The digital economy now accounts for 18% of the total U.S. GDP

Every four years, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) commissions a report to study the current state of the digital economy. The previous installment in that series measured employment and revenue data from 2020, and a lot has changed since then. As factors like the COVID-19 pandemic change the nature of work, Americans are shifting to internet-adjacent jobs in astonishing numbers.

The results included in the IAB’s latest Measuring the Digital Economy report show that the commercial internet of 2024 was far bigger than the equivalent ecosystem from four years prior. The number of internet-dependent jobs in the U.S. is up to 28.4 million, an increase of nearly 11 million positions since 2020. That spike has turned the digital economy into a significant subset of the U.S.’ total output; per the report, internet-dependent jobs now account for 18% of the total U.S. gross domestic product.

Much of that growth has flown through the creator economy. According to the IAB report, that segment now accounts for 1.5 million full-time equivalent jobs, which is an exponential increase over the 200,000 creator jobs listed in the 2020 report. Creator-centric employment is growing five times faster than the traditional media workforce, and there are now internet-dependent jobs in all 435 U.S. Congressional districts.

The advent of ecommerce has been a crucial factor informing that growth. Platforms like TikTok Live — which is projected to reach $77 billion in sales by 2027 — have helped individuals market and sell products directly from their homes.

“The rise of e-commerce, accelerated by the pandemic, has intersected with retailers seeking to diversify into high-margin opportunities and advertisers aiming to leverage advanced metrics like closed-loop reporting and incrementality to better target, attract, and personalize messaging for previously unreachable audiences,” reads the report. “This convergence has given rise to what is being called ‘commerce media.'”

Commerce media now accounts for 13% of total ad spend, per the IAB. As agencies move their budgets around, more earnings are going into influencers’ pockets. The report cites deals like Amazon’s Spotter investment and Publicis’ $500 million Influential acquisition as drivers of the booming creator economy.

Emerging technologies are also catalyzing the digital economy. Generative AI firms hauled in $3.6 billion of U.S. revenue in 2024, while blockchain and cryptocurrency management accounted for approximately $6 billion of U.S. revenue over the same timeframe. Podcasting also became a billion-dollar business in the U.S. in 2024.

The trends observed over successive Measuring the Digital Economy reports suggest that these numbers will continue to go up exponentially. Back in 2008, the IAB reported that digital sector employment accounted for about three million jobs. Over the next 16 years, that number increased more than nine times over. There’s only so much U.S. GDP to go around, but there’s nothing to stop internet-based commerce from eating up a bigger piece of that pie moving forward. I guess we’ll have to wait until 2028 to find out.