The 2 nd Renaissance

Explosive Growth in the $100B+ Creator Economy

T H E E X P L O D I N G C R E A T O R E C O N O M Y

The 2nd Renaissance is upon us.

Mass multimedia platforms + creator-level D2C monetization will enable a new

explosion in creative output across multiple segments in a $ 100B+ market
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
W H A T I S T H E 2 N D R E N A I S S A N C E ?

The 2nd Renaissance

is a term coined Monetization
Creative
Boom

by Jack Conte Early

(CEO of Patreon) Platforms

to describe a feedback loop

between tech and creators
that drives the expansion of
creator-type jobs and changes Cultural SUPER FOLLOW Distribution
how society interacts with Change SUBSCRIBE
Evolves
media & “influence”

Creator
payments
features &
Creative competition
Passions Tools &
Less
Lego-ization
Friction
A B R I E F H I S T O R Y O F S O C I A L M E D I A

The last ~10Y have delivered exponential increase in usage of

social media / UGC platforms, particularly in video & imagery
Snapchat
The movie ‘The Social Instagram launches new (Snap Inc.) files Cambridge Analytical
Network’ is released features: filters & stories for IPO scandal following US
Maturity of social platforms activities and cultural moments

election and Brexit

Snapchat launch
Introducing
‘ephemeral content’ Facebook Video and
Instagram and acquires Imagery
Pinterest are launched WhatsApp

YouTube turns
15 with over 2B
monthly users

TikTok arrives
on the scene
Instagram hits
Microsoft acquires 1B active users
Words Linkedin
Facebook Twitter hits 500M
goes public tweets per day

Trend towards mobile, images and video content

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Source: Digital Strategy Consultants

T H E P A S S I O N E C O N O M Y

The demystification between artist and audience has created deeper

fandom relationships – the creator economy is the passion economy

Old Idea, New Tech 1,000 True Fans is All You Need

“I really embrace the idea that there’s a Subscription / User / Mo. $10
new demystification process between
the artist and the audience […] in the Yearly Subscription Revenue
1960s, 1970s there were definite artists $120
now it’s subgenres, it’s about the
per User
community, it’s becoming more and
more about the audience” Users 1,000
– DAVID BOWIE, 1999
Yearly Creator Revenue $120K

1. Edited
W H O A R E T H E C R E A T O R S ?

Creators are a diversified group of ~50M individuals creating

primarily imagery / video media across multiple niches
Diverse group with accounts of all sizes Significant amateur participation – the
and niche topics next supply boom?
1,000 Others: 4% Others: 10%
Avg. Followers / Acc. (K)

YouTube
800 26%
600

400 Instagram
25%
200
Twitch
0 6%
Less than $20-50K $50-100K $100-500K $500K-1M $1M+
$20K Instagram
% of 64% Twitch YouTube
34% 23% 20% 21% 2% 1%
Creators 15% 50%

Limited correlation between account size revenue ~47M amateurs 2M+ professionals
levels highlights opportunity for niche monetization with heavy skew towards Instagram primarily on video-focused platforms

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub; Signal Fire

C U R R E N T P L A T F O R M S & G R O W T H

Although there are large incumbent platforms the platform

ecosystem is evolving fast
World’s Most Used Social Platforms (7/21) Creator-Preferred Platforms
IG TikTok YT FB Twitch Twitter
Facebook 2,853
Used
YouTube 2,291 By: 93% 34% 25% 32% 2% 13%
Instagram 1,386 Primary
Plat. 72% 14% 10% 2% 1% 1%
TikTok 732

QQ 606

Douyin 600 Creator Payouts Have Accelerated

Sina Weibo 530
Est. YouTube Creator Payouts ($B)
Snapchat 514
$0.8B $10.5B
Kuaishou 481

Pinterest 478

Twitter 397 (# = Active Users in Millions)

2010 2020E

Source: Datareportal; Infinite Canvas

E V O L U T I O N I N M O N E T I Z A T I O N D R I V E S I N D U S T R Y C H A N G E

Monetization has been very scale-dependent and trapped at

the platform level. D2C & digital monetization changes that
Early Stage: B2B-Centric Mid-Stage: Rise of D2C Maturing: Abundant D2C

• Advertising – programmatic or direct
brand deals – as the dominant source of
income1
• Large scale needs to qualify for
monetization
• High income inequality, limited incentives
to enter the market2
• Large creators begin leveraging social
channels to launch and support
owned brands
• Initial prevalence of consumer-packaged
goods (physical) → incentives towards
JVs, lower margin (still required higher
scale)
Kylie Jenner: A Diversified Business
• Rise of niche monetization platforms
allows for small cohorts to have
big impacts
• Multi-media creator economies
• Growing market for scalable, high
margin digital goods → software is
eating the (creator) world
Art / NFTs – CryptoPunks were
created by 2 people and have a
“market cap” of ~$5B currently

Gaming: ~20YO Anareloux runs one

of largest digital goods stores in
$1.2B EV
Roblox at $1.0M+ p.a. income

Heather Fox, an American History

professor at Boston College, makes
$2.5M+ p.a. from her Substack3

1. Free to Play Economics 2. Creator Economy 3. Alexey Guzey

C A P I T A L M A R K E T S A R E A C T I V E A N D F I N A N C I N G C O N T I N U E D E V O L U T I O N

The creator economy is a major theme across VC, with

investments in tools and platforms across industries

Select Q4’20-Q2’21 Creator Economy Venture Rounds

Marketplace for fans to purchase Platform enabling creators to run various
$180.0 interactions from / with creators
$155.0 multimedia subscription programs
$160.0
$140.0 Community creation /
$120.0 management SaaS “Shopify Music creation tool
$100.0 “GitHub for music”
$100.0 Financing, production and for communities”
distribution of feature-length
$80.0
films from top creators $55.0
$60.0 $45.0 $50.0 $50.0
$40.0 $23.0
$20.0 $12.0

$-

Tech to embed multiple links Leading marketplace for Music distribution for
into a creator’s social profile sale of NFTs independent artists

~$800M in VC investments from Oct’20 to April ‘21

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub

L E G O - I Z I N G C R E A T O R T O O L S D R I V E S O P P O R T U N I T Y G R O W T H

Lego-ization. It’s never been easier to be a creator (of anything)

Improvements in legos can Creators across all industries have access to

drive huge market shifts more tools and platforms
Video Audio Writing Art Gaming

# of U.S. Businesses <1 YO

850,000

750,000 Distribution eComm. Community D2C Crypto Biz. Mgmt.

650,000

550,000
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

Source: Statista Research Department

C R Y P T O A S T H E U L T I M A T E I N F R A S T R U C T U R E

Crypto is unlocking diverse opportunities for digital creation

and placing the creator at the center of its own economy

Audience / Creator relationship intermediated Multimedia, multiproduct creator ecosystems

1 by “strong platforms” 3 running on Web 2.0 + Web 3.0

Ability to run private chats

FinTech products and APIs exclusive to major fan / coin
holders

Niche D2C interaction across multiple fields

2 (media, CPG) intermediated by weaker platforms TikTok / Instagram Leverage DAOs to
as top-of-funnel fund angel investments
user acquisition alongside fans

Tokenize videos or art to

give fans a chance of Leverage eCommerce to
uncapped spend to directly dropship CPG to fans
own part of creative output
C U L T U R A L C H A N G E A D D S T O T H E P O S I T I V E F E E D B A C K L O O P

Gen-Z lists YouTube creator as a top employment pick.

It’s easy to understand why
Monetization Exposure Cultural Shift
More creators…

… and more support from platforms →

rush to launch “Creator Funds"

Company Launch Date Size

Facebook July ’21 $1B
YouTube May ‘21 $100M
Square May ’21 $250K
Pinterest April ‘21 $500K
Clubhouse Mar ‘21 $5/mo/head
Snapchat Nov ‘20 ”Millions”
TikTok Jul ‘20 $1B

Source: The Information Newsletter

T H E C R E A T O R E C O N O M Y I S N E W , I T S D R I V E R S A R E N O T

The evolution and growth of the creator economy is a different

manifestation of shared human desires for self-actualization

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs “The Pitch”

Increased means via solopreneur

Self Actualization
journeys into the passion economy

Esteem Explosive supply via initial social

networks. Esteem packaged and
Belonging quantified via “Likes” and “Shares”

Safety
Increasingly provided by modern /
developed governments
Physiological Needs
W H A T ’ S N E X T F O R B I T K R A F T

We are actively investing in the creator economy, always with

a strong focus on gaming, but in adjacent areas as well
Key Themes

1 The emergence of DAOs and the direct engagement, governance and monetization of communities + financing vehicles

2 UGC gaming and the expanding opportunity set for creators within low/no-code gaming environments (e.g., Roblox)

3 Digital Art & Design, not just with NFTs but also with increased supply and demand for avatars, skins, etc.

4 Tools & Tech that power up the infrastructure layer and allow the creator economy to reach new heights

Select Investments