Disrupting The Creator Economy: What Does DeMe Mean For The Future

What is Decentralised Media?

Deme stands for decentralised media and is being funded through the use of crypto and the blockchain. Flickto most notably, a Cardano media-incubator who is the creator of the DeMe movement, stated that media should be open source and owned by stakeholders such as consumers, creators, and their intermediaries. Flickto aims to utilise the ideas of DeMe to create an open-source platform that gives people full control and authority over their data, the media projects that are created, produced, funded, and ultimately distributed through its innovative voting system that will be launched on its platform.

The Creator Economy:

The Creator Economy refers to businesses that are facilitated by software that allows creators to earn income from their creations, The inception of Web2.0, facilitated the rise of platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Twitch, and TikTok. Users were able to cultivate a following which gave them access to corporations who required Sponsored Contents or Story-shout outs. 

While Social media titans allowed individuals to gain large followings it left them with few avenues for direct earnings with the exception of Youtube, which has changed now with creators finding avenues to monetize their content through partnerships and sponsored posts. The problem that arises is that the creator economy has approximately 50 million Content Creators but roughly 4% are able to make a career out of it as the top creators typically see the biggest share of the revenue and the highest amount of brand deals as a result. For an industry that is worth at least ‘$100 Billion US dollars there is something that needs to change.

The numbers:

• Between 2019 and 2021 the top YouTube channels earned a combined $211m 
• The top influencers can earn up to 6 figures per post on Instagram

Challenges currently facing creators and How Flickto is using DeMe to combat them

Finding Creative Freedom:

The media industry like most is very network-driven, creators who have a great idea or a small but loyal following miss out on earnings because the market for their content isn’t targeted for large advertisers. Flickto’s pioneering platform connects the creators with the audience, meaning they no longer need to conform to an arbitrary algorithm or in most cases where brands aim to dictate and stifle the creator’s artistic vision because they fear brand safety, Flickto and DeMe will put creators in the driver’s seat allowing them to earn without stopping or curtailing their creative freedom.

Following trends:

Possibly the trickiest problem that is currently facing content creators, the internet is full of trends from dancing the same TikTok dances, to the abundance of Superheroes created in the last decade. While trends are fantastic and have created some of the biggest creators out there, there is a huge trade-off for creators between being seen and being uncreative. DeMe is a concept born out of the need for media to be Open-source, Democratized, and permissionless. This means more creators will sharpen their skills in their niche, and those that want to consume gain greater utility through continuing to vote and fund those projects.