What is the creator economy?

In times gone by, whenever scientists, writers, philosophers or anyone else tried to predict the future, one of the things they got most consistently wrong was the future of work. Technology was supposed to whittle down human working hours and leave  all with huge swathes of leisure time as robots and factories produced everything  needed in abundance. Instead, it has blurred the line between work and downtime. People are contactable at all hours and  switched on all the time. People  work harder than ever before.

One of the more interesting trends that was never predicted was the phenomenon referred to as the “creator economy”: the concept that alongside (or instead of) day-to-day jobs and careers, one can  have side hustles in which they can  make YouTube videos, stream on Twitch for donations, develop a profile as an influencer, or create and sell NFTs.

Currently, the creator economy is worth more than $100bn worldwide, with more than 50 million self-described creators (of whom 98 per cent are part-time creatives). In other words, many people have more than one job, and the “creative” jobs or passion projects take place online, more often than not. In 2019, a survey found that more American and British eight-to-12-year-olds aspired to be a YouTube star (29 per cent) than an astronaut (11 per cent). “It’s a huge, huge market that is only going to grow,” says international investor and entrepreneur Nicole Junkermann.

This is where Junkermann has identified a unique opportunity. “As this market grows, and there is more and more content to sift through – more posts, more tweets, more Twitch channels and more NFTs – then consumers are going to need a platform through which they can curate said content,” explains Junkermann. She has invested in Assemble, a project founded by Randi Zuckerberg and Debbie Soon which offers just that: a website and NFT incubator project called The HUG, which will serve as a community of creators and fans, who can talk to each other, review and rate NFTs.

It’s a groundbreaking invention with huge implications for the creator economy, and NFT creators in particular. No longer are would-be collectors required to spend time looking for the best content on the internet; instead, they can simply go to The HUG, and find works of art that have been created with love, by creators. Imagine, Junkermann says, “a sort of Web3 Pinterest meets Yelp” – a futuristic and technologically sophisticated platform that melds reviews, community, expression and visual art for ease of the user. Ultimately, The HUG aims to be the definitive place to go to for  quality content. With it, the creator economy just became a little richer.