Hundreds of top creators and industry leaders from around the globe gathered in Dubai this week for the 1 Billion Followers Summit. The summit is just three years old, but attracted nearly 15,000 attendees. Dozens of talks were featured, from managing misinformation in the modern age to how language is evolving on the internet. And, of course, how creators can leverage A.I going forward.
Though the summit is young, it’s clearly important to Dubai’s media office, who organized the event. They want to establish the United Arab Emirates as a leader in the content creator space.
Creators were offered golden visas, allowing them to move to Dubai. They were treated to lavish meals and a luxury hotel. There was even VIP concert experience complete with a drone show and fireworks. Creators I spoke to after the summit said they were impressed. For many, it was their first time in Dubai and they were eager to return.
The 1 Billion Followers Summit also brought in a slew of industry leaders. Big names in the creator industry mingled together at the venue. I spoke to several of them to glean their insights from the conference.
Examining The Global Creator Economy
A recurring theme at the summit was the global nature of the content creator space. Jane Ferguson, Founder and CEO of Noosphere, a platform for independent journalists, observed, “The creators in Arabic content have these enormous followings, tens of millions, and they are huge stars around the Arab world and beyond. It is the same in India, China, etc.” Ferguson said she was excited by the potential of AI translation technologies. She sees them as a bridge between cultural and linguistic divides. This, in turn, could lead to a more interconnected creator community.
Jay Clouse, Founder of Creator Science, said he was struck by the regional commitment to expanding audiences. “Frequently during the conference, I met individuals serving both English and Arabic audiences who offered to help me think through how I could make my work more accessible to the Arabic audiences here,” he said. “The region really believes in the potential of the creator economy and wants to empower the creators operating within it.”
The summit showcased a bunch of creator-focused startups and companies with intriguing business models. Chris Erwin, Founder of RockWater, a financial and strategy advisory company said that, “The creator business in the US has had a bit of a black eye since 2022. Many companies have had a hard time getting profitable, and grew slower than expected, and had to shut down or go through fire sales.”
2025 Could Be a New Beginning For Investment In The Creator Economy
However, Erwin said he was heartened to connect with international startups focused on the creator world that were finding success.
“A question that kept popping up for many founders was on what to do for next steps,” Erwin said. “They didn’t know if they should raise capital or sell, or keep on growing organically. And if they want to sell, many had no idea how to run an M&A sales process or who would be the best type of partner or buyer, and why. I had many people approach me after my presentation about creator economy capital flows, with these exact questions… there’s definitely an info gap here, and also a function of the maturity cycle for the creator economy overall.”
Jasmine Enberg, VP and Principal Analyst at eMarketer, said that marketing budgets will be shifting further in the coming years. “The creator economy is booming around the world, with influencer marketing likely making up a bigger chunk of marketing budgets in emerging markets,” she said. Enberg pointed out that brands in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region have been ahead of the curve in adopting influencer marketing, partly due to the less mature digital ad market compared to the U.S.
AI Is Still Seen As The Future For Many Companies
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in content creation was also a major discussion topic at the summit. Jeremiah Owyang, General Partner at Blitzscaling Ventures said that, “The Middle East creator industry is very AI-curious.”
He said currently less than 10% of creators use AI tools beyond large language models. However, there is significant interest in adopting more tools to help scale businesses and streamline costs.
Ben Relles, who works with Reid Hoffman on content and AI initiatives, said, “I think Dubai is smart to invest in the creator community and the summit assembled a really fascinating group of global creators and tech leaders. A lot of creator conferences are very focused on growth hacking and monetization, which makes sense, but this definitely felt like it had a clearer focus on innovation and the future of content. That of course included a lot of sessions about generative AI, but also what the evolution of a completely new social platform could look like and the potential of the coming AR/VR wave.”
Beyond the tech and business discussions, the summit also led to a lot of networking among attendees.
Gargi Ruparelia Ladhani, Co-Founder of LearnTube, an AI learning platform, described it as a “melting pot of creators, founders, industry leaders all of whom have an opinion & influence in the global creator economy.” “What struck me most about the event though was the truly human connections everyone made which was facilitated by the way it was organized,” she said.
The Weekend’s Message: Create Genuine Content and Connections While Thinking Globally
The biggest takeaway the speakers had for creators was to go global by engaging with diverse audiences around the world. Leverage AI tools to streamline content production and publishing, diversify your business models, and prioritize community. Value developing a genuine connection with other creators and your audience above cheap engagement.
The conference wrapped just days before the impending TikTok ban in the U.S. It also served as a reminder of how the U.S. continues to fall behind the rest of the world by isolating itself from the global creator community.
“[There was] very little chatter about TikTok,” Erwin said. “It feels like a pure U.S. problem, and global companies don’t care.” As the digital landscape continues to evolve, I think global-focused events like 1BFS, where creators across the world can connect and learn from each other, will play a crucial role in shaping the future of content creation.
