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Photo credit: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch
Erin McGoff has 3 million followers on social media, but with the money she gets from Instagram and TikTok, she wouldn't be able to pay for the plate of mozzarella sticks we share at a bar in Baltimore.
“On Instagram, a video will get 900,000 views and make six dollars,” McGoff said. “It’s offensive.”
Like most content creators, McGoff makes her living from brand deals, sponsorships and subscription products, rather than the platforms themselves. But that reality is emblematic of the conundrum creators find themselves in: pushing social platforms to new heights, but the same platforms They can be betrayed at any time by a small algorithm change or an unfounded ban.
Creatives face the same pressures as any self-employed business owner, but at the same time they are completely dependent on the whims of giant social platforms that don't pay them enough or at all for creating tremendous value. And when it comes to brand deals and partnerships, there is no standard that ensures creators are fairly compensated.
“TikTok and Instagram make so much money from advertising, and they don’t share that with creators,” McGoff told TechCrunch.
The creator economy has a sustainability problem. According to Matt Koval, an early YouTuber who then worked as YouTube's primary liaison for a decade, a YouTuber's career span typically lasts between five and seven years.
“If YouTubers don't leverage their fame and turn it into some kind of sustainable business, they may end up in the tough situation of, 'What should I do now?'” he said in a YouTube video.
Since opening her social media accounts in 2021, McGoff has made more money every year, but she still fears her job could disappear at any moment. What happens if her TikTok account is deleted? What if her followers get bored of her? With the exception of a small, elite group, there really is no blueprint for what a career as a content creator will look like in ten, twenty, or thirty years.
“You have to act as if your influencer money could be gone tomorrow,” she said. “A lot of YouTubers just think, 'I'll make videos online and make a lot of money,' and unfortunately that's not sustainable. You have to have an entrepreneurial mindset and understand how to make money work for you.”
These fears are neither unique nor unfounded. As creatives look to build their diverse businesses, they are also beginning to question whether they can work together to advocate for greater transparency across platforms and brands, which could help make their careers more viable.
Last year, creators watched as Hollywood's writers and actors unions demonstrated relentlessly under the unforgiving Los Angeles sun, ultimately winning contract changes with studios that would ensure better treatment and pay. Some creatives even pledged not to cross picket lines during strikes. Generation Z has come of age at a time when workers at Amazon, Starbucks, REI, Trader Joe's, Home Depot, UPS and many others are waging high-profile strikes and union campaigns to fight for better working conditions. And this generation – which spends a lot of time on social media – is the most pro-union generation in the world.
Is now time for content creators to get their due?
A lack of transparency
As a YouTuber who creates videos and resources about career advice, it makes sense that McGoff would think so deeply about her career path. The same goes for Hannah Williams, the founder of Salary Transparent Street (STS), who has over 2 million followers across all platforms.
In her videos, Williams asks people on the street to share their salary to promote pay transparency – since she opened her TikTok account in 2022, STS has evolved into a broader resource hub to help people get paid fairly become.
“I made a personal TikTok in 2022 and just talked about how much money I made from every single job because I thought that was my only way to defend myself,” Williams told TechCrunch. At the time, she had recently discovered that she was underpaid as a data analyst in Washington, DC: “A video of all my salaries went viral on TikTok, and that's when I realized that salary transparency was really a thing and that people were interested in it.” The. So I just came up with the idea of going out on the street and asking random people about their salary.”
Williams is living a content creator's dream. Her company had gross sales of over $1 million in 2023, more than double what it did in 2022, and she pays herself a salary of $125,000. But as Williams helps people in other industries achieve greater pay transparency, she's reflected on the issues in her own professional world.
“We definitely need a union because we need standardized rates,” Williams said. “We need something that all companies adhere to. We need help. We need intercession. We need people to stand up for us.”
Because the film and television industry in the United States is unionized, workers on all sides of a production enjoy a range of job protections and minimum wages.
“If we look at it from the perspective of SAG and studios, studios are social media platforms for creators. They are the people who host our content. We make them money,” Williams said.
And without any industry oversight, brands can pay creators anything – or nothing – for their work.
Some advocates are trying to change that. After getting her fingers burned many times by underpaying brand deals, Lindsey Lee Lurgin founded Fuck You Pay Me (FYPM), a database where creators can share which brands they work with and how much those brands paid them for certain services.
“I've heard people say, 'Thanks to your website, I made rent this month, and it's because I wanted to take away a free t-shirt from this brand, but I joined FYPM and saw that I got them two grand can demand.' ',” Lurgin told TechCrunch.
Creators also want more transparency from the social platforms themselves. Since a large portion of a YouTuber's business is conducted through these platforms, any arbitrary algorithm change, disciplinary action, or update can mean a loss of income.
“One time on TikTok I reported someone's comment as homophobic and replied to them saying 'ew,'” Williams said. “My account was suspended for 48 hours and I appealed it, but nothing happened… That hurt me as a YouTuber because I couldn't engage or interact with my audience.”
In the worst-case scenario, a ban or account hack can have a noticeable impact on a YouTuber's business. Let's say a YouTuber receives $5,000 from a brand for an Instagram promotional post. If the creator cannot access their account to make this post, they will not be paid. These concerns are so widespread that startups have sprung up that offer creators insurance in the event their accounts are hacked.
“Instagram has no customer service at all. “So if there’s a problem with your account, you can’t help anyone unless you know someone,” McGoff said.
According to Williams, these platforms also don't do enough to stop reposts.
“There is not enough regulation for people who copy your content – they download your video wholeheartedly, repost it and make money from it,” she said. “There is no way I can report it and get them to take it down. Instagram is happy because they make money, but I'm not happy as a YouTuber because what am I supposed to do, not post on Instagram? My hands are tired.”
Could content creators unionize?
Over the years, several creative industry leaders have floated the idea of a creators union. In 2016, longtime YouTuber Hank Green tried to build the Internet Creators Guild, but the idea may have come too soon; Because the project lacked the funding and momentum to keep it going, it was canceled in 2019. Since then, with the rise of TikTok and the boom in social media usage during the pandemic, more and more people have been making a living online.
Now Ezra Cooperstein, an industry veteran, is working on a project called Creators.org, a nonprofit organization that aims to serve as a unified voice for creators. A similar group, the Creators Guild of America, was formed in August. And in 2021, SAG-AFTRA opened membership to creators, but the union won't negotiate with brands; Rather, this special agreement allows creators to be eligible for union benefits, such as health insurance. But none of these organizations have become popular enough to attract a large enough community of creators – at least not yet.
“It’s hard to find common ground with everyone because everyone wants different things,” Williams said. “Depending on what type of creator you are, you may have different priorities.”
In the meantime, platforms can still make changes to better support their creators.
“I think what we could do is give creators a voice on the platforms, like having a say in how the algorithm changes, and putting more legal protections in place to recognize that work as legitimate work,” Lurgin said. “The people who make the rules at the top have no connection to it. It’s like deleting someone’s job if your site is stolen.”
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