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The internet may have started as a
platform that democratized creative distribution for creators who could build
legions of followers, but Patreon CEO Jack Conte says that model is broken.
Rather than stand by witnessing the demise of the follower, platforms like his
are offering a new way for creators and fans to connect in deeper, more
fulfilling online communities.
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“The next decade of professional creativity on the
internet will be organized around the concept of the true follower in an effort
to build a better way that art can exist on the Web,” Conte said in a presentation at SXSW.
Once upon a time creators could
upload their work to platforms like YouTube and immediately have it accessible
to millions of people. After that came the “subscribe” button, which enabled
creators to go beyond reach. Now they could build a following and find their
true fans who would support them to build a creative business.
But with the rise of platform-focused
algorithms (Facebook’s ranking, TikTok’s “for you” curation), creators cannot
reach their following and true fans. This shift has had a devastating impact on
creators’ creativity and ability to support themselves doing what they love.
“Ranking was great for Facebook’s
business, and people started spending even more time on the platform, so the
other platforms had to compete. Now I think of the 2010s as the decade when the
original promise of the creator-led community, the true follower, was broken,”
Conte said.
“What it meant for creators was that
your followers might not necessarily see your posts. It’s not really a direct
true connection between a creator and their fans if the channel of distribution
is broken.”
TikTok’s arrival shifted eyeballs
from Facebook but didn’t fundamentally alter the broken fan-creator contract,
in Conte’s view.
“TikTok’s algorithm ‘chose’ what
videos to serve you in your feed and completely abandoned the concept of the
follower,” he said.
But it worked, and TikTok hit a
billion users by 2021. As traffic started flowing away from legacy social
companies and toward TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have been forced to
launch their version of shorts, reels, or feeds to compete.
The result, said Conte, is that “the
whole system of organization for the internet, the creator-led community,
started to fade into the past.”
Conte started out as a creator
himself. The result is that “my fans don’t see as much of my stuff anymore.
It’s harder to sell tickets to a show. It’s harder to reach people with my new
work. It’s harder to build community. It’s harder to build a business. It’s
harder to energize my fans,” he said.
“The single most important problem
that faces creative people today is the weakening of creator led communities of
our distribution channels. To our fans, this is the hardest, most challenging
and most painful issue threatening the present, and the future of creativity on
the internet.”
Conte doesn’t actually believe that
the “death of the follower” will happen because there are a new breed of
creator-led social platforms coming to the rescue. These include Discord,
Kajabi, Fourthwall and Gumroad, but it should come as no surprise that he
positions Patreon as the leader of the pack.
Conte said the hallmark strategy of
these businesses is the focus on deeper connections, as opposed to just more
connections.
“The follower is too important, too
valuable to ignore so the next wave of internet and media technology companies
are going to try to solve this problem. The incumbent social platforms are not
gonna be able to fight it because their revenue relies on maximizing attention
to drive their businesses. They are being forced towards discovery, towards
reach, personalization and algorithmic curation. These are the levers that
drive attention and therefore drives their strategies.”
He argued that real value for
creators is to be found in the real fan, or super fan. Just 5% of these fans
drive 90% of the community. “This is a direct to fan business. This is an ads
business. This is about depth of connection, about maximizing attention. This
is about deeper fans,” he said.
“Creators just need a thousand true
fans who really connect with you and believe in you. This is different than
just reaching people. It’s even deeper than followers. These are super fans,
true fans, real fans,” he continued.
“The idea is that this group of
people is your core. If ‘reach’ means people see it, and ‘follower’ means
people want to see more, then ‘true fans’ are the people who go to the shows
and buy the merch and download the record and pay for the course and get the
live stream tickets. This idea really resonated with me.”
To that end, Conte said the next
decade of creative and media technology companies will focus on building direct
to fan connections and community strength.
“As creators, we still need the
social platforms for discovery and reach. But those companies will be one
component of the many tools that we have as creative people to help us run our
communities and businesses.”
Patreon was founded in 2013 and now
employs 400 people and supports more than 250,000 creators, who have made over
$3.5 billion dollars on the platform, according to Conte.
He says he longer thinks of Patreon
as a membership platform but more of a “true fan company, a creator company,
where we’re building a better way for art and community to exist on the
internet.”
Perhaps it is subscription fatigue or
financial squeeze, but he says that many fans no longer want to pay to
subscribe to content on his site.
“Rather than having those true fans
leave the creator we want to give creators a way to start forming deeper
connections with those fans to build businesses.”
It now offers a way for creators to
sell digital products like videos, podcast episodes, images, and other files
directly to customers, whether they’re a member or not.
“Fans can now participate in the
creator’s business and community while the creator can build an awesome
business along the way. The logic is very similar for free membership.”
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