Patrick Adler (University of Hong Kong) adler@hku.hk
Han Chu (Kiel University) chu@geographie.uni-kiel.de
Richard Florida (University of Toronto) florida@rotman.utoronto.ca
Robert Hassink (Kiel University) hassink@geographie.uni-kiel.de
Summary of the Session’s Theme and Objectives
The creator economy could be regarded as an economic system centered on individual creators who produce and distribute content via digital platforms—such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili, Weibo and Xiaohongshu (The RED)—to gain attention, traffic, income, and commercial opportunities (Florida, 2022). As an emerging economic form, it has developed alongside the rise of social media, livestreaming, short video platforms, and subscription-based services, and is closely intertwined with the platform economy (Kenney and Zysman, 2020; Repenning and Hardaker, 2024; Chu et al., 2023). At the same time, due to its modes of value creation and monetization, it is also intimately connected to the creative economy and the attention economy (Davenport and Beck, 2001). The creator economy and the narrower influencer economy represent an increasingly important part of the platform economy (Economist, 2022). Florida (2022, 8) defines creators as “those who use digital technology to make and publish unique creative content … Creators monetize their efforts through memberships, subscriptions, digital tips, advertising, brand partnerships, endorsements, direct funding from platforms, and other forms of digital payment”. Creators are more bottom up and less directly linked to firms compared to freelancers. The creator economy is defined as “the broader economic and social infrastructure that enables the work of Creators. It comprises the technological and economic ecosystem in which Creators do their work and engage their audiences, including digital platforms … the digital tools that Creators use; startup companies; and the broader infrastructure of people and companies that support Creators’ efforts to do their work and generate revenue” (Florida, 2022, 9). In China, its contribution to the economy is estimated at $210bn, that is 1.4% of GDP, whereas 75% of marketers in the US spend money on them (Economist 2022). According to Shapiro and Aneja (2019, 19) “14.8 million Americans earned income by posting their creations on Instagram, WordPress, YouTube, Tumblr and five other platforms.” Yet, the winners-take-all dynamics of the platform-based creator economy, leads to enormous inequalities of success (Liu et al., 2024).
However, where is the innovation in the creator economy? This question can be understood in two ways. The first way is whether there is innovation in the creator economy, and if yes what kind of innovation we can find in it. As an extension of the creative economy grounded in digital platform infrastructures, the creator economy reflects the ongoing “platformization” of many creative industries. Meanwhile, it also interacts with traditional sectors and industries, influencing various aspects of business models, labor organization, and operational management. On the one hand, the creator economy can be, broadly spoken, regarded as a recent innovation itself, emerging from digital platforms and their ability to bridge virtual and physical space to both create and influence new industries (e.g., digital content industry, e-sports, live streaming industry, online retail etc.). On the other hand, at a lower level of abstraction, creators can use imitation strategies or innovation strategies (Liu et al., 2024). The latter focus on content innovation by creating distinctiveness and diversity relative to other content. Moreover, “brand innovations” are discussed in the creator economy literature (Prandelli et al., 2024).
The second way refers to the location where the innovation takes place. While digital platforms are often perceived as deterritorialized, frictionless spaces of work and creativity, the reality is that innovation in the creator economy remains deeply spatially embedded. Recent work on digital labor highlights how creative and platform-mediated work, including that of creators, is shaped by precarity, individual agency, and spatial configurations (Repenning & Oechslen, 2023). The question is also related to the concept of the creator economy ecosystem (Florida, 2022; Prandelli et al., 2024), which comprises venture capital, creative talent, higher education institutes and platform infrastructure. These ecosystems cannot be found everywhere, but rather exhibit a distinctive geography, putting some cities and regions in an advantage over others (Florida, 2022).
List of Topics to Be Presented in the Special Session
Since these questions have only been recently started to be discussed in the literature, our special session aims at further exploring innovation in the context of the creator economy and its whereabouts. We welcome theoretical, conceptual, quantitative and qualitative empirical papers from a broad range of industries and locations. The focus will be on, but not confined to, the following topics.
Based on the presented papers, we are planning to submit a proposal for a special issue to an international peer-reviewed journal, such as Industry and Innovation, Regional Studies or Geoforum.
Key References