India’s influence economy is no longer just about viral Reels and celebrity endorsements — it’s a Rs 3,500 crore juggernaut evolving rapidly. In a digital-first India, where smartphones double up as studios and content is king, the creator economy has grown from a fringe curiosity into a full-blown industry.
But how big is it really? Who’s earning how much? What platforms are winning this war for attention—and rupees? What metrics are marketers really chasing now?
To decode the realities beyond the hype, International Business Times, caught up with Sreeram Reddy Vanga, co-founder and CEO of Kofluence, an influence and content intelligence platform, on the sidelines of the release of “Decoding Influence: The 2025 Influencer Marketing Report”.
In this candid interview, Vanga unpacks the current state of the creator economy—from earnings tiers to ROI-driven campaigns and even the quiet revolution AI is staging behind the scenes.
Excerpts from interview below:
IBT: How big is India’s creator economy today?
Sreeram: India’s creator economy stands as a formidable force today, with an estimated 3.5 to 4.5 million influencers driving content and commerce. With a steady 22% CAGR thereabouts, what we are witnessing now is a sharp rise in monetisation opportunities, ranging from brand collaborations to affiliate programs, subscriptions, and digital product sales. In terms of platform breakdown, Instagram remains most concentrated, with an estimated 1.8 to 2.3 million Indian creators, followed by YouTube, which has estimated between 500,000 and 700,000 Indian creators. Other platforms combined add another approximately 90,000 to 120,000 creators.
As influencer marketing has rapidly expanded, much of the conversation has been platform-focused or anecdotal, revealing a clear lack of India-specific, data-driven insights that reflect actual creator behaviors, brand demands, and monetization trends at scale. With Decoding Influenceour goal is to deliver just that.
IBT: Instagram vs YouTube vs regional platforms — who’s winning India’s creator war?
Sreeram: Instagram continues to be the most enriched platform for creators with about 3–3.8 million Indian creators and more than 50% share of the influencer marketing spend coming into the platform. Its power is in short-form content types such as Reels, which continue to drive high engagement and collaboration potential. According to our report findings, Instagram stands out as the most lucrative social media platform for creators in terms of monetization.
YouTube remains important, particularly for creators telling long-form narratives. It currently has 500K to 700K creators and commands 28% of brand spends in the influencer space. Monetisation on YouTube is still quite steady with AdSense and Super Thanks, especially for nano and macro creators. Meanwhile, homegrown short-form video apps in India, including Moj and ShareChat are enjoying steady growth, largely driven by a growing appetite for content in regional languages. With strong user bases in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, these platforms are beginning to shape new creator ecosystems. However, brand adoption and creator monetisation on these platforms are still early-stage, with room for development in scale and consistency.
IBT: The million-rupee question: How much do creators actually earn in India today? What’s a realistic monthly income for micro vs mid-tier vs top creators?
Sreeram: There is no single benchmark for how much creators earn in India as it varies significantly based on their follower base, platform, content niche, and brand engagement. That said, an estimated 450K to 600K creators are currently monetising their content in some form. While sponsored collaborations remain the primary income source for nearly half of them, actual revenue from platforms like YouTube and Meta accounts for a much smaller share, at around 15%. Short-form video content, particularly on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, continues to be the most preferred format for monetisation.
For FY 2024–25, short-form video revenue on platforms like Instagram and YouTube differs by tier for influencers:
These figures are estimates, and widely varying, but they represent an increasingly concerted effort by creators to transform from occasional income to more sustained monetisation.
IBT: What are the most lucrative formats right now — short-form or long-form?
Sreeram: Short-form video continues to be the most commercially viable format for creators in India today. Over half of creators (52%) identify short-form content as their primary revenue driver, thanks to its rapid visibility, high engagement, and platform-supported reach, especially on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Branded content rates vary significantly by creator tier, starting from Rs 500 for nano-influencers and going beyond Rs 2 lakh for top-tier creators on Instagram. While Reels’ revenue has seen some fluctuations, YouTube Shorts has maintained more consistent earnings, supported by native monetisation tools like AdSense and Super Thanks, along with a growing viewer base.
However, long-form video content still remains tactically valuable in certain verticals. Long-form remains the preference for about 13% of creators, especially in areas like finance, tech or healthcare where depth and context are important. YouTube and Spotify are also seeing a surge in interest for longer, podcast-like formats and expert-led discussions. Though short-form is much larger in scale and ad demand, long-form continues to be relevant for creators who focus on high retention and overall better content shelf life.
IBT: How are brands pricing influencer campaigns in 2025?
Sreeram: In 2025, brands are approaching influencer marketing with a sharper focus on ROI and strategic alignment. Campaign pricing is no longer uniform; it’s shaped by industry benchmarks, performance expectations, and the scale of activation. Sectors such as e-commerce and FMCG are prioritising reach and cost-efficiency by running high-volume, scalable campaigns. In contrast, categories like BFSI and Media & Entertainment are allocating higher budgets to fewer but more premium campaigns, aiming for deeper storytelling and impact over breadth.
The average spend per influencer-led activation reflects this variation. For example:
Across the board, there is a clear movement toward performance-based pricing models, where creators are assessed not just on reach but on engagement, content quality, and alignment with brand KPIs. This shift is encouraging more transparent, data-led partnerships between brands and creators.
IBT: What KPIs do brands care about the most now — reach, engagement, conversions, or something new?
Sreeram: In 2025, engagement is now the number one KPI for brands sponsoring influencer campaigns, with 45% of brands citing it as their primary metric. That’s likes, comments, saves, and shares — signals that let you know how well your content is doing for the audience in question. Visibility is increasingly about meaningful interactions rather than mere scale, even if reach (37%) and impressions (31%) are still vital.
Meanwhile, we’re also witnessing an increasing trend towards performance-based outcomes. Metrics such as brand awareness (27%), web traffic or app installs (23%), and direct conversions or sales (18%) are coming into the ascendancy. Now, many brands are experimenting with ROI-driven mechanics like affiliate marketing, trackable promo codes, and commission-based payouts, especially for lower-funnel objectives. Though engagement remains in front, the definition of a campaign’s success is being widened to the inclusion of both visibility and measurable business impact.
IBT: AI is everywhere. How are creators and marketers using it behind the scenes?
Sreeram: AI has become a practical tool powering the backend of influencer marketing in 2025, helping both creators and marketers work smarter. Among creators, 76% are engaging with AI in some form—whether occasionally or as part of their regular workflow. It’s being used for everything from ideating content and tracking trends to optimising posting schedules and editing videos. Some creators even rely on AI to transcribe content or generate captions, making their production process faster and more scalable.
The marketer side of things is more regimented in terms of AI adoption. Almost half of marketers now use AI tools in their daily work, and they are using it differently across the board, from campaign management and creator discovery to trend analysis and in automated reporting. Creative content generation is the leading use case, closely followed by campaign performance forecasting and sentiment analysis. AI has not replaced human judgment, but its speed, precision, and consistency has dramatically enhanced decision-making throughout the campaign cycle.
IBT: Finally, if you had to invest in one creator tool or format for the next 5 years — what would it be, and why?
Sreeram: When thinking about long-term impact, Gen AI-enabled content creation tools and platforms would likely top my list in terms of scale and potential. AI has moved beyond experiential to now a foundational enabler that supports nearly every major shift in the creator ecosystem, from short-form video and regional content to performance-driven campaigns. We’re already seeing its impact. Our report found that nearly 30% of creators use AI for ideation, while marketers are increasingly relying on it to streamline operations, predict performance, and decode market patterns. As the ecosystem matures, AI will continue to be the engine behind scalable, data-informed, and high-quality content. It is not a matter of replacing creativity, but amplifying it in ways that were previously resource-intensive or out of reach. When you invest in AI, you are investing in a sustainable, agile, and intelligent creator economy.
