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The eternal loop of creativity is something that you find in a few places and when you find it, you are usually facing a billion dollar industry. I am talking about products that are able to develop a never ending loop of creativity thanks to the value that the users add every day. If a product becomes a success, you end up having millions of people trying to compete against each other to be the best, the most famous and the one who makes the most, in terms of money.
There are a few services out there that have developed this interesting never ending loop. One of them is Youtube, which has built an entire billion dollar industry on top of its website. Millions of people aim to be the next big Youtuber and that’s why they upload hours of hilarious/interesting/weird/scaring videos every single day. The competition is high and a few of them have made it to the top, with millions of followers and revenues from the Youtube partnership program.
There is a threshold, measured in millions of users, that marks the entrance to this loop. Once you crossed it, you don’t have to spend a single dollar in marketing your product anymore, because your users are going to do the job. If you look at Youtube, you’ll find people who got arrested on camera just for the sake of getting millions of views on their video. The idea is insane, but the power of a single video is immense.
The internet has enabled us to connect with millions of people around the world and the random guy who’s good on camera can become the next big star. As in tech startups, it doesn’t matter what your business model is, but how many people are following you. If you are a Youtuber with millions of subscriptions, it means you can sell to those people whatever you want, brand yourself and start selling whatever comes up to your mind.
Another product that has got into the loop is Instagram, where entire generations of girls (and even guys) have taken part in the selfie revolution. Although, on this platform, how creative you are doesn’t matter, there are still thousands of people following individuals just because they are attractive or take nice pictures (that would be a more suitable scenario). The more interactions there are on the app, the more the company grows, and if you want to feed your followers, you are forced to create more content.
We could say the same thing about Facebook, in terms of creating value, but it’s not the same thing. Youtube and Instagram are two products that lets you become whoever you want to be, simply because you are not facing a circle of friends, but the entire world. Facebook follows the same pattern of “the more interactions, the more growth”, but there is no competition in sharing and people don’t create content because they want to be the best Facebook user in 2014.
On the other hand, Youtube is a war field where people do the most extreme things, just to get millions of views. In other words, the creativity that Youtube has brought made thousands of people entrepreneurs. Innovation and creativity don’t just belong to the tech world. If you innovate by making a great video, you are entrepreneurial and if you know how to handle those millions of people that are following you, a Ferrari is already parked in your garage.
It’s remarkable to see how a simple concept has made people famous, richer and more entrepreneurial. To some extent, Youtube can be compared to the Apple Store (or Google Play), where Apple is providing a platform to enable the developers (Youtubers) to unleash their creativity that brings innovation and interactions.
Where there is creativity, there are entrepreneurs and if you can build a platform that lets people be more creative, you have just found the next big thing.
