There is so much going on in the field of creating digital content. We have already studied influencer marketing. A lot of companies do the brand promotion through digital content.
Social media keeps on adding features to lure the content creators. Exciting new features which are lucrative are being added.
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube facilitate digital content.
The five main purposes of digital content are to generate ad revenue, to do brand placement and-or sponsorships, do affiliate marketing and do merchandise and crowdfunding.
In India, 70-80 per cent of all data is on video.There is widespread consumption of online video. The short form content has huge demand, e.g. Reels.
Instagram has recently launched Reels to allow people to mix in other people’s Reels in their original posts.
Content could pertain to entertainment, food, beauty, comedy, lifestyle, technology, vocational skills, gaming, education and learning, business and communication. It is interesting to note that first of all those who created comedy tasted success.
Social media pay to content creators by counting number of times ads are shown or on the basis of number of clicks. It may not depend on the number of followers.
There are a number of revenue sources for content creators. There are brand collaborations, paid partnerships and through the channels, say YouTube pays creators after they qualify certain number of watch hours and subscriber counts.
Instagram does not pay the content creators directly. Revenue comes from branded endorsements and sponsored posts. Facebook pays in a similar manner. TikTok creators with 1 lac followers are paid per 1000 views through Creator Fund.
YouTube’s first Me at the Zoo video was produced in 2005 by its founder Javed Karim. It registered 171 million views.
Ten years, later, say in 2014, there were 16 YouTube channels which had crossed the million subscriber mark.
Currently in 2021, there are 2500 channels on YouTube with one million plus subscribers.
Indian music labels, such as T series have 187 million subscribers.
In the top viewed 20 channels in the world, top five are from India.
Of course, there is constant pressure on creators to create new content. Many a time, the content could show obscenity, racial slurs and could lead to gaming addiction.