India's 'orange economy' making waves to trend on your feeds & shopping carts
At India's first World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) in Mumbai earlier this week, the country's
creator economy
was brought to the centre of the national economic conversation. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
, addressing thousands of attendees, called on young creators to 'drive the nation's
Orange Economy
forward', crediting their work as fuelling a new wave of creativity.
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This summit comes months after the Centre's announcement of a $1 billion fund dedicated to supporting India's growing creator economy. According to the government, the fund will allow creators to access capital, hone their skills, upgrade production quality, and connect with global markets.
In addition to this fund, the government has sanctioned ₹391 crore to establish the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT), a new institution aimed at building expertise in digital and creative technologies. Together, these initiatives suggest a strategic shift in how the government views the creator economy — no longer as an informal or side-hustle driven ecosystem, but potentially as a structured and export-ready industry akin to India's software and MSME sectors.
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This comes at atime when Indians collectively spent 1.1 lakh crore hours staring at their smartphones in 2024, according to EY, as cheap internet makes platforms from Instagram to Netflix more accessible to the world's most populous nation.
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A trillion-dollar force in the making
A report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), titled 'From Content to Commerce: Mapping India's Creator Economy', estimates that creators already influence over $350 billion in annual spending in India, a figure that could cross $1 trillion by 2030. Direct revenues from the ecosystem are also projected to grow from $20–25 billion today to $100–125 billion by the end of the decade.
Vipin Gupta, managing director and partner at BCG, said that 'India's creator economy is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping consumer behaviour', adding that creator-driven spending could make up 25–30% of total consumer expenditure in the country by 2030. He said that what was once seen as a metro and Gen Z-centric phenomenon has now spread across age groups and geographies, particularly smaller cities.
'Categories like fashion, beauty, and entertainment are leading the charge, while emerging monetisation models—such as live commerce and virtual gifting—are redefining how creators and brands drive value together,' Gupta said.
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WAVES Summit: How creator economy is gaining clout
From content to commerce
India is currently home to an estimated 2 to 2.5 million active digital creators with over 1,000 followers. But only 8–10% are able to monetise their content effectively, pointing to a large unrealised potential. The BCG report suggests that short-form video remains the most dominant format, with YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and Moj at the forefront. Popular genres include comedy, films, daily soaps and fashion.
BCG said that to fully benefit from this growth, brands must trust creator-led outcomes, streamline internal decision-making, adopt faster content creation processes, and invest in long-term partnerships with creators. It also said that budgets for creator marketing could rise by 1.5 to 3 times in the next two to three years.
Gupta said, 'To fully leverage this potential, brands must trust creator-led outcomes, streamline decision-making, embrace agile content strategies, and invest in long-term creator partnerships.'
From soft power to strategic asset
In his inaugural address at WAVES 2025 summit, Modi said that creators — whether 'musicians from Guwahati, podcasters from Kochi, game designers in Bengaluru, or filmmakers in Punjab' — are fuelling India's growing creative sector. He compared their potential impact to that of Hindi cinema, citing actor Raj Kapoor's legacy in making India a global soft power. He also said that the creator economy is bringing 'new energy' to India's ambition of becoming a $5 trillion economy.
Alongside WAVES, the government launched
WAVES Bazaar
, a global e-marketplace designed to connect Indian content creators with international buyers and collaborators. It allows creators to showcase their work, pitch projects and find commercial opportunities abroad. The platform aims to make India a net exporter of content by simplifying business interactions and providing tailored resources.
The push towards formalising the creator economy is supported by recent growth numbers. A report by Qoruz, an
Influencer Marketing
Intelligence Platform, shows that the number of influencers in India grew from 962,000 in 2020 to 4.06 million in 2024, a 322% increase in four years.
Aditya Gurwara, co-founder and head of brand alliances at Qoruz, said, 'Over the years, we've seen a significant shift in how brands approach their marketing strategies. Influencers have moved beyond product endorsements to becoming strategic partners for brands.'
He added that brands now seek creators who can produce authentic, context-driven content. 'Categories like Gaming, Travel, and Lifestyle are growing at an exceptional pace, and brands have an incredible opportunity to align with creators who truly understand their audiences,' he said.
Turning influence into income
According to an EY report last year, about 12% of Indian content creators earn between ₹1 lakh and ₹10 lakh per month. Around 86% expect a 10% hike in income over the next two years, and 77% reported some income growth over the last two years.
Influencer marketing is projected to grow by 25% in 2024, reaching ₹2,344 crore and rising to ₹3,375 crore by 2026. About 40% to 57% of brands in FMCG, ecommerce, and automobile sectors are expected to increase their influencer marketing spend by 10% by 2026.
Devarajan Iyer, executive director and CEO of Lifestyle International, said, 'As volatile times push marketers to spend on more sure-footed channels that deliver on return on investment, brands will move away from metrics like cost per impression and engagement and link their influencer marketing initiatives with sales conversion.'
About 47% of brands prefer working with nano and micro influencers — those with 100 to 100,000 followers — because of their lower cost per reach. The EY report said that there are around 7,000 mega influencers in India, defined as those with over 1 million followers. It added that smaller brands are more likely to rely on nano and micro influencers to build brand identity, while large firms tend to use mega influencers.
The report also noted that 73% of creators in India work less than 10 hours a week on content, compared to up to 39 hours in other countries. This suggests that a majority of Indian creators see content creation as a side gig, with only 30% consistently securing brand deals that allow full-time work.
As India attempts to position content creators as serious economic actors, the next few years will show whether initiatives like the $1 billion fund and IICT will formalise this fast-growing ecosystem into a structured, high-growth sector with export potential.
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