How the creator market changed over the last 15 years

Looking at the creator market today, it might seem it always existed: millions of followers, ad integrations, personal brands, sales through content. But the influencer market actually went through several completely different stages, and each new wave of authors almost entirely rewrote the rules.

Era one: media faces and opinion leaders

At the start, the main influencers were people already known outside the internet: TV hosts, musicians, actors, athletes, journalists. Brands came to them not for reach but for the trust of their audience. In essence this was a digital version of classic celebrity advertising.

Era two: viners and entertainment content

Then the first internet stars appeared — authors who became famous solely thanks to social media. This stage was closely tied to the rise of Instagram and video formats: vines, short skits, humor. The first creators with millions of followers appeared, people no one had seen on TV. For advertisers this was a real revolution.

Era three: TikTok broke the market

Then TikTok appeared — and completely changed the industry. For the first time a person could get millions of views with almost no audience. The market faced unprecedented growth in reach, and the cost of a content view fell several times over. COVID was an extra catalyst: during the pandemic, content consumption hit record highs.

Era four: experts and the info-business

After the entertainment-content boom, experts came on stage — marketers, entrepreneurs, financiers, psychologists. People began to understand that a blog could be not just a source of reach but a full-fledged sales tool. As a result, the online-education market began to grow rapidly.

Era five: streamers became the new media

Today more and more ad budgets are moving to streamers. The reason is simple: streams create what almost no other format gives — prolonged contact with the audience. If a TikTok video is watched for 15–30 seconds, a stream holds the viewer for hours. In that time a completely different level of trust forms.

The market is developing especially actively in gaming verticals, gambling, crypto, tech and finance. Twitch, Kick and YouTube Live turned streaming from a niche pastime into an industry with multi-million budgets.

Where the market stands today

The biggest mistake is to think all creators work by the same rules. The word "creator" has become too broad. In reality the market split into segments long ago: media personalities, entertainment authors, TikTok creators, experts, streamers, Telegram authors, content media. Each category has its own economics, pricing and ad models.

What comes next

There's a pattern in the market's history: each new era appeared after the way content is consumed changed. First people read, then looked at photos, then short videos, then educational content, today — streams. The next era may well be AI influencers, virtual personalities and fully automated media.

The main takeaway is unchanged: every few years a new wave of authors appears that completely changes the rules for everyone else. The brands that notice the wave shift earlier than competitors win.