Quora joins the creator economy

Future. Quora is debuting two new features to compensate creators on its site, allowing them to keep up to 95% of subscription revenue. The move outpaces similar offerings like Substack (90%) and Youtube (70%). As everyone from Twitter to Facebook rushes to lure creators into their ecosystem, the creator wars are heating up.

Paid Q&A
Quora is helping its creators monetize their expertise, with the launch of two new subscription options.

• • Quora+ is a monthly subscription bundle for users to access premium content ($5/month or $50/year). Creators choose what they want to add behind the paywall and receive a payout proportional to reader engagement with their content.
  • Quora Spaces allows readers to subscribe directly to a creator. Writers who opt for this can set their own subscription fee, and Quora takes a 5% cut.

The question-and-answer platform is on track to be cash flow positive from ad revenue alone, but, according to CEO Adam D’Angelo, hopes that offering premium content will “make sharing knowledge more financially sustainable for creators.”

A new class of creators
The latest in the creator economy boom, Quora’s entry affirms the rise of a new class of creators. Beyond the polished influencers of Instagram and TikTok, industry experts and thought leaders are flocking to DTC channels and paywalling their content, whether through Substack or Patreon, or now, with Quora.

As more and more platforms look to empower creators, experts predict the total creator economy market will top $104B by the end of 2021.