The Business of Influence: Celebrating the people who make the magic happen in Social Ketchup’s Anniversary Edition 2025!

When we published our first edition of Social Ketchup in 2020, the world was only just beginning to understand the term “creator" and what this new wave of storytellers stood for. Creators were just learning to turn passions into professions; brands were figuring out how to collaborate with them; people were still asking if this was a real career, and the algorithms we now know so well were still unpredictable experiments.

Five years later, creators are no longer a side story: they are the story. They drive conversations, shape consumer behavior, set trends, make us laugh, teach us, and occasionally make us question everything we thought we knew about culture and communication. They have influenced not just what we buy, but how we think, talk, and connect.

This 5th Anniversary Edition is our ode to that journey - to the chaos, the hustle, and the brilliance that have built India’s creator economy. The Business of Influence looks at how this once unstructured space became one of the most dynamic industries today. We have turned the lens toward the people who made it possible, from talent managers and business heads who build sustainable systems to the new wave of creators redefining what influence looks like.

But for me, this issue is also personal. Over these five years and countless cover shoots, I have seen what the world doesn’t: the chaos before the camera clicks, the laughter between takes, the joy of your vision come alive. They are not just “influencers”; they are artists of attention.

I would like to take this moment and thank everyone who’s been part of our journey: the creators who opened up their worlds to us, the brands who believed in this ecosystem, the agencies who built its backbone, and our readers who have been with us since the very first scroll. Thank you for making Social Ketchup more than a magazine. You’ve made it a community that documents the culture of today.

Most importantly, this edition reads like what Social Ketchup has always tried to be: a mirror to the times, and a celebration of the people shaping them.

Here’s to the storytellers, the dreamers, and the doers and to the next five years of stories worth scrolling, sharing, and saving.

XOXO
Mrinil Mathur Rajwani

Editor-in-Chief, Social Ketchup

Browse through this edition by clicking here.