For consumers, influencers are at once a walking advert
and a trusted friend. For intermediaries that sit between
them and brands, they are a hot commodity.
For the brands’ corporate owners, they are becoming
a conduit to millennial and Gen-Z consumers, who will
be responsible for 70% of the $350bn or so in global
spending on bling by 2025, according to Bain, a consultancy.
And for regulators, they are the subject of ever closer scrutiny.
On March 29th news reports surfaced that
China’s paternalistic authorities are planning
new curbs on how much money internet users can spend on tipping their favourite
influencers, how much those influencers can earn from fans,
and what they are allowed to post.
Taken together, all this makes them impossible to ignore.