Stars in social media: new light through old windows?

Abstract

We review the economics of superstars, originally developed for stars in traditional media, and discuss whether they are applicable for the novel phenomenon of stars in social media (influencer, micro-celebrities). Moreover, we analyse potentially new factors for creating social media superstardom. Our overall result is that the economics of superstars remain applicable and relevant for social media stars. In line with this assessment, we find that several (allegedly) new star factors in social media, like disappearance of gatekeepers and authenticity, turn out to be just slightly different to traditional concepts. However, algorithm management and upload strategies represent novel success factors relevant for social media superstardom that are not captured by traditional superstar theories.