Share Over the past year, the COVID-19 global health crisis has punctured a lot of industries and shut down economies across the world, leading to millions of layoffs.
While the labor market has been seeing a rebound from the pandemic-induced downturn, it raises the question of how jobs can withstand unprecedented crises like COVID-19.
Some who were furloughed from their day jobs took the time in lockdowns inside their homes to rediscover their passion—and monetize it. This is what we here at so.fa.dog call passion economy.
Passion Economy
There is no hard and fast definition for passion economy, but it represents a whole new system where creators make a living through their passion and skills.
Li Ji, who owns a venture capital firm for passion economy, has extensively written about the topic. In a nutshell, she says, “users can now build audiences at scale and turn their passions into livelihoods, whether that’s playing video games or producing video content.” This, Li says, has huge implications for entrepreneurship and a rethinking of the concept of jobs and livelihood in the future.
Perhaps the most important component of passion economy is the creator themself. Andrew Chen points out that in passion economy, people live off their passion through the support of fans, but these people are not exclusively content creators per se; they can be musicians, athletes, or teachers, among others.
Think of a gardener whose passion revolves around plants. They can create gardening-related content which they can offer to those who are genuinely interested in gardening.
This is in contrast with the so-called creator economy. Considered a subset of passion economy, the creator economy specifically becomes about social media and content creators. A lot of these creators monetize using advertising and sponsorships, and not by earning from direct revenues from their customers.
The passion economy usually involves a digital product or service—far different from a physical service like Uber that is within the realm of gig economy.
Rise of Passion Economy
Research from Disciple Media shows that the entire passion and creator economies were carved out of the waning interest in the so-called attention economy, where one’s attention is constantly fed with information from nearly all types of media—from television to radio to social media.
On social media alone, 52% of users either want to spend less time on their social media accounts or deactivate from social media altogether, on the heels of their beliefs that social media giants are profiteering from their attention.
This frustration has given birth to spaces and interactions that are grounded on shared passions and interests that are sincere.
The same study found that there is a marked increase in engagement with topics that users are passionate about during lockdowns.
How We Do It At so.fa.dog
This is where so.fa.dog comes in. Over the past year, we have been in the process of developing the perfect space for creators and subscribers. Our platform allows the creator to fully showcase their passion through short-form videos, while subscribers can support the creators by shelling out a subscription fee.
It’s a win-win situation for both sides. The creator can fully control the content they want to put out without the fear of not making any dime out of it, while the subscriber enjoys nothing but the content they paid for and want to see—no frills, no distractions. The whole experience is based on sincerity and authenticity of connections and shared interests.
Over the past months, we have developed a well-curated, ad-free space with a user-friendly interface where subscribers can choose from a variety of topics that fit their passion and personalities.
Budding Creators
One of our early creators is Claudio Piccolli, a dog photographer from Milan, Italy. His mission is to bring dog photography to people all over the world, “in order to allow everyone to enjoy this magical world.”
And he’s got it right. Whose day wouldn’t be lightened up by images of cute pooches?
Claudio now has over 250 paying subscribers, and we bet that his community will grow even bigger.
If you haven’t yet, download the so.fa.dog app and check out our awesome community of content creators and fans. Follow us on our social media channels, and stay tuned for our next posts right here on the so.fa.dog blog.