DUBAI: The creator economy globally and in the Middle East region is booming with millions of Gen Zs and millennials turning to various digital and social media platforms to express themselves.
In 2023, there are more than 207 million creators globally — a 314 percent increase from 2021 — according to the Creator Economy Report.
Capitalizing on this growth, several platforms including Patreon and OnlyFans have cropped up that allow creators to make money from viewers based on business models that differ from social media outfits such as TikTok and Instagram.
The latest platform to jump on the success of this emerging model is Fanfix. Launched by entrepreneurs Harry Gestetner and Simon Pompan, and social media personality Cameron Dallas in Los Angeles, the platform now has over 7 million creators globally.
Last year, SuperOrdinary acquired Fanfix in an eight-figure deal and now the platform is officially entering the Middle East, following a soft launch in March 2023.
Fanfix prides itself on being a “brand-friendly” and “clean” platform, Ally Salama, director of Fanfix MENA, told Arab News recently.
The platform launched at a time when competitors, particularly OnlyFans, were getting a bad rap for hosting adult content. These platforms “don’t have our principles” and “we’re very uptight about our values and core principles,” Salama said.
The primary factor in keeping the platform “clean” is prohibiting any nudity or adult content, he explained. To enforce its guidelines, Fanfix uses a mix of technology and humans to review all content.
Moreover, anyone who signs up to Fanfix must be verified by a team of human reviewers before being accepted as a member. “It’s important to note that Fanfix is an exclusive platform that accepts creators on an invite-only basis,” Salama said.
The verification process includes various criteria including a minimum of 10,000 followers across different social media platforms, an age requirement of 18, and that the creator is in alignment with Fanfix’s brand-safety and content guidelines.
The company also has a “customer success team that works on a one-on-one basis with creators” to ensure that the onboarding process follows the platform’s guidelines, he added.
In the Middle East region, Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries are seeing the strongest growth, and “the MENA business has surpassed the seven-figure mark within the past six to seven months” marking an “unprecedented” rise, said Salama.
Fanfix has already struck deals with regional creators including Model Roz and Summer Bujsaim — who have reportedly surpassed six figures cumulatively in their monthly earnings — and is currently in the final stages of signing popular YouTube star Mo Vlogs.
“The global creator economy is a $250-billion market, with much of it still untapped,” and so, “we will witness the most significant paradigm shift over the next five years across the UAE and KSA within the creator economy in MENA,” he added.
Although the platform is designed to be brand-safe, Fanfix does not work with advertisers just yet. “Creators aren’t able to fully rely on advertisement deals and they want a sustainable source of income,” he said.
Creators on Fanfix earn money in two ways, paid subscriptions and paid messaging, with creators keeping 80 percent of their earnings while 20 percent goes to the platform.
The ceiling for monthly subscriptions is set at $100 so creators can charge anywhere between $5 to $100 for monthly access to their content and from $5 to $50 for messages.
“We know that none of the creators are able to respond to their messages on (other) social media (platforms), so we incentivize them to respond to their fans by getting paid to respond,” said Salama.
Additionally, Fanfix is in talks with brands, including “one of the largest music brands” to create partnerships for creators on the platform, he added.
Since its soft launch in March, the company has been focused on ensuring its infrastructure and technology work smoothly and building the regional creator community. A few weeks back, the company hired its first customer success manager to work directly with creators, Salama said.
Fanfix MENA currently operates virtually as its creators are spread across the region, but it plans to open a physical office in the next month or two, he added.
“As far as operation goes, we are quite flexible, and we actually seek those who are as flexible to work with us because we are a Gen Z-based company, and the flexibility of work and operations has been a great advantage for us,” said Salama.
Fanfix MENA is also working on an Arabic version of the platform that will be rolled out in the future.
Creators in the Arab world — not necessarily Dubai and Saudi Arabia, but the wider region — are struggling to make money, and there is huge potential for monetization, he added.
That is why, Salama explained, the company is building features with creators’ input, such as livestreaming and personal wallets, that would enable them to further engage with their supporters and potentially earn more.
“We are listening as we are building; we build bad features and great features, and we quickly kill the bad features to work on the better ones,” Salama said.
