Annual creator campaigns have increased from approximately 14,000 to 42,000, while the average campaign spending has risen ose 3.6 times
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India’s creator economy is entering a new phase of growth. What began as a metro-led digital phenomenon has evolved into a geographically distributed and economically significant ecosystem that is reshaping entrepreneurship, marketing and digital commerce across the country.A new report released by the Srini Raju Centre for IT and the Networked Economy (SRITNE) at the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Hashfame argues that the next phase of India’s creator economy will depend less on expanding participation and more on enabling creators to build sustainable businesses.Titled Understanding the Canvas of India’s Creator Economy, the report draws on comprehensive data from the Qoruz Creator Intelligence Platform covering creators, brand campaigns and audience engagement between 2020 and 2025, to examine how India’s creator ecosystem has evolved over the past five years.The findings suggest that the creator economy has moved beyond its early growth phase and is becoming an increasingly important part of India’s digital economy.Remarkably, this expansion has not come at the expense of audience engagement. Even as the creator base has quadrupled, average engagement rates have increased from 1.8% in 2020 to 7.2% in 2025, suggesting that creators are building stronger audience relationships rather than competing for an increasingly fragmented pool of attention. Brands have increasingly followed this shift. Annual creator campaigns have increased from approximately 14,000 to 42,000, while the average campaign spending has risen 3.6 times, reflecting growing confidence in creator-led marketing as an increasingly mainstream channel for customer acquisition and engagement.The report also points to an important structural challenge. While participation has expanded dramatically, earning opportunities remain concentrated. The number of non-metro creators participating in brand campaigns has increased from around 38,000 to more than 408,000 during the study period.The findings suggest that the next stage of growth will depend less on expanding participation and more on improving creator productivity by enabling repeat brand collaborations, diversified revenue streams and more sustainable businesses.Language, a key growth driverLanguage is emerging as another important driver of this transformation. Although Hindi creators account for 42% of India’s creator base, creators producing content in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bhojpuri and other regional languages collectively account for the majority. The report identifies several language ecosystems where creator participation has outpaced brand investment, highlighting significant opportunities for businesses seeking deeper engagement with regional audiences.“India’s creator economy is no longer defined by whether people can become creators. That transition is already underway. The more important challenge now is enabling creators to build sustainable businesses,’’ Madhu Viswanathan, Associate Professor of Marketing and Executive Director, SRITNE at ISB said. “Our findings suggest that the next phase of growth will depend on improving creator productivity, strengthening creator-brand relationships and creating more durable economic opportunities for creators across India,’’ he added. According to Anirudh Sridharan, Co-Founder and Head of Product at Hashfame, creators are becoming an integral part of how brands reach consumers across India. “As the ecosystem expands beyond metropolitan markets, businesses increasingly need to think beyond one-off influencer campaigns and build long-term partnerships with creators who have earned trust within their communities,’’ he said. The opportunity now lies not simply in discovering more creators, but in helping them build sustainable businesses, he added. The report is based on primary data from the Qoruz Creator Intelligence Platform, comprising creator and brand campaign data from 2020 to 2025, and secondary data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) Consumer Pyramids Household Survey, the Periodic Labour Force Survey, BSNL 4G District Coverage data and the Census of India.Published on July 14, 2026
