator means startups have more potential customers than they can serve and possibly more total revenue in the market could be the effect of COVID. There are plenty of places in the creative economy with discovery, which O’Malley cites as a key problem. “The best content doesn’t always come out on top,” he adds, adding, “Motivations tend to create content that will go viral and get eyeballs” and spread the word about creating net-new content.
