With the rising quantity of content on the internet, thanks to the boom of the creator economy, we are now at the age of information overload . Present-day AI is not yet powerful enough to wade through the vast information universe and provide content with context and intent. Curators are humans who bridge this gap by curating relevant information from the vastness available to us. Over the years, curators have become a vital part of information commerce. The curator economy is booming, and several businesses have proved it to be a sustainable business model. This article looks at the context of the curator economy, why it is important, and its present state in the age of information overload.

“Digital curators are the librarians of the internet”.

Anamaria Iuga in Beyond on Curator Economy

The Boom of Creator Economy

With the rising popularity of social media and the internet, the creator economy is at an all-time high. In 2021 alone, the creator economy saw a record funding of $1.3 billion . The cost of creating content continues to go down as more content creators appear online. The shift of content creation from big corporations to independent small creators worldwide has resulted in an age where we are overloaded with the vast availability of information. Decentralized and democratized content on the internet is driving this creator boom.

Age of Information Overload

With the creator economy booming , sorting content from the vast universe of information is becoming harder day by day. The information you want to read is already there but is buried in vast piles of articles, videos, and blog posts. We are currently in an era overloaded with information. Every day, we are bombarded with never-ending streams of irrelevant content, making it easy to get lost. Here are some numbers to give you some context:

• 300 hours of video are uploaded on YouTube every minute in 2021.
• 90% of the data on the internet has been created since 2016.
• By the end of 2020, 44 Zettabytes of data made up the entire digital universe, growing at the rate of 1.7 Mb per second per person.
• Every day, 306.4 billion emails are sent, and 500 million tweets are made.

Rise of Algorithms vs. Human Curation

The rise of algorithms replacing humans in curating content started to gain traction 20 years ago. Amazon replaced humans with algorithms for curating product recommendations to users. Algorithms play a major role in the content we see on the internet today. Algorithms drive 70% of content on YouTube .

Even though algorithms powered by AI curate large chunks of content for users, the future of content is human-to-human. Human-to-human interaction always wins over the logic of algorithms. The AI at present is limited in terms of context when it comes to curation. The main aim of AI is to make users stay on the platform as long as possible. The big difference between AI and humans is the intent behind it. While humans are inefficient in processing large chunks of information like AI, they can bring context to information. A human can analyze content, find common themes, and display only relevant information. Even though AI is here to stay, it cannot replace human curation . Every curator is different due to their unique skills and knowledge. These factors, along with the curator’s audience, create a combination that AI cannot replace.

The Birth of Curator Economy

Curation of content enables users to understand, explore, and make sense of a topic by organizing the best available information sources on the internet. When information is served with context, insights can be easily drawn, saving time and effort.

Curation is one of the 3 Cs of information commerce : Creation, Curation, and Consumption. Curation requires time and proper attention to sort through hundreds of articles and posts to recommend information. The curation economy is booming , and over the years, it has become a sustainable business. As mentioned earlier, curation requires effort, and curators often monetize their work. Here are some examples of the current state of the content curation economy:

• FlowState on Substack charges $8/month to get access to curated Spotify lists.
• The Browser charges $5/month for weekly article recommendations. The Browser has over 10,000 subscribers paying annually.
• The Generalist has over 33,000 subscribers and generates around $11,000 per month.
• NowIKnow is a free newsletter that sends interesting things daily to your inbox. It has over 100,000 subscribers and makes around $1,500 per month from patrons.
• Everything Bundle has over 1,000 paid subscribers within its first month of going premium.

Why Content Curation is Important

Based on my experience and research, here’s a list of reasons why content curation is important:

• Information is growing at an all-time high rate. Multiple blogs, social channels, and news sources are launched every day, making finding relevant content more difficult.
• With the rising information tsunami, it becomes hard for inexperienced users to identify reliable sources. If not checked properly, users are served spam or misleading content.
• Webmasters and creators are optimizing for visibility on platforms, often leading to clickbaity, irrelevant, or spammy content.
• As free time decreases, it is essential to deliver and consume content that is precise, concise, and relevant.
• To understand a broader idea, some content usually needs to be contextualized.

How to Become a Content Curator

A content curator is someone who sifts through vast amounts of information, selects the best content, and presents it in a contextual manner to the audience. Proper curation is about understanding the limited time and attention span of the audience. The best curators consume large amounts of information, extract the best, and present concise, relevant pieces to their audience.

For my newsletter, 10+1 Things , I follow these steps for curation:

• Since curation requires expertise, I read extensively. Every week, I go through 40+ newsletters, 70+ articles, 2 books, and 20+ videos.
• Every time I consume something interesting that triggers my curiosity, I create a note about it in my Knowledge Management platform, Obsidian .
• On Fridays, from the long list of ideas, I finely curate 11 outstanding stories to form the skeleton of the newsletter. Every story is cross-checked for factual accuracy.
• Content finalized on Friday is elaborated on Saturday, with more context added to match the newsletter’s style.
• Grammar checks and readability tests are done to ensure the best delivery of content.

Conclusion

The concept of the curator economy is not new and has been discussed over the years as the future of content. Curation can eventually help build a personal brand or audience. Data shows that content curation is booming and can be a sustainable source of income.

“The future is in the intersection of Content Curation, Knowledge Management, and Community.”

Founder of Glasp

This article is not an original idea but was inspired by research, articles, and blog posts from the internet. Read more about the reference sources and my research notes on my Digital Garden .