Social media and improved technology have created a new industry, which is now known as the creator economy. With just a mobile phone and a wifi connection, anyone can reach millions of people around the world, build a community and make a living off their passion.
Unlike the job market, the potential of income for creators is uncapped — For instance, Ryan Kaji, a nine-year-old boy, makes around $29.5 million yearly from reviewing toys on YouTube, and is estimated to generate more than $200m in total from merch and sponsorships. Moreover, the speed at which creators can reach large scale is shortening dramatically. In just 1.5 years, Charli d’amelio reached 100mm followers on TikTok, when it took Shakira 7 years to reach the same milestone on Facebook.
Gen Z are very much aware of the vast opportunities and the fundamental change in the career space. Becoming an online creator is now their top aspiration where they can build and sell directly to their communities without the need of permission from institutions.
However, this significant societal shift is met with major hurdles for newcomers. The current creator landscape resembles an economy in which few existing platforms favour celebrities and big influencers, indirectly forcing medium and smaller creators to compete against each other or pushed into constant self-promotion just to scrape a living.
For example, on Spotify, the top 1.4 per cent gets 90 per cent of the royalties and the rest just have to fight to make an average of $36 a quarter. On Patreon, only 2% of creators made the federal minimum wage of $1,160 per month in 2017. While there are many emerging platforms that aim to support independent creators, the model is designed to promote individual success and competition over audience eyeballs.
That’s exactly why we are building STANME. We’re on a mission to democratise opportunities for every creator to grow and succeed. It is the the first community marketplace that enables creators to collaborate, sell and earn together.
We believe through collaboration, we can transcend the limitations of AI-powered algorithms and interfaces, and maximise distribution and discoverability for every creator.
The history of human progress is the outcome of people coming together to create a better future.
Join our journey by owning part of STANME, and help us build tools that empower the next generation of creators the right way.
Invest in our crowdfunding campaign here.
*Capital at risk
