Problem: Internet celebrities have high bleed-over effects: YouTube stars can quickly rise to the top of Spotify charts, TikTok stars can quickly launch television shows through brand partnerships, and e-sports video gaming streamers can quickly become sensations or paid advocates for products like Redbull.
Solution: In order to take advantage of these bleed-over effects that occur for e-celebrities, this business would explicitly look to drive unique partnerships between creators and businesses to generate more reach for content creators and businesses to make more money for these creators while also making a profit.
One clear example of this is through Corpse Husband, a streamer who gained popularity while playing Among Us online. As Gamerant writes,
YouTube streamer Corpse Husband has gained a ton of popularity in recent months with his Among Us gameplay. He's recently been playing with other top streamers such as Disguised Toast, Pokimane, and Twitch streamer Sykkuno, and has built quite a large following. However, the streamer got his start with telling horror stories on YouTube and has even released music, which is getting a ton of attention.
Corpse Husband started streaming video games in September 2020 and released a popular single "E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY LIFE!" the same month. Since then, Corpse has racked up over seven million subscribers on YouTube, and recently his hit single has reached an impressive milestone.
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Corpse Husband has proved his doubters wrong with "E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY LIFE!" approaching 100 million streams. The YouTube streamer has also been a part of many exciting events including playing Among Us with US Representatives Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez and Ilhan Omar, and has played with one of the most famous YouTube streamers PewDiePie. Corpse has also been involved in the OfflineTV Rust servers, which has featured 50 of the most prominent streamers including Myth, Pokimane, Shroud, and XqC.
Since January 2021, when Corpse tweeted about this accomplishment, his views have only increased.
But what are other examples of influencers “bleeding over” into other industries and worlds? Of course on TikTok, there are the examples of Addison Rae and Charli D’amelio (along with the whole D’amelio family who recently started a reality TV show); on YouTube there is the example of Mr. Beast (who launched a popular burger chain); and in gaming there is the clear example of CORPSE with his music.
I believe that all of these “cross-overs” are ripe and fertile ground for a trend in digital content creation: more and more creators who see success want to grow their personal brands by striving to see success cross-platform. This business would aim to become the leader in cross-platform branding plays and cross-platform branding experiments.
The market is huge and growing: as Statista argues, “Influencer marketing is on the rise, which is made apparent by the recently released figures indicating that value of this specific market more than doubled between 2019 and 2021, growing from 6.5 billion to 13.8 billion U.S. dollars in the three years alone.” When estimating the future size, MarketsAndMarkets has a bullish perspective: “The global influencer marketing platform market size to grow from USD 6.0 billion in 2020 to USD 24.1 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 32.0% during the forecast period. Various factors such as the customers’ shift toward video-based content across the OTT space and an increase in the adoption of ad-blocking software are expected to drive the adoption of the influencer marketing platform market.”
Given the robust growth of this market, the aim of this business would be to stay just a bit ahead of the curve in influencer marketing by developing a framework for cross-platform influencer marketing.
Monetization: Contract fees or a percentage of revenue generated from these partnerships.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)