India's Creator Economy Set to Boom With 10 Lakh Social Media Creators: Report

A recent report has highlighted a significant underutilisation of the vast creator pool in India, with brands engaging with only a mere 20,000 creators for their influencer marketing campaigns, out of a staggering eight crore creators.

This astonishing statistic emphasises the limited access brands currently have to less than 1 per cent of the entire creator universe, leaving millions of creators with no viable means to collaborate with brands for influencer campaigns. With over 3,500 brands actively seeking influencer marketing, this poses a notable challenge for creators to find suitable opportunities to collaborate.

The Animeta report emphasised on the untapped potential of India's creator economy and the significant gap between influencers and brands in terms of engagement. With the continuous emergence of creators and a more organised creator economy, Animeta projects that a staggering 10 lakh creators will be actively engaged in influencer campaigns over the next two years.

Further analysis of the creator landscape revealed that out of 9.22 lakh creators with at least 100 followers across YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, 53 per cent fall into the Nano creator category, boasting less than 10,000 followers.

Meanwhile, Micro creators, those with follower counts ranging from 10,000 to 1 lakh, account for 36 per cent of the total creator population, amounting to approximately 3.35 lakh creators. Additionally, there are 95,000 creators (10 per cent) categorised as Macro creators with 1 to 10 lakh followers, while a smaller fraction of 7,000 (0.8 per cent) are classified as Mega creators, with an impressive 10 lakh or more followers.

In a statement, Devdatta Potnis, CEO, Animeta said,"We are fortunate to have an immensely vast ecosystem of 8 Cr + talented creators in our country, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to harness their full potential. Our report reveals the impressive number of creators, each with their unique following, who are enthusiastic about collaborating with brands and participating in influencer marketing campaigns. 

"For now, even if the jump is from 20,000 to 10 lakh, we are looking at only a fraction of the 8Cr+ industry. Our interest lies in scaling up to provide opportunities to the majority of creators present in India and across Asia. As a creator tech company, our relentless efforts are focused on crafting the ideal platform for this purpose,” he added.

The data indicates that India's creator ecosystem is thriving and shows a promising growth trajectory. As individual creators continue to experience exponential growth, the distribution across Nano to Mega categories is expected to expand rapidly in the coming years.