Welcome to The Yellow Summarin - collecting the most interesting ideas, topics, and tweets from the past week at the intersection of tech, media, and commerce.
In today's edition (30.10.2021), I cover the rise of the creator class, fueled by the ubiquity and obfuscation of the checkout.
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The Creator Class
The ubiquity of e-commerce is redefining society as we know it. The digital checkout, is now omnipresent across all major aspects of daily life - from grocery shopping, through education, to entertainment and culture. The frictionless experience to pay for goods and services has helped fuel the growth of the creator economy - a layer of society empowered through technology, individuals are able to monetize their efforts in a bid to create a sustainable income stream, independent of a traditional employer, or supplementing their paychecks.
Ubiquitous e-commerce
A Silent Giant Fueling Creators
Thanks to companies like Stripe which provide the payment rails for most creator-driven platforms, such as Substack, as well as the e-comm behemoth Shopify, it is easier than ever to set up a convenient way to get paid as a creator. While relatively unknown to people outside the world of e-commerce, Stripe has been in the business of supporting entrepreneurial efforts for many years and has quietly established itself as the most trusted and preferred provider of payment tools for businesses and individuals.
The company recently published a report based on internal data on the growth of the creator economy. The numbers are impressive and show a continuous rise in new creators who are able to get paid for their work. The reality is such now, that if you want to explore an interest and it turns out that you are good at it, you can pursue it as a meaningful way to make a living. That realization has already happened among younger generations who are not yet fully indoctrinated in the traditional world of pursuing a career in a company. In fact, the ability to pursue different interests, create content and education around them and share them with a community is going to give rise to talents that are polymaths, able to learn and get skilled in various subjects, unafraid of failing, accountable to a community they carefully nurture and grow over time.
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Within this creator economy, a virtuous circle can be drawn - one where creators produce, in turn, this production is monetized (and it can also inspire, motivate and educate new creators); through monetization, creators can take those funds and invest in other, up-and-coming creators, and so on and so on... Not unlike what has been going on in the tech startup world for decades, where founders start companies, exit successfully, and then go fund new founders.
Getting Paid
For the creator economy to flourish, reliable payment rails, such as those offered by Stripe (or for the more adventurous - crypto) are a must to have a frictionless checkout experience. The trend in recent years has been to make the checkout almost unnoticeable. Think of Apple Pay and the simplicity with which you can complete a transaction. Shopify has been pushing forward with Shop Pay and thanks to the mass adoption of the e-commerce platform, it has become one of the most popular one-click checkout experiences.
Most of you have probably seen this when shopping online:
Amazon has had its one-click checkout for a long time and is now pioneering a checkout experience that requires no checkout. Introduced in its Amazon Fresh chain of grocery stores, the technology allows for customers to just walk in, pick what they want and leave, removing the need to line up at a cashier's desk or a self-checkout booth. The easier it is to make a purchase and obfuscate the checkout, the more people will spend, since the most taxing element of the transaction stays out of mind.
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A New Class Emerges
The ability to get paid has never been easier, and the ease with which value can be captured is rapidly changing society. It's having an impact on everything from work to education, finance, and culture. This change is going to benefit many but it will also be a threat to those who choose to ignore it or can't afford to participate in it. If we are curious and continue to explore new possibilities for self-expression and value creation in this digital creator economy, we increase our chances of being on the side of those who make it. On the other end, if we turn a blind eye, or even worse, talk down and ridicule the impact of technology and the changes it brings, we will be left behind. Unless you have the wealth and support system, you cannot afford to be left behind.
The shift is already apparent in society's definition of class - the middle class is getting pulled apart and split into a working class and a wealth class. As Web Smith of 2PM puts it:
"In Above or Beneath the Algorithm, I wrote that the middle class is shrinking as job opportunities and wages gravitate towards two poles (working class and wealth class). The new class system is simple: either you are above the algorithm or beneath it (on left). On-demand delivery is the biggest tell. Either your life allows you to command from the comfort of your home or hybrid office, or you are being told where to be within 15 to 60 minutes."
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That’s all for this week. Have a good week(end)!
Marin