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Taking Root: 2 Taking Root: The Growth of Americas New Creative Economy EXECUTIVE SUMMARY L ast year, we conducted the first rigorous analysis of the millions of Americans who produce and disseminate their own creative content on the internet from videos on YouTube and books through Amazon Publishing, to photographs on Instagram and handmade objects on Etsy and earn money from doing so. We focused on nine major platforms for this new creative economy, finding that nearly 14.6 million Americans earned more than $5.8 billion in 2016 from posting their personal creations on those nine platforms. Those totals capture only one prominent piece of this new creative economy, since they cover only Americans posting on one of nine platforms. For this updated study, we can now report that this new economy grew at a robust rate in 2017. Here is a summary of the updated studys principal findings: In 2017, nearly 17 million Americans earned income posting their personal creations on these nine platforms, an increase of more than 2.4 million U.S. creators, or 16.6 percent, in one year. The numbers of income-earning creators grew most rapidly in percentage terms on YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram. All told, these American internet creators earned a baseline of $6.8 billion on the nine platforms in 2017, a one-year increase of nearly $1 billion, or 17 percent. Those earnings increased most rapidly for the creators on Instagram, Twitch, Tumblr and YouTube. TABLE 1: ESTIMATED TOTAL EARNINGS OF U.S. CREATORS ON NINE LEADING PLATFORMS, 2016 PLATFORM U.S. CREATORS CHANGE EARNINGS BY U.S. CREATORS CHANGE 2016 2017 2016 2017 Amazon Publishing 177,647 177,042 - 0.3% $216,870,288 $220,447,368 1.6% eBay 23,802 23,797 - 0.02% $35,713,819 $36,974,301 3.5% Etsy 862,778 928,343 7.6% $1,286,154,632 $1,458,513,952 13.4% Instagram 3,573,001 5,639,996 57.9% $307,791,034 $460,100,000 49.5% Shapeways 20,509 24,526 19.6% $1,393,452 $1,701,804 22.1% Tumblr 2,560,681 3,138,962 22.6% $145,210,567 $178,003,586 22.6% Twitch 6,168 9,796 58.8% $67,035,588 $87,147,723 30.0% WordPress 6,128,101 4,851,266 - 20.8% $439,261,046 $347,737,771 -20.8% YouTube 1,205,418 2,187,107 81.4% $3,307,333,333 $4,004,000,000 21.1% Total 14,558,105 16,980,834 16.6% $5,806,763,759 $6,794,626,505 17.0% We also found that social media continues to amplify the reach of U.S. creators. Most visitors to the nine platforms visit directly or through search engines, but a significant share use links from social media websites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit and Twitter. Executive Summary3 Taking Root: The Growth of Americas New Creative Economy EXECUTIVE SUMMARY We estimate that the traffic coming to the nine platforms from seven leading social media sites the four above, plus Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube generated earnings of more than $504.6 million for creators in 2017, nearly the same as the estimated $512.2 million in earnings generated in 2016 from links on the seven social media websites. However, these estimates capture only a fraction of the earnings linked to those websites, because available data cover only traffic from desktop computers. Most social media traffic now originates from mobile devices; and in September 2018, an estimated 65.4 percent of such traffic came from mobile devices. Similarly, an estimated 60.2 percent of traffic to the nine platforms now comes from mobile devices. While data on mobile devices from social media websites to the platforms are not yet available, it is very likely that U.S. creators derived more income in 2017 from mobile traffic directed from social media. The nearly 17 million Americans who earned income in 2017 posting their creations on the nine platforms are located in every state and the District of Columbia. Using U.S. Census Bureau industry- level data, we have estimated the numbers of creators and their earnings by platform in each state, and how much each states creators and their earnings increased in 2017. For example, here are the top five states in 2017 based on their numbers of creators. California: 3,260,571 creators, a 21% increase New York: 1,899,869 creators, a 16.8% increase Texas: 1,033,292 creators, a 16.3% increase Florida: 938,764 creators, a 15.4% increase Illinois: 607,980 creators, a 15.7% increase The numbers of creators and their earnings increased in every state, including the five states with the smallest numbers of income-earning creators in 2017. Alaska: 38,466 creators, a 13.8% increase Delaware: 32,076 creators, a 13.9% increase South Dakota: 31,560 creators, a 13.6% increase Wyoming: 25,768 creators, a 14.6% increase North Dakota: 22,843 creators, a 13.5% increase The states with the fastest growth in their numbers of new creators span the country, demonstrating the wide geographical reach of the new creative economy. California: 21.0% increase in creators Utah: 18.3% increase in creators District of Columbia: 17.5% increase in creators The nearly 17 million Americans who earned income in 2017 posting their creations on the nine platforms are located in every state and the District of Columbia. 4 Taking Root: The Growth of Americas New Creative Economy EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Louisiana: 17.1% increase in creators Georgia: 17% increase in creators Even those states with relatively slow growth in this area still report significant increases in their numbers of creators. Delaware: 13.9% increase in creators Alaska: 13.8% increase in creators Maine: 13.8% increase in creators South Dakota: 13.6% increase in creators North Dakota: 13.5% increase in creators This updated study and the original report are the first rigorous quantitative analyses of the new creative economy in the United States. For reasons enumerated below, the results are very conservative and provide merely a baseline for measuring its scope and economic power. Among the thousands of websites that host creators, we focus on only nine major platforms with publicly available data: Amazon Publishing, eBay, Etsy, Instagram, Shapeways, Tumblr, Twitch, WordPress and YouTube. As a result, the numbers of American creators and their earnings are unavoidably understated. Given the availability of data, we assume for purposes of this analysis that each account, channel, or store on the nine platforms is affiliated with only one creator, when multiple creators are involved in many cases. This further understates the number of creators. The data also limit our analysis of creators earnings to the most prominent source of their earnings on each platform. In many cases, creators earn income in multiple ways, including website ads, sponsorships and influencer compensation, revenue from social media traffic, gifts from fans and direct sales. The original study and this update focus exclusively on American creators, excluding tens of millions of creators in other countries who earn income from posting creations on the nine platforms. This study also focuses on independent creators, distinct from mainstream artists such as Ariana Grande or Dwayne Johnson who generate substantial income flows from their Instagram brand sponsorships, YouTube revenue-sharing and other means. Driven by constant innovation and entrepreneurship, the internet continuously and seemingly inexorably expands its reach and increases its economic effects. Our inaugural study of creators who have seized opportunities arising from those innovations and entrepreneurship and this updated analysis can only begin to map and measure this new creative economy and its impact in the United States. The evidence in this study, and others, virtually establishes that this new creative economy will continue to expand as the publics awareness of its opportunities increases and as technological advances provide more advanced platforms.5 Taking Root: The Growth of Americas New Creative Economy SUMMARY OF THE STUDYS PRINCIPAL FINDINGS New York 1,899,869 creators California 3,260,571 creators Georgia 449,042 creators Ohio 454,011 creators Summary of the Studys Principal Findings Number of U.S. Creators Earning Income In New Creative Economy An estimated 16.9 million Americans used these platforms in 2017 to earn income from their creations 4.9 million WordPress 3.1 million T umblr 5.6 million Instagram 2.1 million YouT ube 928,300 Etsy 177,000 Amazon Publishing 24,526 Shapeways 24,000 eBay 9,800 Twitch Collectively, these independent creators earned a baseline of an estimated $6.8 billion in 2017 from their creations. Top states for new creators Massachusetts 469,985 creators Pennsylvania 563,410 creators Illinois 607,980 creators Texas 1,033,292 creators Florida 938,764 creators New Jersey 461,457 creators6 Taking Root: The Growth of Americas New Creative Economy I. INTRODUCTION Etsy and eBay for personal handmade items; Instagram for photographs; Shapeways for custom 3D-printed objects; Tumblr and WordPress for personal blogs; Twitch for video game streaming; and YouTube for videos. 1 We want to thank the Re:Create Coalition for its generous support for our research. All of the analysis and views expressed here are solely those of the authors. 2 Bureau of Economic Analysis (2018). 3 Ibid. 4 McKinsey Global Institute (2016).7 Taking Root: The Growth of Americas New Creative Economy I. INTRODUCTION Twitch shares revenues from monthly subscriptions to a creators videogame streaming or gaming comments, and creators on Instagram can earn income as “influencers” who promote a partners brand or branded products. Internet advertising Most major web platforms have created revenue-sharing arrangements for creators, based on payments for advertisements that are posted close to a creators works. For example, YouTube operates a “partners program,” which since January 2018 has targeted creators with at least 4,000 watch hours annually and 1,000 subscribers who want to earn income through YouTubes revenue- sharing ad arrangements. 5More generally, a platform or a creator can select the most relevant ads to run on the same page with the creators video, writings or other creations, to the right of the creation or along the bottom one-fifth of the creators page. A WordPress or Tumblr blogger who focuses on fitness, for example, may display links to fitness products available at Amazon or on a manufacturers website, or to fitness services in the creators area. How much a creator earns from such ads is usually based on the web traffic the creator attracts from followers and subscribers or the number of click-throughs from the ad. Some creators can also charge a fixed fee to display an ad or a link to an advertisers website, or to post a review of an advertisers product or service. Our estimates of the revenues earned by creators on YouTube and WordPress are based on the formal, publicly available arrangements provided by those platforms for sharing their advertising revenues. Creators on Tumblr earn revenues through third-party advertising, such as Google AdSense. These three platforms alone account for nearly 10.2 million creators, or 59.9 percent of the estimated 16.98 million creators who earned income in 2017 by posting creations on the nine platforms. 5 YouTube (2018). Youtube, Wordpress, and Tumblr alone account for nearly 10.2 million creators, who earned income in 2017 by posting creations on the nine platforms.
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