The Evolution of the Influencer

Influencers are the future of discovery-driven, brand-centric commerce. This means that they’re juxtaposed to Amazon and search-driven, brand-agnostic commerce. Picks and shovels like Shopify and Stripe enable influencer commerce.

In 2020, millions of influencers earn a living on social platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok. These influencers are the foundation of the “solopreneur” phenomenon, which is disaggregating work and changing the meaning of a career.

OnlyFans elegantly captures all three of these trends. On OnlyFans, anyone can create a paywalled account and set a subscription price—$5/month, $20/month, etc. OnlyFans is known today for pornographic content, but I’m confident it will move beyond porn.

In the Influencer 2.0 era, anyone will be able to launch a brand.

This is one reason I’m bearish on companies like Brud, which are creating virtual influencers (yes, it’s a thing). Gen Z has a strong “authenticity detector” and I’m skeptical that digitally-created influencers will replace real, tangible, relatable people.

The Internet enabled unprecedented access to celebrities, and the celebrities who have done best on social media are those who have leaned into this access. Influence is no longer about being an elusive star on the red carpet; influence is about being intimately familiar and relatable.

Companies like Glossier and FabFitFun have built huge businesses by leveraging microinfluencers and user-generated content. In an interview with Kara Swisher, Glossier’s Emily Weiss said, “Every single person is an influencer.”

The influencer marketing industry will be worth $15 billion by 2022, up from $8 billion in 2019, and that growth is powered by the long tail of influencers.

According to one TikTok executive, every single TikTok video is given 100 views. How the video performs in those 100 views—how many people like it, comment on it, share it—determines how many more people will see the video in their feed, and so on. Anyone can go viral if their content is good enough. Fame is completely democratized.