Adobe “Future of Creativity” Study: 165M+ Creators Joined Creator Economy Since 2020

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Today, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) announced the latest data and insights on the Creator Economy from the Adobe “Future of Creativity” Study. The study finds that the Creator Economy – the economy empowering people who are monetizing their content, goods and services online by leveraging their own creativity, talents and passions – grew by more than 165 million creators over the past two years to 303 million creators globally. Additionally, the study finds that the Creator Economy continues to grow and is reshaping every aspect of culture and society, from the future of work to social causes to mental health.

“The unprecedented growth of the Creator Economy provides a platform for everyone to be a creator. Individuals, soloprenuers, small business owners and content creators can now express themselves and explore creative and artistic pursuits in new ways,” said Scott Belsky, chief product officer and executive vice president, Adobe Creative Cloud. “Increasingly, creators from all walks of life are turning their creative inspirations and passions into new careers and businesses supported by Adobe’s creative tools.”

The Future of Creativity Study provides the most comprehensive view into the global Creator Economy and how creativity is changing across the U.S., U.K., Spain, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Brazil. The study defines creators as professionals and non-professionals creating original content for their jobs or passions including designers, photographers, filmmakers, illustrators, hobbyists and more. Influencers are a subset of creators defined as those with five thousand followers or more who leverage social media to influence their audience. Adobe products enable everyone to be a creator and have always been the solution of choice for the world’s creators from individuals, solopreneurs and social influencers to small business owners and enterprise businesses.

Since 2020, the creator economy has grown exponentially.

The Creator Economy has unlocked new full- and part-time professional opportunities, particularly for Gen Z and millennials who are drawn to less traditional careers. The study found that content creation can be a source of income, but it takes time and commitment to be successful and while it remains a side hustle for most, many creators aspire to do more.

Creators are Key to Advancing Social Causes Online

Creators embrace the opportunity to advance conversations around social causes online, taking action to support ones that are important to them personally.

The study revealed the more time creators spend creating and sharing content, the happier they feel. This is the opposite of social media consumers, who studies have shown can experience negative effects from social media use.

Adobe Creative Cloud offers the most comprehensive portfolio of products and services across creative categories including imaging, photography, design, video and 3D and immersive—unleashing creativity for all, and empowering millions of creators around the world to collaborate with each other to tell their stories. Adobe recently expanded its offering to include Adobe Express, a web and mobile-based app that makes it easy to create standout content from thousands of beautiful templates.

Adobe’s study, Future of Creativity: Creators in the Creator Economy, can be found in full here.

About the “Future of Creativity” Study

Adobe’s Future of Creativity study aims to understand how creativity is changing around the world, speaking directly with those at the forefront of online creativity: creators in the creator economy. The study examines the future of creativity from a variety of perspectives.

The Future of Creativity study surveyed ~9,000 online creators in May 2022, in nine global markets (U.S., U.K., Spain, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Brazil). Adobe partnered with Edelman Data & Intelligence to conduct the study and analyze data to identify key trends across the creator economy. “Creators” are defined as having participated in creative activities (e.g., photography, creative writing, original social media content creation, etc.) and posting, sharing or promoting their work from these activities online at least monthly with the goal of growing their social presence. Data was collected from 4,535 Gen-Pop creators (ages 18+, ~500 per market), 5,111 Gen Z creators (ages 16-24, ~500 per market) with a ±1.4% margin of error and 95% confidence level.

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