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GUEST COLUMN: What can be the anticipated future of the creator economy

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Mumbai: It’s no wonder that the digital media industry has shifted tremendously over the previous decade. This shift in focus has given rise to a new type of media personality: the content creator. Content creators are capturing the attention that was previously reserved for traditional media and as a result, they’re transforming content, consumer behaviors, and – maybe most importantly – consumer purchasing. These developments are spawning a completely new industry: the creative economy.

From restricted IG and YouTube creators to now boasting over a million creators in the country as a result of the development of short-form video platforms and the simplicity of making content – ‘Content Creator’ is now a proper career that a gen-Z youth can now justify to their parents.

As of now, creators have relied mainly on marketing campaigns and ad money generated by YouTube views. While this is fantastic, very few people can truly get it right and achieving wider adoption is extremely difficult because brands work with a small number of agencies, who in turn work with a small amount of creators. Technology can help companies and creators communicate more effectively but there is currently no dominant player in this space. Instagram and YouTube, on the other hand, have made pledges to develop toward the Creator economy and it will be fascinating to follow where they land.

All of this is unfolding so rapidly that it’s vital to stop and think about where it’s all heading. What is the creative economy’s future?

Affiliate – Affiliate revenue is something that fintech developers have been able to fully realise and reap tremendous rewards from. The next phase is to scale across the board. You don’t have to be linked with a brand to sell it; marketplaces such as Amazon reward referrals and affiliate sales.

Paid subscriptions – This is really exciting for producers who have a strong connection with their viewers and may provide exclusive material or other advantages to their fans. If a creator can attract even two per cent of their viewers into monthly paid customers, there is a lot of money to be made.

Creator products – Creators benefit from a focused reach, which, when utilised wisely, may result in the creation of incredibly profitable D2C enterprises. A creator is the one who best knows their audience; they understand the gaps and goals in their life and can help cross these by developing various things. Creators are also adept at creating excitement, something conventional businesses must pay considerably in to guarantee their brand narrative is delivered appropriately – it does become a zero-cost game for the creator. To get this right, producers must create high-quality products, engage in authentic communication, and go all out with their digital content to maximise sales.

NFTs – With all of the hoopla around NFTs, and even once it corrects and comes down a bit. This will be a really vital tool for creators to involve with communities and possibly allow fans to own stock in them. NFTs will play a significant part in creating incredibly tight-knit communities for creators, as well as opening up a variety of new avenues for commercialisation for creators.

Branded content – This statistic has climbed steadily over the last five years and shows no indications of decreasing, businesses will soon are becoming more ROI and conversions focused on these efforts. With more and more tech tools to measure real sales for such campaigns on the horizon, this will eventually become similar to ad purchasing with pre-determined KPIs, unlocking value for artists.

It is reasonable to assume that Indian content producers will lead the very next century in global space. We are only getting started, and the times ahead are incredibly exciting for both artists and viewers. All in all, it is believable that the creator economy has a lot of potential and that more monetisation avenues will open up for creators in the future. So, to all the creators, businesses, customers and brand owners who are working and building in this space be in it for the long haul. Ultimately, investing in relationships and communities can never go wrong.

(About Author: Vaibhav Pathak is the co-founder of The Girlfriend Box)

MAM

Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement

Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted

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MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.

The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.

The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.

Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.

Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.

For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.

More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.

The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.

In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.

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Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

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Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.

Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.

“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.

The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.

Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.

The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.

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MAM

Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships

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SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC  head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.

Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.

Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.

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