According to a Linktree report, over 200 million creators are competing for market share. Many of these creators post on multiple social media platforms and need a space to consolidate their links for viewers to access. That’s where Linktree intervenes.
Linktree Co-Founder and CEO Alex Zaccaria joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the creator economy and how Linktree helps creators navigate a crowded space.
Zaccaria explains the crowded landscape creators find themselves in: “It’s pretty unnerving right now for creators, where they’re building their audience on these platforms. They’re competing with algorithms, they’re competing with AI, they’re competing with the ability to own their content. And they’re competing with the potential for those platforms to maybe go away, where, where they have built their audience. And so, they are looking to build their own shops, and be able to build, sell their products on their Linktree. And that’s another revenue stream coming up.”
There are more than 200 million creators competing for market share.
So you all released this kind of deep dive into the creator economy.
And and maybe we could start there, Alex, maybe describe and quantify how big that crater economy really now is.
Yeah.
Look, the Creator economy is is already huge, and it’s really growing.
We’re seeing, uh, year on year increases.
We estimate around 200 million creators creating content for commercial intent.
We see, you know, in 23 alone in in the US around, uh, 50% of gen Z say that, uh, their purchasing decisions were influenced by a creator, Uh, and on link tree alone.
Over $6 billion in GMV has been driven by creators.
So it’s a really integral part of the CRE of the, uh the US economy and the global economy.
Uh, and yeah, way, way, harder to say, continue to thrive.
Um, and Alex talk to us about so for people who aren’t familiar with link tree like if somebody says link in bio frequently, that’s a link tree, right?
That then takes you to all of their, um, content.
How does what’s the sort of division among social media?
Um, for the sources for your creators that are using your service.
Like, can you give us sort of a percentage breakdown of how that looks and look it?
It’s and and this is actually really part of the problem for creators.
And one of the one of the challenges that they’re facing that the Internet is incredibly fragmented.
Uh, you know, tiktok instagram, facebook, YouTube, uh, threads is another recent one, last year.
Uh, and we’re talking.
Pinterest is there’s so many platforms that creators need to shop up on.
Uh and the reason link to exist is to help creators and small businesses to be able to really unify all of their audience coming from all of these different platforms and to be able to drive them off to wherever they need to get to to whichever other platform they need to help unify and monetize, and for them to own that audience themselves, which is, which is really important.
Uh, we’re seeing, you know, we we are seeing, uh, all the platforms grow as a percentage against each other.
We are seeing tiktok continue to grow in leaps and bounds compared to other platforms year and year.
A and Alex for our audience here, Can you walk us through a bit about, uh, the sort of the economics of link tree, your business, how you make money, and so link tree is a premium SAS platform.
So we so, uh, there’s a a three tier and that’s really designed to be, uh, super powerful for as many people as possible to use.
And then there’s a $5.09 dollar and a $24 a month plan.
Uh, for you know, if you want more powerful analytics or if you really want to dive in a bit deeper into some functionality, uh, and then also what we’re we’re really focusing on right now, which I’m super excited about is our social commerce play, which is linked tree shopping.
And it’s really a way for creators to be able to actually, uh, build a store on their link tree, Uh, and make sure they can continue to own their audience.
It’s pretty unnerving right now for creators where they’re building their audience on these platforms.
They’re competing with the ability to own their content, and they and they’re competing with the potential for those platforms to maybe go away.
Uh, where, where they have built their audience.
And so, uh, they are looking to build their orange shops, uh, and be able to sell their products on their link tree.
I was struck by the Stat from Your Creator report from last year.
Only half of creators made any money at all from their content last year.
And of those that made money of the 50% only 2% were making enough to maybe live on more than $50,000 over the course of the year.
72% made less than $500.
Does that raise some questions about the sort of breath of the creator economy?
Yeah, look, it does.
It’s it’s a it’s it is a really challenging career path.
Uh, it is kind of like any other market where there is a there is a bit of a power curve.
Uh, the top 1% do well, there’s there’s an increase in middle class, and then there’s a There’s a long tail, Uh, and we’re working really hard to increase and continue to democratise that so that the the end of that long tail, uh, can have more opportunity to reach that those dollars.
And so there’s.
There’s many different ways creators can make money.
Often it’s through brand deals, and we wanna help CC continue to connect the dots there so that more of our long tail we can raise that number.
So it’s far more than 2%.
That’s actually earning a living or earning, uh, the wage necessary to, uh, to live comfortably in in countries like America, and we are seeing that increase.
Uh, we are seeing creatives continue to be the storefront, uh, and and we, you know, at Link Tree.
We really believe that over the next five years, we’ll continue to see Link Tree be the storefront for massive for brands.
Uh, we don’t think they’ll be, uh, brands will be putting ads on billboards, uh, or doing necessarily big TV CS.
They’re reaching their audience through these creators who are right now influencing purchasing decisions.
And so we, we hope to see continue to see that grow and to, um, have more of the creator and passionate economy earn a living.
Alex, thank you so much.
Good to get a temperature check on all of this from you.