Oxymoron? Job listings spike for corporate creators

Amazon, Google, and other large firms are tapping into the burgeoning creator economy with some creators of their own.

What’s happening: Job listings for creators have soared since 2016, according to data analytics firm Thinknum. In May, the company scoured nearly 3 million job listings across industries to find 6,940 creator-related positions, which is 489,000 percent more since 2016.

Calling creators: Amazon, which owns gamer streaming platform Twitch, topped the list of employers seeking creators with 40 job postings in May, followed by TikTok-creator Bytedance with 32 listings. Many of the other listings come from social media companies, including Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and Spotify.

The gigs: While many companies are seeking creators to craft brand-specific content, Thinknum notes that most of these positions are not eyeing traditional creators. Rather, they’re looking for engineers, partnership managers, or other professionals that can attract creators to their platforms. In that sense, you don't need to be a creator yourself to land a job with them.

Take a look: A few recent creator job postings are Discord’s engineering manager for the creator economy, Stripe’s product manager for creator economy monetization, and Narrativ’s director of creator community. A quick search shows that many of the listings offer salaries north of $100,000 plus benefits.

Diverse industries: A wide array of companies are seeking out creators. Online payment provider PayPal, digital marketing agency Vaynermedia, clothing brand Adidas and many gaming companies want to hire creators or have created positions to connect with creators.

What it means: Corporations seeking out creators confirms two important trends that SignalFire is watching in the creator economy. First, it shows that companies are taking seriously the risk of creators moving their top fans off of social networks to monetize them. Secondly, it reinforces that creators are gaining power in the media ecosystem to effectively connect with “individual personalities rather than faceless publishers,” per SignalFire.

“Companies aren’t just devoting new hires to working with and attracting creators — they’re paying huge sums for exclusivity deals, developing new platforms, and revamping existing systems to draw in creators. The hobbies your parents told you not to waste your time with are now driving the decisions of some of the world's most powerful companies.” —Danny Konstantinovic, associate editor at Thinknum

Oxymoron: Can a corporate employee be a creator? A defining characteristic of those in the creator economy is their independence to create and earn revenue on their own terms. While not synonymous with the creator economy, the term “passion economy” also implies that its members are free to pursue their dreams.

Limitations: With such corporate constraints as limited editorial control, public relations restrictions, and SEC liabilities, it’s hard to see how these creators will be fully free to create content without meaningful oversight. That’s not to say their content wouldn’t be valuable or genuine, but it would place an asterisk on their agenda. Of course, the majority of these job listings are “creator-oriented” positions, i.e. positions to court creators and serve the broader creator economy. This could, however, change in the future.

Room for growth: While it’s a stretch to dub these employees as sovereign creators, they represent a consistent trend in the growth of any industry. Large companies want to capitalize on what’s hot among upstarts, and the creator economy is smoldering.

Eyeing opportunity: At an estimated value of $104 billion, the creator economy has attracted $1.33 billion in startup investments in 2021 alone. About 50 million people are earning revenue as part of the creator economy. By hiring creators and influencers, large firms hope to build their brand and find new channels to connect with customers.