How Did Linktree Become a $1.3B Company
Research says that today we have over 31M link-in-bio tool users, which seems minimal compared to Instagram’s 2 billion active users, but seems significant compared with the 50M creator estimation from InfluencerMarketingHub. Link-in-bio has a unique business model - it drives traffic from aggregators like TikTok / Instagram to your own channels like Substack, Onlyfans, merchandise store and adjacent social platforms!
You want to grow and engage your audience, you want to monetize and find a reliable, stable income— we’re going to continue to build upon, building more and more tools to allow creators to build and own their audiences.
Anthony Zaccaria, Co-Founder & CEO of Linktree (DailyDot Interview)
Today we’ll cover
Creator Platform Fragmentation PainPoint
Case Study: Linktree’s Growth Potential
Innovations within Link-In-Bio
Platform Fragmentation
As creators progress in their platform, creators will slowly form a multi-platform presence, enabling them to reach more audiences effectively. Furthermore, as creators scale, creators will start to curate their creator stack - through merch, courses and memberships etc. As a result, creators need to manage multiple channels, and they are HARD to be discovered by new audiences, thus Link-in-bio tools were born.
Back in 2017-2018 internet is filled with misinformation with fake endorsements and fundraisers where scammers take advantage of the fragmented nature of the platforms, it was difficult for followers to validate the legitimacy of the websites they were looking into.
At the end of the day, creators want to engage with their audience and the audience wants to familiarize themselves with the creator. Creators need a trusted established platform to direct their followers to discover his/her creator stack.
Here are some examples of three different influencers’ creator stacks:
Selena Gomez: Music, Merch Brand, Impact Fund, Cooking Show, Ice Cream
JomaTech: Two Youtube Channels, NFT Community, Engineering Courses
Kelly Wasaka: Youtube, TikTok, Cereal Brand, Merch Brand
Case Study: Linktree
Founded in 2016 by Anthony Zaccaria, Linktree is the pioneer of the link-in-bio category where creators can aggregate their stacks into a single link. Today it has over 24 million users, growing at 100% year-over-year. In March 2022, Linktree raised $110 million in venture capital funding, valuing them at $1.3 billion. Linktree has ~80% in market share, with high-profile users such as Selena Gomez, TikTok and MLB.
Today, Linktree operates a freemium model where they offer four tiers of subscriptions ranging from the $24 USD/Month premium option to the free option. The premium option includes advanced features such as payment integration, greater customizability, data export, analytics, etc.
Recently, they have partnered with PayPal and Shopify to enable direct payments and introduce e-commerce storefront integrations. Linktree has also acquired SongLink/Odesli, to roll out the “Music Link” feature, which automatically displays the same song or album across all music streaming services to let users listen to content on their preferred platform.
What is Next for Linktree?
The next phrase for Linktree from today will be continuing to capture the uprising creator class and make its product entirely category agnostic (Music, Gaming, Lifestyle, etc). In addition, moving away from a fixated subscription platform into a revenue-sharing platform from payments held on the platform to fully capture the value added to macro-creators.
Innovation within Link-In-Bio
Aside from the market leader Linktree, I think it would be interesting to look at Linkpop by Shopify and Koji. They are two rising differentiated link-in-bio tools.
Linkpop
Linkpop is similar to Apple launching Apple Music against Spotify. With Shopify as its parent, Linkpop has an unfair advantage in both distribution and development. Linkpop is built for creators who are already selling with Shopify stores, as a product that further expands Shopify’s moat beyond facilitating the logistics of commerce — by being an integral part of the distribution too (i.e. Partnership with Youtube/TikTok)
Linkpop undercuts Linktree and other competitors with their subscription pricing. In addition to the far great customizability with product features such as in-app checkout and product demo etc. As Shopify continues to play a leading role in social commerce with partnerships and product innovations, Linkpop is destined to grow its market share.
Koji
Koji took a different approach compared with Linktree. Koji brands themselves as the open sourced platforms for creators to customize their platform with third-party applications - like the App store by Apple.
The open-sourced platform model was launched in March 2021 and in January 2022, there are over 150,000 creators using Koji and 200 applications were available on Koji’s app store, some of these features include tipping, cameos, fundraisers, paid images/audios/files, affiliate links, watch party, fan submissions, etc.
Koji does not operate a freemium model with a tiered pricing structure. Koji monetizes through solely in-app transaction fees with the opportunity to introduce a platform tax (similar to the 30% apple tax) when the company matures. It is a fascinating business model that nobody else is implementing.
Takeaway
Link-In-Bio is designed to onboard new audiences to a creator’s stack. With growing adoption and competition, businesses are shifting toward revenue-sharing models instead of subscription-based monetization mechanisms. Koji & Linkpop are two companies to track while Linktree remains the market share leader today.
💡 This Week's News In the Creator Economy
Lil Nas X becomes YSL’s ambassador
Snapchat launched BeReal inspired dual camera feature
Amouranth launched Real Work, a personal assistant service for creators
Robert Kyncl stepped down as Chief of Business at Youtube (12 years)
AI-Generated Artwork Won First Place at a State Fair Fine Arts Competition
Stacked raised $12.9 million in Series A funding led by Pantera Capital
Linkedin is developing a content scheduling feature
✌️ That’s it until next time!
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