‘For You’ feeds are not for creators, Patreon says | TechCrunch

Patreon has continued on its crusade against algorithmic feeds with its latest State of Create report, a look at trends in the creator economy based on internal data, and it’s an effort creators can get behind.

In its survey of 1,000 creators and 2,000 fans, the membership platform reported that 53% of creators think it is more difficult to reach their followers today than five years ago.

This doesn’t come as a surprise. Celebrities have fought against Instagram’s video-centric, algorithmic feed, making it difficult even for the Kardashians to reach their fans. And if Kylie Jenner is having trouble connecting with her audience, then it’s even worse for creators who aren’t household names.

Fans are frustrated with social platforms’ shift toward short-form video and the “For You” feed, which both have been pioneered by TikTok. According to Patreon’s survey, fans say that they are seeing more short-form content on social media than long-form content — but 52% of fans said they find long-form content more valuable and that overall, they would be more willing to pay for it. Long-form content also tends to generate more income via ad revenue share on YouTube, since platforms continue to struggle with short-form content monetization.

This is the fundamental tension of today’s creator economy: Platforms like TikTok have made it easier than ever to build an audience, but the sheer volume of algorithmically served content means that once creators earn a fan’s attention, it’s hard to maintain it. If a fan follows a creator on TikTok or Instagram, they might not actually see the majority of that creator’s posts, since they’re drowned out by posts from people they don’t follow.

That’s why, as creators told Patreon, they now prioritize quality and deeper connections with fans over metrics like follower counts, likes, and views — a shift from five years ago.

“When you focus on the platform mitigating the relationship between the creator and the subscriber, what you’re essentially doing is giving the platform the power and the responsibility to decide what to send to whom, when,” Patreon CEO Jack Conte told TechCrunch when Instagram made major changes to its algorithmic feed in 2022. “And that’s the part of it that makes me angry as a creator. Because I’ve spent years, decades building communities on these platforms.”

As more creators than ever try to make a living on the internet, a clear path toward connecting with fans is essential to monetize their businesses. But the dominance of algorithms often obstructs that path, forcing them to adapt their content to fit platform preferences. In fact, 78% of creators in the report said that “The Algorithm” impacts what they create, and 56% admitted it has discouraged them from exploring their passions and interests.

Those challenges are compounded by the broader instability of social media platforms themselves. With TikTok in legal jeopardy, Meta overhauling its content moderation precedents, and X platforming fringe extremism, creators are growing more frustrated with the current state of social media. Direct-to-consumer content platforms like Patreon, Substack, and OnlyFans have made it easier for creators to control their content and to make money, yet it’s becoming harder to connect with the people who want to pay for their content in the first place.

“‘The Algorithm’ doesn’t measure what people want,” said Karen X. Cheng, a Patreon creator, in the survey. “It measures what people pay attention to.”