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Some Filipinos earn up to $3,000 a month as creator economy thrives on Kumu

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Jessica Fenol, ABS-CBN News

<p>MANILA - Kumu has offered Filipino content creators a venue to showcase their talents, earn a living and combat depression during the COVID-19 pandemic when majority of the world was in isolation, its founder James Rumohr said on Thursday.</p><p>The 4-year old livestreaming app, which started as a messaging platform, gave content creators a venue to share their art and talents while allowing the audience and supporters to send virtual gifts that translate to earnings.</p><p>In Kumu&#x27;s thriving &quot;creator economy, some 1,700 creators are &quot;financially sustainable&quot; earning about P20,000 a month while some earn as much as $3,000 (P176,801), Rumohr said during the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines&#x27; (IMMAP) Digicon Valley 2022.</p><p>&quot;In the time where some Filipinos don’t have certain job opportunities because of the pandemic, people found Kumu to be a place where they can actually find some success and get some income generating pathways because of livestreaming,&quot; Rumohr said.</p><p>&quot;Same thing for numerous cases and in which I experienced many users who are going through depression found Kumu and was able to build a community online during the time where people were isolated,&quot; he added.</p><p>Supporters, fans and the Filipino&#x27;s &quot;remittance culture&quot; have fueled virtual gifting on the app, Rumohr said, adding that Filipino creators and their audience are found globally.</p><p>&quot;We champion the voices of Filipino artists and creators... you don&#x27;t have to be the best singing star but if you have a community, it&#x27;s a known fact on Kumu that if you have a community you&#x27;re able to make some good amount of money on the app for folks that really dig your art,&quot; he said. </p><p>&quot;There&#x27;s a remittance culture….so to virtually gift somebody who&#x27;s doing a great job digging you or possibly raising funds for something it&#x27;s actually cool that you can see that happening on our app every single day and the use of virtual gifts is how they get the monetization,&quot; he added.</p><p>Rumohr said there were about 6.5 million hours of livestreams watched every month. Kumu has also been partnering with brands, personalities and TV networks, among others, to widen its reach and enhance collaborations on the platform.</p><p>To reman relevant, Rumohr said Kumu is focusing on championing Filipino voice and the culture globally while also working on innovation, growing the community and highlighting the &quot;social&quot; in social media. </p><p>Celebrities, athletes, educators and many others have turned to live streaming on various platforms to reach their audience and monetize their content through different platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/life/09/16/22/filipino-comics-titles-find-home-in-kumu-powered-app">Filipino comics titles find home in Kumu-powered app</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/09/08/22/streaming-app-kumu-celebrates-4th-anniversary">Streaming app Kumu celebrates 4th anniversary</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/07/27/22/vice-ganda-set-to-host-first-livestream-show-on-kumu">Vice Ganda set to host first livestream show on Kumu</a></li></ul><div><strong> RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1754220" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Kumu has offered Filipino content creators a venue to showcase their talents, earn a living and combat depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some Filipinos earn up to $3,000 a month as creator economy thrives on Kumu

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Some Filipinos earn up to $3,000 a month as creator economy thrives on Kumu

Jessica Fenol,

ABS-CBN News

Published October 13, 2022 03:48 PM PHT

Read More:

Kumu

live streaming

pandemic

content creator

virtual gifting

remittances

app

messaging app

social media

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