We Are In The Midst Of A Creator Economy.

Author: Rakia Reynolds, Founder and Executive Officer, Skai Blue Media

Mentally, I was at the top of this mountain in Malibu while I jotted down these thoughts about some trends I’m seeing for 2022:

We are in the midst of a #creatoreconomy. If you can make it, you can Make It.

#instagram has moved on from its initial configuration as a photography platform to a more comedic, food, self-development (think astrology and therapy) and educational platform (the highest performing content) to keep pace with #Tiktok, which doubled users just two years ago. What about all of those beautiful pics? The founders have gone back to basics and created Glass, a platform for photographers to chronologically explore feeds without # algorithmic changes.

While #meta is aiming to have 1B users on its platform over the next decade, Roblox – a leader in the gaming space that was introduced to us by kids – has already spent the past 17 years building out immersive experiences using a bottoms-up approach by enabling users to create their own experiences.? Roblox is building an immersive world within existing gaming tech, rather than investing heavily in nascent tech like AR and VR. The company told The Verge that over half of all American children (36 million+) play the game.

And while the immersive nature of the #metaverse is alluring and exciting, the social element that allows users to create avatars and still communicate within communities provides an additional benefit. With the neverending changes in COVID variants, we’ll continue to deal with growing isolation and the challenges that brings so #community is KEY.

As we move into #Web3, digital currency and the decentralization of it all will surely rock some boats – in a positive way – in the world of finance and peoples’ everyday lives. John Rolle, the governor of the Central Bank of the Bahamas, created sand dollars to quickly rebuild after Hurricane Dorian in 2019. While traditional infrastructures typically need time, digital is fast tracking currency models.

Speaking of digital currency, Roblox has attributed more than half of their revenue from the in-game digital currency, Robux (which I’m quite familiar with since my 11 and 13 year-old have contributed a fair share of credit card bills to that and Fortnite bucks). Captive audience + quality content + community = increased revenue.

Visual creation will become increasingly paramount to success, evidenced by folks like Melanie Perkins, CEO and Co-Founder of Canva, becoming one of the richest women in the world by building a graphic design company and platform that currently enjoys a recent valuation of 40B.

Smart tech/wearables will continue to garner the spotlight. Prediction: smart bras will be almost as popular as smart watches to monitor heart rates for women. As heart disease continues to impact more women, we’ll be taking additional precautions to monitor our heart health. Watch this TED Talk on biometrics for more insight. https://lnkd.in/eAGNcMnG

Check out the video below.