How AI will globalize the creator economy
Today’s youth are an increasingly diverse population in many markets. Yet even in places where traditional forms of identity like race and ethnicity are more homogenous, the intersectionality of identity and fandom opens worlds of possibilities for creators, marketers and audiences to connect. Kaley Mullin, who studies youth trends for YouTube, thinks artificial intelligence will only make
that truer.
Matt Carmichael: How are you approaching the increased diversity of today’s youth?
Kaley Mullin: We are taking a market-by-market approach to it because there is fluctuation in diversity. The U.S., India and Brazil are more heterogeneous. In the U.S., we're seeing young people play with their gender and sexual orientation a lot more broadly. In places like the UK and Japan, it's more racially homogenous. When we talk about youth generally, we don’t want to paint with too broad of a brush diversity-wise or demographically.
Carmichael: What trends are showing regional differences?
Mullin: Something that is regional is the idea of considering yourself a video content creator. We see big regional variances in that. In India, almost half of Gen Z consider themselves to be a video content creator, but in Japan, it's only 16%. But when we ask, “Have you posted video content,” almost all of Gen Z has across markets. We talk about lowering the bars to creation. We don't need everyone to identify as a content creator, but we want that to be a potential thing if they want to express themselves in that way.
Carmichael: What are some commonalities?
Mullin: We are seeing across markets that teens today have a more expanded view and articulation of the way that they think about their identities. They are a lot more intersectional. We are witnessing this shift where it's not just about demographics, but also what they're interested in, what they're a fan of, what content that they consume. That identification with different parts of their interests versus their demographics is something that's going to continue.
Carmichael: So, a new definition of fandom?
Mullin: One thing that's more universal is that they consider themselves to be super fans of someone. We see that relatively consistently across markets and that’s related to their identities.
Carmichael: How will the expression of fandom of teens change long-term?
Mullin: What I love about teens is that they can fall so passionately into fandoms and evangelize it constantly and cry about One Direction and really truly feel that immense joy and passion of loving something. The intensity of that might dampen or shift a little bit as you get older. Once you have a relationship with a creator or a public figure, even as you grow, that relationship grows with you. We often talk to 25-year-olds that say, “I've followed the same creator since I was 15 and I started watching them when I was getting bullied at school and was sitting in the bathroom eating lunch, and now they're having babies. And I love to watch their content still.”
“Once you have a relationship with a creator or a public figure, even as you grow, that relationship grows with you.”
Carmichael: How is being a creator changing?
Mullin: Millennials were the first generation that said, “I want to be a YouTuber.” That was seen as a bit pejorative by older generations, or risky and scary or not understood. Young people now might be more likely to say they want to be a content creator since creators tend to be more multi-platform. But even though they do tend to be multi-platform, making it on YouTube and building a community on YouTube is still the gold standard.
Carmichael: How do you see generative AI shaping this landscape going forward?
Mullin: It's going to make it easier to be creative and accessible. For instance, we have a feature that auto-dubs your voice-over into any different language. That’s going to blow open the doors to our creators that might have a very regional audience to find an entirely new global audience for their content. That's another way in which we'll see Gen Z be able to lean into their niche identities.
Carmichael: How do brands fit into this future authentically with all these niche identities to reach?
Mullin: We see our role as facilitating viewers' relationships with creators and helping them find the content in creator communities that they're going to be interested in. We also see our role as validating what they're into and what they're doing. We know that viewers, especially young viewers, tend to trust brands and ads more when they're being promoted by a creator that they know, and that promotion feels more genuine and more authentic to their experience.
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Ipsos Top Topics: Artificial Intelligence
The role of YouTube connected TV in offline action & behavior change