Profession: Influencer: Over 25,000 Italian Companies Focus on Digital Content
11.02.2026
In Italy, there are over 25,000 companies born around the creation of digital content (YouTubers, TikTokers, influencers, streamers, video makers), entities that have turned online creativity and skills into real economic activities: this is highlighted by the first research on the topic conducted by InfoCamere with the University of Padua. Between 2015 and 2024, the number of these companies grew by +185%, from about 9,000 to over 25,000: primarily driven by "core" businesses related to audiovisual production, digital marketing, and online platforms (+206%), while "hybrid" ones integrating content creation in sectors such as fashion, tourism, fitness, and consulting more than doubled (+155%). The turning point came in the 2020-2021 biennium, when the pandemic accelerated demand and opportunities related to online communication, initiating growth that has continued since.
"This research demonstrates how the Business Register is now much more than an administrative archive: it is a real-time observatory of emerging economic phenomena," says Paolo Ghezzi, General Manager of InfoCamere. "The ability to intercept, analyze, and reflect these transformations is crucial to understand where the Italian production system is heading. Digital Content Creators represent a new entrepreneurial frontier born from skills, creativity, and digital networks, rather than traditional capital. Identifying and narrating their stories means offering concrete tools to institutions, policymakers, and businesses to guide strategic choices and support innovation."
"Digital literacy," says Paolo Gubitta of the University of Padua, coordinator of the research, "is a lever of inclusion, capable of redistributing opportunities and promoting active participation in the labor market. It is a phenomenon of productive democratization, replacing economic capital with competence and network capital. In this scenario, companies born in the digital content creation sector mark the transition from user competence to the ability to do business in the digital realm. It is a phenomenon that expresses a new form of widespread entrepreneurship, where technological competence is both an operational tool and an identity factor."
To identify these companies, the study analyzed the Business Register using text mining techniques, searching for keywords like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, content creator, and related terms, bringing to light a sector previously little visible in statistics. The territorial distribution is surprisingly balanced: North West 30.2% (7,681), Center 26.9% (6,834), South and Islands 27.9% (7,103), North East 15.0% (3,811); Milan is the national hub with over 3,800 companies (about 15% of the total), but regions like Puglia, Sicily, and Campania are also growing.
The sector is young and fragmented: over 80% of the companies are less than 10 years old, administrators have a median age of 48-49 years (about 6 years less than the national average), there is a slightly higher share of women administrators in hybrids (27.6% compared to 26.3% of the control sample), and 93% are micro and small enterprises with up to 9 employees, although many are evolving towards more organized structures with collaborators and more defined business models.
