Supported by
We often hear people say that the creator economy is now “just the economy.” While that’s far from accurate, the industry’s impact on the US economy is growing.
YouTube says its creative ecosystem contributed over $60 billion to US GDP last year, according to a new report from YouTube and Oxford Economics provided exclusively to Scalable. That’s up from over $55 billion in 2024 and $45 billion in 2023.
YouTube defines “creative ecosystem” as creators who upload at least one video to the platform, creators’ employees, as well as businesses and freelancers they work with who earn a substantial portion of their revenue from creators. It includes both on and off-platform revenues earned by those creators. The estimates exclude YouTube’s own operations and effects of YouTube advertising on other businesses.
For context, $60 billion is roughly the same amount that YouTube generated in global revenue in 2025. It’s also more than twice the size of NASA’s regular fiscal budget ($25 billion) and sits in between the 2025 GDPs of Vermont ($48 billion) and Alaska ($75 billion).
But Vermont and Alaska are two of the three smallest state economies in the country. And $60 billion represents less than 0.2% of nominal US GDP last year. Plus, the figure measures economic impact through direct, indirect and induced effects, rather than just value added by a specific company, meaning that is a broad and somewhat speculative measure. For example, induced effects include employee spending in other parts of the economy, which can be difficult to attribute precisely.
Still, the goal for YouTube in commissioning the report is to elevate the importance of the platform in business, culture and even politics—and that of the creator economy as a whole. It’s hard to argue with that.
According to the research, YouTube’s creative ecosystem supported over 540,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the US in 2025. YouTube defines full-time equivalent as roughly 35 hours a week of work. That could mean one person working a full 35-hour week, or it could be two people each working 17.5 hours.
That figure doesn’t just include creators themselves, but also their permanent employees, which could mean editors, producers, managers or others who support their work. It also includes jobs supported by music and media companies.
YouTube also revealed that the number of channels earning more than $100,000 annually is up 7% year-over-year. That’s another positive sign for the growth of the creator economy, but without knowing the baseline, it’s difficult to gauge how meaningful the increase is.
Regardless, YouTube remains the gold standard when it comes to creator monetization. Unlike other platforms which have been inconsistent with paying creators, YouTube shares 55% of ad revenue with long-form creators in its partner program. The program, which launched in 2007, now has over 3 million participants, including creators, media companies and music labels.
YouTube says it paid out over $100 billion to participants in the program between 2022 and 2025. That’s a whopping sum when compared to other social platform payouts. Facebook, for instance, recently revealed that it paid out $3 billion to creators in 2025. But since YouTube’s figure also includes media companies and music labels, it’s hard to know how much actually went to creators.
So far YouTube hasn’t released a breakdown, though it has said that between July 2024 and June 2025, $8 billion went to the music industry. That figure is likely intended to suggest that most of the payouts go to creators and media companies.
Looking ahead, we’d like more robust data on the size of the creator economy as a whole. While economic impact reports like these help, what’s still missing is holistic research from an independent source.
On Thursday, Beehiiv launched a new community product for writers, along with other features including programmatic ads and an AI assistant built into the platform. That follows other tools it’s added that go beyond email newsletters, including video podcasts and digital products. (This newsletter is hosted on Beehiiv.)
“Right now, podcasts and newsletters are one to many,” Tyler Denk, Beehiiv’s CEO and co-founder, told us. “Community just gives these creators an opportunity to create a space where [their readers] who have similar interests can come together and provide value to one another.”
Creators already have plenty of options for building a community. There’s Discord, Patreon, Facebook Groups, Slack, Mighty Networks and Circle, just to name a few.
But Beehiiv’s strategy is to offer creators more of the tools they need in one place, rather than stitching together multiple services. It’s not alone in making that bet. Just look at all the video, livestreaming and social features on Substack, or the fact that podcast recording platform Riverside just launched newsletters.
These moves are the latest sign that newsletters aren’t just newsletters anymore, as we previously wrote. Writers have increasingly expanded their businesses into other areas, such as podcasts, video, live events and more, and the competition between platforms has intensified.
In this week’s Scalable podcast, we discuss why everyone from Charli xcx to Tom Brady now has a newsletter and whether that means we’re at peak newsletter hype. Denk also joins us as a guest to share his perspective on the industry, Beehiiv’s competition and why AI is still a white space for writers.
The Round Up
Meta expanded AI voice translations with the aim of making it easier for creators to reach more audiences. On Instagram that includes French, German, Italian and Japanese, while on Facebook it includes Arabic, French, Vietnamese and Thai. Creators can also sync translations with their lip movements. We’re still waiting on Finnish and Polish, which we speak! (We were impressed to learn that Snap supports both languages in its Spectacles.)
Disney announced a new event called “Created in LA” on September 17-18. Hosted by creator Jon Youshaei, it will include a red carpet premiere of creator videos in the El Capitan Theatre and keynotes at The Walt Disney Studios Lot in Los Angeles. (We spoke to Youshaei, who previously worked at Instagram and YouTube, about his new tax business and MrBeast docuseries last year.)
Content Partners, a company that acquires film and TV rights, is expanding into the creator economy by launching Wonderloom Media. The new venture, helmed by Wheelhouse alum Ed Simpson, will acquire and operate creator businesses. It also announced its first acquisition: Dr. Insanity, a true crime YouTube channel with 5 million subscribers.
Big Shot Pictures, a new family entertainment company from former Paramount co-CEO Brian Robbins, took a 25% stake in the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” franchise, with plans to create short-form content and make a new movie in 2028.
Agentio, an AI platform for creator advertising, announced a new advertising integration partnership with Meta, which helps brands more quickly and easily develop partnership ads across Instagram and Facebook.
🎂Two anniversaries that are blowing our mind this week: Twitter turned 20, and creator shopping company LTK turned 15!
Soundbite: Time100 Creators
Our competition is no longer only other magazines, but also individuals who function as media companies unto themselves.”
On Wednesday, Time released its second annual list of its top 100 creators, which included household names like Alix Earle and Dude Perfect, alongside more niche creators like financial analyst Kyla Scanlon and Bo Petterson, a grandfather who gives practical advice.
The Time list is another example of how publishers are adapting to the rise of the creator economy.
In this case, it’s by building on franchises people already know, meaning the Time100. Forbes has taken a similar approach with its own Top Creators ranking. (Interestingly, MrBeast was the only creator named to Time’s flagship list of the 100 most influential people.)
But it’s not just publishers who need creators. Despite their massive audiences, creators want the credibility and recognition that comes with being recognized by legacy media. And brands like Time and Forbes still carry real prestige.
Over the past 24 hours, our feeds have been flooded with creators and their teams celebrating their inclusion on the Time creator list, just as many creators also put their Forbes ranking in their social media bios.
Turns out, both sides still have something the other wants!
A Message from Sounds Profitable
Podcasting is bigger than audio. The Podcast Atlas is the first study to map how audiences move across audio, video, social, and newsletters, revealing what really drives discovery and creator loyalty. Download the free report.
The Netflix Creator Deals Keep Coming, With A New Twist
Netflix’s creator push is continuing. But this latest wave looks different: Unlike recent podcasting deals, these creators are staying on YouTube.
This week, Netflix announced that longtime YouTubers Rhett & Link are bringing their shows “Good Mythical Morning,” “Mythical Kitchen” and “Last Meals” to the streaming service in September.
Nick DiGiovanni, a food creator and former “MasterChef” contestant, is also bringing his library of videos to Netflix later this year. His new episodes will be available on the same day they go live on YouTube.
Like the non-exclusive deals Netflix struck in 2025 with Mark Rober and Ms. Rachel, these latest additions suggest the company is realizing that many of YouTube’s biggest creators aren’t willing to leave the platform behind.
The company’s CMO Marian Lee hinted as much in an interview with Scalable last month. “We’re trying different models and what might work,” Lee said.
Watch the full interview here. Or, read more here about why exclusivity may not a dealbreaker for podcasters.
Talent Tracker
Gary Vaynerchuk became an equity partner in Paul Street, an affiliate marketing and PR agency founded in 2023. It’s the first time the VaynerMedia CEO has taken an equity stake in a business he did not start himself.
Jinlin Quirarte joined Alex Cooper’s media company Unwell as director of YouTube operations. Previously, he was an independent consultant and also worked at Jellysmack and Moonbug Entertainment.
Neal Sivadas joined LinkedIn as a senior product marketing manager for creators. Most recently, he was a senior product manager at TikTok.
Karsten Samland, head of publisher partnerships at TikTok in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, announced he’s leaving the company after 7 years. He hasn’t yet announced next steps.
Currents Management, a talent management firm, hired Ashley Ward Colson and Ryan Linden as managers. It also promoted Emma Clarke, Evalee Mach, Isabella Wille and Liran Maayani.
Andrew Bidwell rejoined Meta as a creative strategist focused on social strategy for Meta for Business. He previously held social media positions at Snap and Microsoft.
