"Market saturated": Opportunities for an influencer career are poor

Making a living as an influencer - that's the dream of many young people.

"Market saturated": Opportunities for an influencer career are poor

Making a living as an influencer - that's the dream of many young people. However, according to a recent study, gaining a foothold in the industry is becoming increasingly difficult. There are various reasons for this.

According to a study, it is very difficult to earn money as an influencer in the long term. "Young people in particular are increasingly seeing influencers as a normal job," said the Cologne-based Institute of German Economics (IW). But according to an investigation, the market for YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok stars "should be considered saturated".

The IW researchers therefore assume that influencers with a follower number of at least 20,000 can make a living with their income from advertising partnerships and the like. Assuming that everyone can only pay attention to a limited number of influencers, it can be assumed that German Internet users could keep 543,000 medium-sized influencers on the market.

"According to surveys, 500,000 people of Generation Z alone already earn their living as influencers," emphasize the researchers. "In addition, there are influencers from other generations, and influencers from abroad - under these assumptions, the market should be considered saturated."

There is also a lot of movement in the industry: new influencers are rising, others are losing followers. Many influencers in particular have also lost their credibility through questionable advertising. The "Hydro Hype" campaign, in which Youtuber Marvin Wildhage got several influencers to advertise a fake face cream (actually lubricating gel), exposed many celebrities as implausible. A number of influencers like Iris Klein are also often accused of advertising everything as long as it brings in money.

"The chances of earning money permanently as an influencer are poor," concludes IW digitization expert Barbara Engels. "Young people who are interested in a career as an influencer should focus more on related areas such as the IT industry when choosing a career."