Content and commerce have been strange bedfellows since the 1500s, when businesses caught on to the idea that they could pay town criers to advertise for them as they made their rounds broadcasting the news. This is part II of a log of thoughts on the Curator Economy, driven by Super Creators who can commandeer a curated network of content, community, and conversation around them. This next part takes a deeper look at that intertwined relationship that's now supercharged by technology and behaviorial leaps in streaming, shopping, and supply chains.
Content and commerce nestle together like peas in a pod. While advertising has been the dominant revenue model for most content publishing platforms, and by extension — for those Curators ("Super Creators") who receive revenue based on viewership or brand sponsorships, there are signs that Curators are moving towards monetization streams that tie directly into their brand and community.
Curators are moving towards more direct monetization streams. Here are some of the tech platforms that enable them to do so.
The indirect monetization models leverage the power of the Curator's brand and community, but are loosely coupled in its incentives, with most or none of the ad revenue going towards Curators. We are seeing glimmers of an increasing shift towards direct, more symbiotic business models between curator and commerce, starting with a trend that points towards the long tail of retail: the Curator as storefront.
Most content publishing platforms today aren't designed to support commerce. Apart from brokered brand sponsorships, Curators have found workarounds like inserting affiliate links in a caption, or announcing giveaways and tagging brands in bosts. Instagram's Shopping feature gestures to a future state where content marries commerce, but currently (Aug 2020), listings are still limited to few retailers or approved brands.
Jermaine Ellis is a citizen journalist and affiliate brand marketer: an indvidual example of the modern town crier, who marries content with commerce.
Instagram's Shopping feature allows approved retailers to list products, and for customers to check out on the platform itself.
Chinese social-commerce apps like Douyin (Tiktok in China) or Xiaohongshu are closer to what Curator-led retail experiences could be. Verified influencers are able to list or tag products sourced from wholesale sites like Taobao or JD.com, and followers can check out directly on the streamer's page. Douyin, which has about 300M daily active users, and grew over 200% in ecommerce purchases last year.
Today, Curators could set up their ecommerce operation without leaving their living room. They could source inventory through wholesale sites (Faire, Taobao, JD.com), dropship products to a fulfilment service (Shipbob, ShipHero), set up a digital storefront and handle payments (Shopify, Stripe), and even outsource their marketing and creative needs by sending products to photography and video services (Soona, Squareshot). However, while these key infrastructure pieces for Curator-owned retail exists, it is still piecemeal and not integrated. Most crucially, Curators also need closer ties between their digital storefront and existing distribution and sales channels like Youtube, Instagram, or Tiktok.