In January, 1996, Microsoft founder Bill Gates wrote an essay entitled “Content is King” that was published in the company website. “Content,” he said, “is where much of the real money will be made in the internet.” Close to thirty years later, this couldn’t be truer, except there is another thing that is just as important – “distribution,” or how the content is delivered to its targeted audience.
Riding on the growth and global popularity of content creation and monetization, Philippine creator tech startup Boozt.io, through its young CEO and co-founder Jason Deniega, is on a mission to advance the creator economy in the country by enabling a million Filipino creators to earn from their works and fan base.
Boozt is an online platform where creators can explore different ways to earn, and for fans to find and discover their favorite creators — or be one themselves. The platform allows creators to earn from commissions, donations, membership subscriptions, physical and digital merchandise, and more. Aspiring creators can also discover services (printing, costume rentals, etc.) and benefits that will make it easier for them to be a creator.
In addition, fans can get access to exclusive benefits from favorite creators and have an accessible marketplace where they can find their creative works. More importantly, fans have flexible payment methods – GCash, Maya, Credit/Debit cards: Visa, Mastercard, JCB are already built into the platform.
Just recently, Boozt received a Php4.1M grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) as part of its startup grant fund program “Powering Startups to Thrive in the Next Normal.”
“We are honored to receive this grant from DOST-PCIEERD and excited to continue our mission of empowering Filipino creators and connecting them to a wider audience through our platform,” said Deniega in statement published in the company blogsite. “Our goal is to help creators earn more and spend less, and help fans to find and support their favorite creators. This grant will allow us to take our platform to the next level and support the growth of the Philippine creative economy,” he added.
According to Deniega, the grant will be used to push R&D efforts to improve the platform’s discovery and recommendation engine, search engine and personalization features.
“We envision that our discovery and recommendation engine will allow creators to be discovered by a wider audience, personalization will make the platform more appealing for fans, and our semantic and image search capabilities will make it easier for fans to find what they’re looking for,” said Adrian Dayrit, CTO.
The Light Bulb Moment
Deniega, still in his twenties, is already considered a serial entrepreneur. Specializing in Information Systems as a graduate of De La Salle University, his entrepreneurial mindset was forged in school when tasked to solve business issues with tech. Back then, he was also a regular during startup mix-ups and social networking events sponsored by Kickstart Ventures, getting exposed to early stage businesses, founders and entrepreneurs.
In 2018, Deniega and his schoolmates founded Lyon, a Learning Management System offering a full suite of tools to help educational creators in schools and training centers. Today, Lyon’s creators have earned more than Php12M through the platform. Seeing that Lyon’s revenue stream was not as scalable for as originally envisioned, Deniega quickly pivoted towards a more lucrative industry – one that was right in front of them.
Apparently, Deniega, co-founders Dan Arambulo and Dayrit, along with others in the Lyon team shared one common passion – being avid gamers and anime fans, consuming a lot of content even before they became builders. Attending Blogafest in October 2022 at the height of a typhoon, Deniega’s light bulb flashed. BlogaFest is considered the Philippines’ biggest gathering of bloggers, social media influencers, content creators, and internet celebrities, showcasing the Creator and Influencer Awards.
During the event, Deniega met and chatted with a number of creators and influencers who told him about their struggles in marketing and monetizing their work. After seeing all these creators swamped by fans, overwhelmed by the number of requests for merch, images, art commissions, etc., he realized that Lyon’s LMS platform had all the tools and payment platforms to pivot and help these creators solve their problems.
The Market Opportunity
Based on the 2022 Creator Report by LinkTree, there are 207 million people that are considered to be “creators” in a professional sense in the world today. These creators, along with their fans and the brands that sponsor them, all contribute to a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Considering that the Philippines had an estimated 76M internet (68% of the total populations) and 92M social media users as of January 2022, it is safe to say the country presents a massive opportunity for content creators.
In addition, the 2022 Philippines Freelance Market Report by GCash and Payoneer identifies a new breed of freelancers that are estimated to already comprise 1.5M. The report mentions that over 40% of these freelancers are either exclusively content creators or doing a hybrid of traditional freelance work and content creation that publish, upload and distribute their work across social media platforms.
A 2022 report by Statista also cited that there were 48 supernova creator accounts with more than 10 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube in the Philippines. Out of the total, Tiktok had the most supernova accounts with 32, followed by YouTube (11) and Instagram (5).
Filipino content creators are also getting the much-needed support of the Philippine government. The Republic Act (RA) No. 11904 or the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act aims to legitimize creative careers in the country and strengthen the frameworks supporting and protecting artists that seeks to legitimize the creator economy.
And as pandemic restrictions ease in the country, we have already witnessed the gradual return of onsite events in the local entertainment and convention scene, like concerts, festivals, sports tournaments and anime conventions. This welcome trend can only accelerate the growth of creative content and consumption.
Pain Points
“There are more than a million underserved Filipino creators and creatives. On one hand, their parents are constantly telling them that there’s no money in art or cosplay or gaming, and that it’s crazy to even consider pursuing it as a career,” said Deniega. “But in reality, there’s just a general lack of infrastructure, support, and knowledge for these creators to leverage.”
Platforms that enable the creator economy are already in existence, with the likes of Patreon, Gank and Ko-fi targeting cosplayers, esports personalities, visual artists, streamers, musicians, filmmakers, animators and their fans.
“Globally and locally we have seen that creators can indeed make a living through their works and fanbase. Shroud (US), AkoSiDogie (PH), CongTV (PH), Alodia Gosiengfiao (PH) have sustained admirable lifestyles through their passion and their craft, “said Deniega.
There are also podcasts, YouTube channels, and art channels have been fully funded by their fan bases. Patreon creators have collectively earned more than $3.5B, while Ko-fi creators have generated more than $200M in total.
“There’s no reason why Filipino creators can’t do the same,” insisted Deniega, citing how the creative sector contributes up to 7% to the total country’s GDP. “But due to the lack of infrastructure, its full potential remains untapped.”
Other challenges Deniega identified were the creators’ lack of knowledge on how to earn and price their works, the absence of a focused marketplace where their art and works can be appreciated and bought by their fans, the lack of knowledge and manpower to manage the supply chain (production and deliveries of merch and other creator supplies), and the limitation of payment methods (mostly Paypal and Credit Cards).
Early Wins
“Since our Alpha test in October 2022, our user base has grown by more than 100% each month, reaching 300 users in December, “said Deniega. “Through our early prototypes, our creators were already able to generate P100,000 in Gross Merchandise Value or GMV,“ he added.
Boozt is part of StartUp Village’s startup portfolio since its early days with Lyon, providing mentorship support as well as helping generate additional resources and access to markets.
“We are proud of what Boozt has accomplished so far and look forward to the great impact it creates for creatives moving forward,” said StartUp Village’s president and co-founder Carlo Calimon. “We have always believed in the team, from its early days as Lyon, as the team always exhibited the heart to help others, solve real problems while exhibiting the grit and perseverance to get things done amid challenging times.”
As a whole, the Philippine creator space is showing encouraging signs of growth against the backdrop of a challenging global economic environment. Boozt’s game changing platform, growing community of creators and fan base, coupled with the government’s creative bill, presents a compelling argument for success.
“Eventually, we’ll need to raise more funds to sustain our 100% month-on-month growth rate, add more tools on our platform to generate more GMV, and secure more partnerships to be the clear winners of the space,” concludes Deniega.
Close to thirty years ago Bill Gates wrote his “Content is King” essay, signaling the future of work. Today, it’s obvious he may have left out the part of how creators have to rely on tech platforms like Boozt to help enable the creator economy.