Creators are carrying the growth and getting the worst of the terms

Advertising running through creators reached $37 billion in 2025 and
is projected at $44 billion in 2026. Meanwhile the standard terms a creator is offered
have barely moved in a decade.

The split

The reference points are public. Twitch’s standard subscription split is 50/50, and in
September 2022 its president wrote to creators explaining that the 70/30 premium arrangement
would be reduced for top streamers. YouTube’s advertising split is 55/45 in the creator’s
favour.

Those are the headline numbers, and they are not the whole cost. The larger issue is
when and whether, not what percentage.

Three problems that are not about the percentage

Monetisation gated on scale

Most platform programmes require a follower or watch-hour threshold before a creator can earn
at all. The effect is that the period when a creator most needs income — while they are building
— is the period in which they are structurally prevented from having any.

Rates you learn afterwards

Revenue-share models tell a creator what they earned once the month has closed. Nobody else in
the economy accepts that. A plumber knows the rate before doing the work.

Payment terms that would be illegal elsewhere

Net-30, net-60 and rolling minimum thresholds are normal in creator payouts. For an individual
without a finance function, a sixty-day delay on a small sum is not a cash-flow inconvenience.
It is the difference between continuing and stopping.

What a fairer arrangement looks like

We think the fix is unglamorous and mostly about sequence. Say the rate before the work. Let
the creator accept or decline it. Pay on verified delivery. Do not make what they receive depend
on what somebody else was charged.

That last point is the one that matters structurally. When a creator’s payment is a share of a
number they cannot see, every dispute becomes unresolvable. When it is a stated rate for a stated
piece of work, it is just an invoice.

None of this requires new technology. It requires deciding that the creator is a supplier
being paid for work rather than a revenue stream being shared.

Sources

• IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, full year 2025 — April 2026.
• A Letter from Twitch President Dan Clancy on Subscription Revenue Shares — September 2022.