When over 5,000 content creators gather in Dubai this January for the third annual 1 Billion Followers Summit, they’ll see one creator receive a million-dollar award for making content that makes a difference.
The inaugural One Billion Award “recognizes those who leave a lasting legacy of positive change, shaping future generations, influencing minds, connecting communities, and fostering compassion and empathy,” New Media Academy, the United Arab Emirates-based organizer behind 1 Billion Followers Summit, tells Tubefilter.
The award will deliver $1 million to a single creator whose content fits the 2025 summit’s theme: “Content for Good.”
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
Submissions for the award are now open here, and close Nov. 30. Creators can submit themselves or be nominated by third parties like viewers–but either way, the person nominating the creator will have to share details about the nominee’s projects and how they’ve contributed positively to their communities, with “informative content, caring values and messages of social good,” New Media Academy says.
There are countless creators who’d fit the bill for an award like this. Charity is a core part of the creator industry, and for nearly 20 years now, YouTubers, Twitch streamers, TikTokers, and more have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for thousands of causes. Some organizations, like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, have even been able to hinge significant chunks of their annual fundraising goals on creators’ efforts.
For a recent example, look to Twitch‘s top female streamer, Ironmouse, whose monthlong subathon just raised an estimated $561,750 for the Immune Deficiency Foundation (and broke a Twitch record in the process).
Like 1 Billion Followers Summit, the One Billion Award is a move by Dubai to make itself a more prominent part of the creator economy.
“The launch of this largest global award for excellence in content creation embodies the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, for establishing the UAE as a hub for innovative and impactful content creation,” Mohammad Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, said in a statement.
He added that the One Billion Award also “serves as an inspiring platform for a generation of new voices and reinforces the potential for positive and meaningful change those voices embody, promoting a culture of giving, compassion and communication without borders or boundaries. It also underlines the opportunity young people today have to shape their own future prosperity through creating powerful and relatable narratives.”
The award winner will be announced during the closing ceremony of the 1 Billion Followers Summit, which runs Jan. 11-13 at the Museum of the Future in the Emirates Towers. Winner selection is part panel and part public: first, a group of judges will select 10 finalists, and then a public vote will select the ultimate winner from among those 10.
Whoever wins, New Media Academy says, will be recognized as a force for good with “the world’s largest and most valuable award for content creators.”
Tickets for 1 Billion Followers Summit are available here. Attendees can purchase individual programming tracks, get an all-tracks pass, or go VIP and get access to all tracks plus exclusive networking events.
1 Billion Followers Summit is a Tubefilter partner.
