In a 2023 report from Singapore-based creator tech company Animeta, it was revealed that the creator-driven branded content landscape in India is thriving, with over 3,500 brands and 5,000 creator partners actively participating. This dynamic environment has seen the creation of around 20,000 branded content pieces, generating over half a billion engagements. Additionally, the report predicts that a significant number of Indian social media creators—up to one million—will be earning over $500 per month within the next three years.
Despite the growth in the creator economy, challenges persist. Only 0.2% of the 80 million creators in India have successfully monetized their content, according to Himanshu Garg, CEO and Founder of Gurugram-based Fanztar. Garg, an IIT-Delhi graduate with experience in early-stage startups, co-founded Fanztar in September 2022 to address this issue. Positioned as a creator-first marketplace, Fanztar aims to empower creators to monetize their content effectively through innovative strategies.
Garg emphasizes the need for creators to have more engaging fans and a fair share of the value created from their content. While platforms like Instagram and Facebook have made content creation accessible to everyone, they have not ensured equal distribution of the value generated. Fanztar steps in by creating a bridge between creators and their followers, allowing creators to share their future earnings with fans through digital cards or fan cards sold on the platform. These loyalty cards offer benefits to followers and help creators maintain engagement, even amidst changing algorithms and content formats.
The Fanztar platform operates by allowing creators to sign up, create a profile, and launch a collection of fan cards for sale to their followers. These digital cards, implemented as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the blockchain, are linked to the intellectual property (IP) rights of the creator’s content over the next 18 months. Buyers of these cards gain access to a portion of the creator’s future royalties, providing a unique and personalized connection between creators and their fans.
The revenue model for Fanztar involves taking a 20-25% commission on the sales of these fan cards, a higher percentage than other marketplaces that do not offer revenue sharing. Garg explains that Fanztar is the first platform globally to tie IP rights to NFTs, offering additional services and justifying the higher commission. While creators are not charged to join the platform, brands are charged a commission between 15-18%, depending on factors such as campaign size.
Fanztar’s second business arm involves helping brands connect with creators. Leveraging their close relationship with creators, Fanztar assists brands in identifying creators who can drive specific purchase decisions within their communities. This business-to-business (B2B) aspect was launched in March 2023 and has seen success.
Since its inception, Fanztar has onboarded over 1,000 creators, selling approximately 44,000 fan cards in the first year. The platform categorizes creators into micro and emerging categories based on their following, focusing primarily on English and Hindi-speaking creators initially. Garg envisions expanding to other languages in the future.
Despite initial challenges in convincing creators to share a portion of their future income with fans, Fanztar’s case studies and partnerships with talent management agencies and social media platforms have facilitated its growth. The startup raised Rs 5 crore in seed funding in 2022, led by India Quotient, with participation from ShareChat Founders and other notable investors.
Looking ahead, Fanztar aims to onboard 25,000 creators by the end of the year. Garg emphasizes that creators are the main customers, and the focus is on creating tools to streamline the onboarding process, increase creator awareness, and eventually provide brand-specific solutions to enhance decision-making and ROI for creators. Fanztar’s innovative approach sets it apart in the competitive landscape, aiming to empower both creators and fans in the rapidly evolving creator economy.
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