YouTube exec Thomas (TK) Kim on creators’ awareness of themselves as businesses:
That all being said, in some ways, I think what may be different is that we’ve had enough generations of creators now that this, kinda, latest generation of creators I do feel like are just much more business savvy, and really see themselves as a business and brand.
The other thing I think I’m seeing which I think is interesting is that, given the amount— there are a number of creator-oriented services that are propping up.
There are hundreds of startups in this space — I think there’ll be some rationalization there, obviously — but, given the amount of dollars out there, I do think there will be a number of services providers for creators, and it’ll probably allow them to actually own more of their content, and their audience.
I think that’s definitely a trend because, again, creators are much more savvy — they’re businesses — and I think they’ll need a lot of business infrastructure for them to own their audience and their monetization, as well, in the future.
Startups are smelling the money. We’ll continue to see a sharp uptick in companies offering services to creators to help them run their new self-owned busineses.
Unfortunately, I also expect to see many business-minded creators hop to situations that compromise their revenue and ownership as badly as does entrusting their whole business to YouTube.
I’m hearing talk of agreements some creators are signing with startups right now that contain triggering event clauses to form LLC partnerships, resulting in as little as a 25% cut of product sales actually going to the creator — on products supposedly owned by that creator.
Of course, not all creator business service companies will be bad.
Just take care when signing any deal that:
- you’re remaining the owner of any new brand you’re creating not only in name, but also in revenue.
Meantime, you’d better believe that YouTube will continue hard at work trying to make it as easy as possible for you to simply:
- close your eyes, and
- leave the access key to your community with them…
…letting YouTube handle your merch, your product sales, your memberships, your fan contributions — your everything.
— Tang
