Gen Z want to make money, but as TikTok and Instagram influencers, not by climbing the corporate ladder as their parents did
- Gen Z content creators and influencers are part of the wave of entrepreneurship that has accompanied the labour market shake-up of the past two years
- Nearly one in two Gen Z creators surveyed by Adobe said they want to own a business and make money from online content, not from working a day job
Gen Z workers want to become business owners – just not in the way their parents might envision.
The drive to turn social media posts into sustainable income is highest among the youngest generation of workers, according to new research by US software company Adobe.
Gen Z content creators and influencers are part of the wave of entrepreneurship that has accompanied the labour market shake-up of the past two years.
While many started businesses during the pandemic lockdown out of necessity, the streak has continued, driven by a desire for flexibility and greater control over one’s financial future.
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A record 5.4 million new businesses were started in the US last year, according to census data. While the monthly rate has fallen below its 2021 peak, it has remained far above pre-pandemic levels.
The shifting dynamics are partly generational, he says.
The amount of TikTokkers who were on top of the world in 2020, who still have a fully monetisable and flourishing business today is, I would say, under 5 per cent
“Specifically among younger workers, we’re seeing this trend that, even amid a tight labour market, workers aren’t seeing wage gains that are keeping up with inflation, so they’re moving to self-employment where they can determine their compensation a little more independently,” says Pardue.
“There isn’t a lot that the nine-to-five employment can allow in terms of achieving some of the milestones that were available to prior generations.”
While millennials are experimenting with having a side hustle alongside a day job, Gen Z is focused more on making a project into a career, according to Maria Yap, vice-president of digital imaging applications at Adobe.
“They’re thinking, no – my regular job could be the thing that I’m passionate about,” she says.
Some US colleges, including Duke University, the University of Southern California and the University of Virginia, have responded to the shift in demand by offering classes on how to build successful social media enterprises.
The Adobe research suggests ditching the corporate ladder for the Instagram grid can bring in a substantial income if done full-time, though the reality is often more complicated.
Creators who make money from their content make US$61 per hour on average, according to Adobe. If done 40 hours a week, Adobe estimates this would translate to an annual income of US$122,000. Influencers polled by Adobe make US$81 per hour, which would work out to about US$162,000 if done full-time.
Yet the boundaries are often blurred between hobbyists and hustlers, and most of the people polled by Adobe are not full-time.
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Content creators spend an average of nine hours per week and influencers spend an average of 15 hours per week making content. In the US, six in 10 creators hold full-time jobs, Adobe found.
If creators were to ditch their day jobs, it is not clear whether they would be able to drum up enough business to fill a 40-hour work week.
Public perception is often that content creators and influencers with more than 10,000 followers are earning a significant income, but this is far from the reality, says Qianna Smith Bruneteau, founder of the American Influencer Council, a trade association for social media content professionals.
Of those who create content full-time, only about 12 per cent make more than US$50,000 a year, according to a global survey of over 9,500 creators published in April by Linktree, a link-sharing platform popular with influencers. The living wage in Manhattan, New York, is almost US$53,000, according to MIT’s living wage calculator.
When you’re just starting out, you can’t expect to earn immediately. Like any small business, it takes about two years to reach break-even
While some creators and influencers stumble into success, for others it can take countless hours of hard work without pay to build up a following, according to Bruneteau.
“To produce content every single day, in a video-first environment – it takes tremendous work,” she says. That can mean years of free content before a creator sees dividends.
“When you’re just starting out, you can’t expect to earn immediately. Like any small business, it takes about two years to reach break-even,” Bruneteau says.
Tejas Hullur, 21, is an influencer based in New York. After starting out posting about cryptocurrency and finance over the summer of 2020, Hullur says he hit his stride posting about the creator economy itself.
“It’s very ironically meta, in the sense of making content for other creators,” he says.
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Like many of his peers, Hullur quickly had to diversify his revenue stream after the income from brand deals turned out to be spotty.
Still, the unpredictability of income makes it difficult to plan effectively, especially with an economic downturn threatening companies’ marketing budgets. And career longevity for influencers is an issue. Often, internet fame – and the money that comes along with it – does not last forever.
“It comes up and then goes down.”
