Fame To Economic Game: Digital Creators Reshaping Indian Economy
From a mere source of fame to a dynamic driver of the economy, social media videos now transcend the confines of influencers' viral personas. Evolving into a full-fledged profession, they play a substantial role in propelling the country's economic expansion. These bite-sized reels and succinct clips have emerged as frontrunners in the global digital business arena. Much like other nations, India is capitalising on this new wave of commerce, with social media influencers prominently positioned at its forefront.
Indian content creators boast an annualised growth rate of 115 per cent, which is over six times the global average of 18 per cent, shared Aditya Jangid, founder at VOOHOO Live. Jangid emphasised that the content creation wave is touching greater heights with influencers and acting as a driving force behind reshaping the Indian economy with over 3,500 brands in conjunction with 5,000 creator partners that have generated over 20,000 branded content chunks.
A Redseer report forecasts a remarkable growth trajectory, projecting the Indian creator community to swell to 580 million individuals by 2025. However, like any coin, the 'digital economy' presents both opportunities and obstacles. An Animeta study reveals a staggering reality: amidst a pool of over 80 million Indian creators, a mere 20,000 are currently being tapped by brands for influencer marketing initiatives. This eye-opening statistic underscores the stark disparity between brand engagement and the challenges faced by influencers in maximising their earnings.
Creators > Brands
The Animeta report highlights a stark reality: among 3,500 brands employing influencer marketing, countless creators lack avenues to collaborate with them. This underscores the glaring imbalance where the creators' community outweighs the brands, revealing unequal economic opportunities.
Meta's commissioned YouGov study emphasises the rising significance of personalised social channel ads for shoppers. It underscores the use of local language and the growing engagement with online videos on social platforms, highlighting the crucial role creators play in driving brand revenue.
Amandeep Kaur, founder and CEO at Phoenix TalentX Branding said, “Indian creators excel in user engagement, but face challenges in monetisation due to lower brand collaborations and limited advertising budgets.”
Kaur stressed monetisation opportunities are primarily driven by brand collaborations and ad revenue, but direct-to-creator channels are limited and further restrict the creator economy.
The Reel Challenges In Real
Amid the global surge in the digital creator economy, Indian content creators face a distinct hurdle—struggling to stand out and earn recognition in a fiercely competitive landscape.
Tanya Mehra, an Instagram Mom Blogger & Influencer with certifications in Child Nutrition, Nutrition & Yoga, emphasised that with millions of content creators vying for attention, standing out can be challenging. This visibility challenge often translates into difficulties in attracting brand partnerships and sponsorships, hindering their ability to generate revenue sustainably.
Addressing the other hurdles, Ravish Shetty, Digital Content Creator said most of the short-format social media platforms either pay less or nothing at all.
So, the only revenue stream left for creators is branded content. But again, copyright issues are unavoidable, especially if it is any licensed song in a long format that further hinders the earnings, Shetty added underlining the revenue split between the influencer and rightful owner.
Echoing these sentiments, Navdeep Sharma, co-founder at ReelStar, underscored the multifaceted challenges impeding the growth and potential of Indian creators. Predominant among these issues are monetisation hurdles, copyright safeguarding, and constrained access to resources and partnerships. This confluence of obstacles has hampered the swift advancement of India's creator economy, resulting in untapped and unexplored talents.
Adding on the influencers' struggle Animeta creator Faisal Khan, founder at MotorBeam and FK-R said, “Though content monetisation is among the main challenges of the digital influencer economy other serious hurdles include adapting to dynamic tech, changes in digital platforms, and coming up with content ideas to fit different formats.”
The Influencer Ecosystem
Referencing the earlier-mentioned Animeta report, it reveals that within the vast creators' ecosystem, approximately 922,000 creators possess a minimum of 100 followers across YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. These creators are categorised as follows: Nano (53 per cent), boasting fewer than 10,000 followers; Micro (36 per cent), with a follower count ranging from 10,000 to 100,000; Macro (10 per cent), commanding 100,000 to 1 million followers; and the remaining (0.8 per cent) designated as Mega creators, possessing 1 million or more followers.
Considering this influencer evolution, Sagar Pushp, CEO and co-founder at ClanConnect said the growth of influencers in India is primarily being driven by micro and nano influencers based in Tier 2-3 regions of the country. This in turn hampers the creators' economy he added highlighting the fact that a large percentage of Indian creators do not have access to paid collaboration opportunities with brands because they are based in smaller towns and cities.
Elaborating on the same lines, Himanshu Arora, co-founder at Social Panga shared that TAM (Total Addressable Market) for these content creators is huge and spread across India. the concept of one for all doesn't work in this market. “So how content creators have a pan-India presence, is something that needs to be thought of. Collaborations between artists, digital agencies, and policymakers will be critical as the digital landscape evolves to support sustainable growth and overcome the limits faced by Indian creators,” he added.
Archit Agarwal, founder and CEO at Tikshark Solutions emphasised that challenges harm the sector's credibility and limit Indian creators’ ability to compete with international counterparts. The government and private sector initiatives, coupled with increasing internet penetration and smartphone usage, are paving the way for a more inclusive and thriving digital creator ecosystem in India.
Also Read: India's Creator Economy Set To Boom With 10 Lakh Social Media Creators
