Artists need a business-friendly base to thrive in the ultra-competitive Creative Economy. With new legislation, the UAE is emerging as the perfect answer.

By Xische Editorial, October 19, 2021

The internet is the most powerful platform humanity has ever created. From the connection that it enables to rapid sharing of information, it’s historic in the full sense of the term. Yet, many corners of the internet are in desperate need of reform. We have covered many of the challenges currently facing society, from data privacy to excessive screen time. One of the most corrosive spaces is the creator economy, and we have some unique ideas about how to solve it. 

The primary challenge facing the creator economy is the distribution of wealth among creators. While a select group of elite creators on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok can earn handsome salaries, the vast majority of creators earn very little. This unsustainability is a severe problem for the growth of the creator economy, which spurs innovations in the sector.

The problem is so bad that the analyst Li Jin argued last year in the Harvard Business Review that the creator economy needs a middle class to sustain itself. She argued that the creator economy is like the nation-state. “The sustainability of nations and the defensibility of platforms is better when wealth isn’t concentrated in the top 1%. In the real world, a healthy middle class is critical for promoting societal trust, providing a stable source of demand for products and services, and driving innovation. On platforms, less wealth concentration means lessening the risk that a would-be competitor could poach top creators and threaten the entire business.”

Last month, a massive leak of private information from the popular streaming platform Twitch confirmed what many analysts suspected about the unequal distribution of revenue on the platform.  While a small pool of streamers earned seven-figure salaries, three-quarters of users making any money this year have made less than $120. This discrepancy led Axois to say that the creator economy is unable or unwilling to fix the problem by itself. Axios notes that “the creator economy was supposed to transform media, but it turns out that a small portion of creators still reap the most revenue for their work across multiple platforms.”

One place to begin solving this problem is to provide creators with more benefits. The UAE has emerged as an attractive destination for digital nomads in recent years. Thanks to the boom in remote working spurred by Covid-19, digital nomads have been flocking to the country. A new visa regime for digital nomads and appealing tax legislation have made the UAE the perfect place for those working only. What if the government expanded the newly redesigned visa program with a new option just for creators. 

The UAE has been focused on changing its visa structure to attract new economic interest in the country. The first new visa introduced was a “green visa,” which is open to highly skilled professionals and investors, entrepreneurs, and students. The second is a freelancer’s visa. Oxford Bussines Group highlights the need for this new visa.  Economic diversification, the group writes, “requires a rapid upskilling of local workers, as well as the development of local innovation ecosystems. In parallel, however, foreign expertise is needed in various sectors to ensure optimized growth.”

The best way to continue this diversification is to attract more innovative creators. These creatives are a critical building block of the knowledge economy of the future. The UAE is ideally placed for creators. The technology infrastructure is world-class, aviation links connect Dubai with virtually every corner of the world, and there is favorable tax legislation. The missing ingredient is the correct type of visa that worked with creators’ needs, and the country is already on the path to making this a reality.