[Source: Reuters]

Kim Kardashian knows how to milk free publicity. The reality-star-cum-influencer has used the likes of Instagram to help flog shapewear from her company Skims, among other things, and she isn’t alone.

The photo-sharing network has more than 10 million influencers tapping into a $21 billion marketing economy, according to McKinsey.

In 2024, social media firms grappling with slowing growth will want a cut of these side hustles.

They’ll negotiate by revoking stars’ privileges.

Kardashian, who clocks more than 360 million followers on Instagram, capitalized on her fame to co-launch private equity firm SKKY Partners in 2023.

It’s not her first investing foray, having launched Skims, worth $4 billion, in 2019. Other influencers are also generating value that Instagram parent Meta Platforms (META.O) and its peers don’t get to touch.

Though starting from a low base, payments made directly to individual online stars have grown more quickly than advertising revenue at Instagram, Facebook, Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O) YouTube and Snap (SNAP.N), according to market research outfit Insider Intelligence.

The platforms have reason to want a piece.

Though it’s recovered from 2022’s complete stall, Meta’s ad revenue is projected to grow at half the rate it was in the years prior, analysts polled by LSEG reckon.

Snap is going through its own slowdown.