Social media follower counts have never mattered less, creator economy execs say

Amber Venz Box, CEO of LTK, told TechCrunch that 2025 was the year the algorithm took over and follower counts stopped mattering. A Northwestern University study commissioned by LTK found that trust in creators rose 21% year over year, and 97% of chief marketing officers intend to grow influencer marketing budgets in the new year. Eric Wei, co-founder of Karat Financial, described creators paying teenagers on Discord to make clips that are posted widely on algorithmic platforms. Reed Duchscher, founding CEO of Night, predicts that creators with more specific niches will succeed over mass-appeal figures like MrBeast.