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YourStory, in partnership with homegrown social commerce platform Trell, is proud to bring you the Top 100 Creators challenge, an initiative to identify the top 100 creators and digital media influencers who create extraordinary, unique and engaging content across various categories with a focus on celebrating and accelerating their journey as content-preneurs.

This challenge – which is part of YourStory’s Creators Inc. franchise to celebrate the creator economy and usher in a new wave of entrepreneurship – invites applications from both established and emerging creators and influencers who are creating content in various languages, including English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and Marathi, among others.

The selected list of Top 100 Creators will be unveiled during a special awards ceremony to also felicitate emerging content creators with the Emerging Creators Awards. The Top 100 Creators and The Emerging Creators awards will spotlight and celebrate the top and budding creators who hold promise based on the content they create in various languages and categories on different platforms, leveraging creativity, branding and storytelling skills to influence and drive impact.

“The content creators of today, who are in effect micro-entrepreneurs, operate much like lean startups in their own right. So at YourStory, where we celebrate entrepreneurship in all its forms, I’m excited that we’re all set to usher in this new wave of entrepreneurship and serve as a launchpad for the creators and influencers of tomorrow,” said Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO, YourStory.

Over the last 18 months, the number of creators have surged to over 50 million across global social media platforms, as well as homegrown ones such as Trell, Moj, Josh, MXTakatak, and others. With the burgeoning creator economy expected to be fueled by a community of over 100 million creators in the next five years, the space continues to remain closely tracked by the investor community and ecosystem stakeholders.

“The creator economy in India has seen a massive boost in recent times. The year 2022 will be a defining moment for the creator ecosystem, and we are excited to be at the forefront of developing initiatives that promote this growth. YourStory and Trell’s #Top100Creators initiative will celebrate the #Top100CreatorsOfIndia across various categories, formats, platforms, and languages, with the view to fostering the creator economy and inspiring a whole generation of creator-preneurs,” said Pulkit Agrawal, CEO and Co-founder of Trell, India’s largest social commerce platform that enables content creators to make a sustainable source of income and turn their passion into a full-time profession.

Trell, which currently has over 60 million monthly active users and over 18 million creators on its platform, enables its users to share content in lifestyle categories such as fashion, technology and gadgets, and personal care, among others, in around 12 different Indic languages.

Top 100 Creators: why apply

The shortlisted #Top100Creators will get: 

• Media visibility with feature coverage on the YourStory platform highlighting their journey to becoming an influencer
• Dedicated influencer page in the YourStory profile section
• YourStory Connect feature enabled on dedicated influencer page to foster direct connections 
• Brand presence and ranking in a dedicated digital page for Top 100 Creators
• Mention in the special report on Top 100 Creators
• An opportunity to showcase their content before a targeted audience looking for monetisation-oriented partnerships/collaborations
• One-on-one meetings, ecosystem connections, and partnership as well as fundraising opportunities 
• Masterclasses and workshops on content creation, monetisation, audience engagement and entrepreneurship/business skills

Top 100 Creators: application process

The application process for the Top 100 Creators will take place in two stages. 

Stage 1 will involve the following steps:

1. Filling up a detailed form with creators details. Apply for #Top100Creators before Jan 31, 2022.
2. Upload two of your most popular content – any past or existing content created by you in a language of your choice – on Trell, one of which should be in the category of your specialisation.

Deadline for application submission for Stage 1: Jan 31, 2022

Post the Stage 1 judging process, a select group of creators will be shortlisted for Stage 2. Shortlisted Stage 2 applicants will be required to create one original video on the Trell app on a category/topic of their choice, post which they will be required to fill in the Stage 2 form with the details about the video uploaded. 

The final selected list of Top 100 Creators, as well as the Emerging Creators Awardees, will be unveiled during a special awards ceremony in March 2022.

At a two-day hybrid event on February 11-12, 2022, YourStory’s Creators Inc. Conference will celebrate and spotlight content creators from across industries and different geographies as they rewrite the very definitions of entrepreneurship, entertainment, experience, and education and fuel the growth of the global creator economy, which is now worth over $100 billion. To register for the Creators Inc Conference, click here.