Highlights from Web Summit 2024
November 22, 2024
Couldn't make it to Web Summit in Lisbon? We’ve got you. Here are some of the key insights we shared at the annual global tech conference.
Over the last four years, the way the internet is organized has shifted. Social media feeds and recommendations focus on showing consumers the posts and creators that platforms have chosen for them instead of what consumers have chosen for themselves. That shift has materially changed the way creators build businesses and communities. If you’ve been following us, you know that our Co-founder and CEO Jack Conte calls this the Death of the Follower.
Throughout our time at Web Summit, we talked about how the Death of the Follower impacts creators’ communities and businesses, and how platforms need to support creators through this shift. Here are a few highlights from those conversations:
1. Owning your audience
Allow us to make an obvious point. Very few businesses can be successful without reaching their customers, and creators’ businesses aren’t the exception. We’ve seen how having to play by platforms’ rules to get connected with fans is a terrible outcome for creative people. When short form video took over social media, creators who weren’t making videos lost access to their audiences. Just like businesses learned to diversify revenue for long-term sustainability, creators realize that they need to shake up where and how they interact with their fans. That’s why creators are focusing on spaces where they can develop a direct connection with their fans and own their audience.
“Creators deserve that direct guaranteed relationship between them and their fans, and major social media platforms aren't offering that anymore.” - Jack Conte, Co-Founder and CEO of Patreon
2. Cultivating community around shared fandoms
In our soon-to-be-released research, we’ve found that there are three kinds of fandoms built around a creator: first, the fan that loves the works made by a creator; second, the fan that loves the works and the creator themselves; and third, the fan that loves the works, the creator, and the community built by fellow fans. It’s that third tier— what we call the real fans— that is more important than ever. Those fans are the ones who are the most willing to pay for exclusive perks like live events and IRL meetups, online community spaces, behind the scenes extras, bonus podcast episodes, or memberships.
“We were nervous about having additional content behind a paywall, but it’s amazing to see people talking to each other. It’s all women lifting each other up. People are making genuine real-life friends in The Group Chat.” — The Girls Bathroom podcast
3. Navigating the Wild West phase of AI adoption
While we’re optimistic about the potential for AI to help creators build and run their businesses more efficiently, it still threatens creators' ownership of their works. Whether creators’ works are being used to train AI models or its being used by generative AI tools, the only way for AI to ethically support the creator economy is with payments to and permissions from creators. If old patterns in emerging tech adoption can hint at what’s next, more lawsuits against AI companies will arise until they’re forced to build IP protections into their tools. We’ll hopefully see a more creator-first approach sooner rather than later.
4. Redefining success as artists
A lot of the traditional measures of a creator’s success— view counts, watch time, and follower count— are becoming vanity metrics. Think of bonafide artists of their generation. If you went back in time, and asked someone like Prince or Billie Holiday what their goals were as an artist, they wouldn't say “I want to maximize the amount of time spent consuming my work.” Historically, that’s not something artists care about, and creators today are over it. There are other things that matter more. Being proud of your work, building a strong community and business, and creating works that meaningfully impact your fans are all things creators today are prioritizing.
“As a creator, I’m not happy with the way art and media has been digitized on the internet. We have the wrong KPIs to build a media ecosystem that’s healthy for creators and consumers. We need to rip and replace.” - Jack Conte, Co-founder and CEO of Patre
5. Realizing the dream of a perfect creator economy
Over the next decade or two, we're going to see creators connected to society in new ways. Being a creator will be celebrated as being a reliable and respected profession, and creators will have the benefits and financial resources available to any other employees and business owners. Specifically, all of that employer-led infrastructure around healthcare and retirement is going to be solved for independent creative people.
Thank you to everyone at Web Summit for a great week of talking about key issues facing the creator economy! We need a different way for media, art, and communities to live on the web. That’s what we’re building at Patreon through our media, community, and business tools for creators to get paid around their work.