Influencers are putting up paywalls. What does that mean for brands?

Sponsorships and ads are no longer sufficient – it’s time for social networks both new and old to focus on building tools to allow influencers to make money on-platform.

The influencer market will be, by some estimates, worth close to $15 billion in just a few years, with hundreds of thousands of people earning sizable income from viral videos and social posts. By Karat’s own count, there are over a million professional full-time creators globally who earn at least $80,000 a year—but many of them have trouble acces... See more

When influencers can monetize, platforms benefit:

3. Influencers enable disintermediation of the social media superpowers: As Facebook matures, CPMs rise, driving up acquisition costs, often rendering the platform unsustainable or unscalable. We’ve witnessed the rise and fall of many D2C companies that competed for attention on Instagram and Facebook, and fell victim to increasingly expensive ad c... See more

“If you look at these fan clubs or VIP memberships that have launched, it’s tied to exclusive, specific types of content being provided by influencers and celebrities.”- Krishna Subramanian, CEO of influencer marketing firm Captiv8.

If an internet celebrity or content creator doesn't get paid per view, then "fans" aren't worth so much. Revenue sharing platforms like YouTube and Twitch reward influencers for having legions of casual followers who rack up ad impression. But you need a different strategy on platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat that don't share ... See more