How many creators are there in India?

By creators, do we mean the ones creating quality content such as podcasts and educational videos on YouTube or we mean anyone creating any type of content such as the ones creating reels/stories on Instagram? à The latter

To estimate the number of creators, do we consider any specific application such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram? à All

To consider one as a creator, is there any restriction on the type of content such as images, video, audio, text (which appear in newsletters)? à Since the question was asked at Tiktok, I am assuming by content we can consider images, video, and audio.

Now, lets start with the estimation:

Population of India ~ 1.44B or 1.5B

To create content, one needs a smartphone (more than a laptop or tablet).

Penetration of smartphone ~ 70%

Population with smartphone = 0.7*1.5 = 1.05B or 1B

The 1B people with smartphones mainly fall in the age group of 15 years to 75 years (assuming life expectancy of 75 years) and mainly people below the age group of 60 years tend to be active on social media.

Population who tends to be active on social media (15years to 60years) = 1B*4.5/6 = 0.75B (assuming uniform population distribution)

People in the age group of 15years to 35 years tend to create more content and while people in the age group of 35 to 60 years tend to create much less content

As per my personal experiences, every 5th person I tend to meet in the age group of 15 years to 35 years create content whereas only every 20th person I meet in the age group of 35years-60 years crate content

Total creators = Population in the age group of 15 years to 35 years who tend to be active on social media*Percentage who create content + Population in the age group of 35 years to 60 years who tend to be active on social media*Percentage who create content

= 0.75B*(2/4.5)*(1/5) + 0.75B*(2.5/4.5)*(1/20)

=0.75*20/(45*15) + 0.75B*25/(45*20)

= 0.05*20/(3*15) + 0.05*25/(3*20)

=0.05*4/3 + 0.05*5/(3*4)

=0.2/3 + 0.25/12 = 0.0666+0.0208 = 0.067 + 0.021 = 0.088B = 88M

Let’s do a gut check

88M = x% of 1.5B

X= 8800M/1.5B = 8800/1500 = 88/15 ~ 6 (does not seem to be a huge number)

6% of population create some or the other form of content on any social media applications.