“A fair and data-driven assessment.”

In today’s world, the glamour and influence of digital socials and social media influencers is unparalleled. They have become an integral part of lives and day-to-day decisions, whether it involves purchasing a bag, buying a gadget or booking destination itineraries.

Recognizing this, Forbes India and Goat have united to meticulously compile together a prestigious and unforgettable list of India’s top 100 digital stars, with Kunal Sawant as the host.

The second edition of this list keeps both qualitative and quantitative measures in mind and spans across nine categories: comedy, beauty, fashion & lifestyle, business & finance, health & fitness, food, tech, travel & photography, and social work. Their focus encompassed Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, the primary platforms for influencer marketing. They also took into account key metrics, such as followers, engagement, views, reach, and impressions to rank influencers. Their emphasis also remains singularly on original content creators.

How did they do it?
To compile the list, Forbes India and Goat initiated a multi-step process. This is how they went about it:
  • First, they identified the top creators within nine specific genres, yielding a pool of creators.
  • From this group, they curated the top 100 based on an assessment of several metrics (reach, engagement, impressions, authenticity, follower count, trending score, etc). Thus, they identified and ranked top influencers in India across various genres.
  • These metrics were then fed into our proprietary algorithm, known as the Goat score, which compares similar creators based on engagement. The highest performing content receives a score of 10, while the lowest is 1.
  • They also used tactics to combat fraud, avoid imposters, and factor in the presence of disclosure labels or compliance.

Finally, Forbes India and Goat reached the full list of the Top 100 digital stars of India. Some of the top names included Dharna Durga, Apoorva Mukhija, Raj Grover, Siddarth Batra, and Rakesh Kumar, among others.

 

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These influencers are not just noteworthy for the influence and impact they have managed to gain in a highly competitive economy, but also for their contribution to the massively expanding influencer market in India, which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25 percent to reach Rs2,800 crore by 2026.

The full list of digital stars can be viewed here.