同事问侄子，你长大后想做什么？答曰：做网红！

似乎一个时代，总有一个时代的“流行答案”；我们先后经历了想当「科学家」「宇航员」「老师」「医生」「演员」「明星」的年代，现在的人连孩子都觉得当网红老赚钱了吧。

可网红真的如此好当吗？光是露露脸、说说话就能轻松赚大钱吗？而网红能和内容创作者直接划等号吗？

今天的Buzzword就让我们来聊聊 Creator Economy 创作者经济，听完也许你就有答案了。

【创作者经济】是基于网络, 并且由各种软件以及平台作为支持, 让内容创作者, 特别是独立的内容创作者, 可以通过他们创作的内容而获取收入这样的经济。

比如Up主们定期/不定期在各种各样的新媒体平台发布更新的内容，获得更多的followers和关注，接到一些“广子”，这就属于现在创作者经济。

Creator Economy

It is an internet-based software facilitated economy that allows creators, especially independent creators, to earn revenue from their creations.

在创作者经济中，有三种非常重要的人：

内容创作者-内容原创

Content Creators, they create original contents;

内容策展者-负责搜集整合网上现有的内容;

Content Curators, they don't really create original stuff, but they search, collect, and integrate existing contents on the internet.

线上社群的建设者- 线上社群的建设者。

They are community builders.

当然，除了出产内容的人, 创作者经济还包括各种各样帮助内容出产者增长和变现的软件和金融工具。

Software and finance tools designed to help them with growth and monetization.

01

Word Origins

早在97年, 斯坦福大学就提出了当时被叫做“新经济”的创作者经济这个概念。

那个时候主要的内容生产还局限于动画插图等等, 而且没有很好的marketplace infrastructure, 没有这种网上的内容交易平台。

In 1997, Stanford University's Paul Saffo suggested that the Creator Economy first came into being in1997 as the "new economy".

But at the time there was no available marketplace infrastructure to enable them to generate revenue.

如今, 全世界认为自己是内容创作者的人超过了5,000万。

而最近在美国的一项调查里, 有29%的美国孩子希望长大了能够成为油管上的网红, 远远超出了想当宇航员的比例。

Fast forward to 25 years later, in 2022, more than 50 million people around the world consider themselves creators.

It's become the fastest growing type of small business. And a survey in the US found that more American kids want to be a YouTube star than an astronaut when they grow up.

If you do the same survey in China, the results wouldn't be too much different.

02

Why is it booming？

为什么创作者经济会如此之火？

It’s accessible. 可触达的人群广

There are over 6 billion people who use a smartphone according to statistics, and almost 4 billion of them are active on social media platform;

The money is there. 有钱可赚.

Using platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, 抖音, b站, so on and so forth, content creators can earn money through lots of different ways.

For example,

※Advertising revenue广告收入

※Sponsored content 赞助节目

※Product placement 产品植入

※Tipping 打赏

※Paid subscriptions 付费订阅

※Digital content sales 付费内容

※Merchandise or merch周边商品

※Shout-outs 网红推广

※Live and virtual events 现场/虚拟活动

※VIP meetups VIP见面会

※Fan clubs 粉丝俱乐部

…

and the list goes on.

One more fascinating thing about Creator Economy is that creating content is something that can be a hobby or even a side hustle, allowing people to bring in extra cash while working their normal day jobs.

而且和很多其他行业不一样, 内容创作完全可以兼职来做, 没有那么大的风险, 还可以补贴收入。

The possibilities are endless, 潜能无限

Once creators are able to reach a substantial following in a specific niche and industry, more opportunities begin to present themselves in the form of brand deals, company collaborations, and even the possibility of starting their own businesses.

一旦内容创作者能找到自己的人群, 并达到一定量的影响力, 就会打开很多新的机会大门, 包括跟很多商家平台的合作, 而实际上很多的内容创作者也开始自己创业。

Creators know how to reach the audience that many large businesses and brands are struggling to reach.

现在的情况是内容创作者很多比商家更理解受众。

03

Lucrative for everyone?

虽然创作者经济听起来很诱人, 虽然看起来很多头部网红赚得盆满钵满, 但实际上绝大部分的内容创作者基本没有办法通过他们创作的内容而获取收入。

而且尽管很多人都怀揣着网红梦, 希望能够全职去做内容创作, 但实际上真正能够靠内容创作吃饭的比例也不过是0.1%.

Now having said all of these, the booming Creator Economy certainly looks very tempting, but the reality is even with all these mega mega influencers out there, the large majority of content creators derive no monetary gain for their creations.

Despite the hopes of many who aspire to make content creation of full time job, as few as 0.1% are able to make a living of it.

I can truly believe that number, as a content creator myself, I can responsibly say that it is really not as sexy as exciting as it looks. Ultimately, it is still a lot of hard work.

没错，现实就是这么残酷。毕竟，“头部”不是谁都可以当的。在创作者经济领域，竞争不比别处小。

例句示范

Example 1：

-The creator economy is a large group of independent creators building solo, tech-enabled digital businesses.

Example 2：

-Despite the creator economy boom, many creators face challenges in monetizing their content.