“Creators & marketers need social media platforms, but they’re looking to make their livelihood less vulnerable to the ups and downs of those platforms. They don’t want to risk their income on surviving the next algorithm change, or the next TikTok shutdown. They’re looking for ways to own their own content through subscriptions, memberships, and tips. Creators are putting community and subscription platforms they own (like Substack and Mighty Networks) at the core of their business, and use social media platforms to reach new people. Then they feed those new customers back into the community they actually own. It makes them less vulnerable. In the study, we call them independent creators.“