The business of creating online content for profit has exploded in recent years, but the creators and influencers often wait weeks or months to get paid for their work, thanks to the lack of streamlined connections in so-called social commerce.
Visa hopes to close some of those gaps by launching the Visa Ready Creator Commerce program, which enables various digital payments platforms to embed financial tools that can route payments to creators in real time.
With this move, Visa hopes to play a key role in expanding social commerce, a market it expects will reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, with at least 50 million people already working full time or part time as creators of video, music and gaming content, the company said in a news release Thursday.
A handful of platforms that support creators, including Linktree, Marqeta, Rutter and SamCart, will be the initial participants in the program, according to the release. The platforms will work with Visa to create connections between payers and creators who could receive instant payouts through Visa Direct, according to Vanessa Colella, senior vice president and global head of innovation and digital partnerships at Visa.
"The Visa Ready Creator Commerce program will operate as a general contractor for creators, enabling them to get paid faster and more securely by creator platforms," Colella said in an interview.
As part of the program, Visa is also creating pathways for creator platforms to use Visa tokens to provide customers with secure checkout, with the option to launch card programs, she said.
"Not many years ago the creator economy didn't exist, but as it expands people need the same set of payments options, including speed and security, that are available for other kinds of products," she said.
"With this program we want to get really close to a fast-growing community to be part of its growth and future needs," she said.
Dozens of other companies are already working to create more direct connections between buyers and sellers of online products and services.
"Embedded finance and payment links are crucial as the retail industry shifts to new, digitally driven platforms," said Thomas Kasemir, chief product officer at Productsup, a German company that helps manufacturers sell products online through social commerce.
