‘Top dog’ Tucker Budzyn’s passing exposes the creator economy’s fragile foundation

When 8-year-old Tucker Budzyn passed away last week, he had no clue that he was arguably the most famous dog on the internet. Millions of his fans, from India to Indiana and from Finland to Thailand, poured their heart out in anguish over his sudden death, putting up memorial posts across social media and rewatching his videos on loop.

Tucker was also a tycoon. Nearly 3 crore people around the world followed his accounts across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X, earning his pet parents in Michigan, USA, anywhere from an equivalent of ₹9 crore to even above ₹25 crore per year, as per estimates.

But when this lovable golden retriever suddenly passed away due to cancer complications in the first week of September, it not only led to collective mourning in a corner of the internet that adores cute cat and dog videos (isn’t that all of us?), it also raised a pesky question that has been nagging influencers and creators for a while now—sustaining a booming business model when it is based on what is inherently a feature that has a short shelf-life.

It is not just about cats and dogs, but a flaw at the heart of the internet’s creator economy. We’re talking about a business worth around ₹23 lakh crore worldwide, including influencer marketing, creator revenue and advertising spends. Globally, as many as 20 crore people identify themselves as creators or influencers, catering to a seemingly addicted market of more than 400 crore social media users (that’s half of the world’s population!).

Now, see what works on these platforms that lets these creators rake in the moolah—health, fitness and wellness top the list, closely followed by beauty care as well as fashion. Coming next? Personal finance, gaming and esports, AI and technology, food & travel, parenting and self-improvement.

On the face of it, these are all about imparting information, a sort of journalism for the internet age, but it doesn’t take much digging deep to figure out one of the principal fundas of wiring the internet game—pleasing visuals.

When was the last time you saw something physically or visually ugly influencer on the internet?

The subjects themselves hide within them a ticking time-bomb: that testosterone-filled young man with washboard abs and muscles that ripple faster than Reels transitions, or that girl with the curls, curves and flawless skin doling out beauty advice, the size zero (or whereabouts) fashionista who fits into all the designer outfits straight off the rack before you can scream ‘bulimia’. There’s a pattern here, well evident: visual aesthetics.

But then, there is still no AI filter that can delay ageing.

Or, as Tucker’s case shows, it’s the cute, goofy dog or cat that earns dollops for you. But his dog years are ‘counted’, sometimes, way too soon. For example, Tucker’s pet parent Courtney was a house cleaner before Tucker went viral on Instagram, leading to her quitting her job to take up managing his social media handles as a full-time job. The Budzyns soon shifted into a bigger mansion complete with a backyard and swimming pool.

Being a sunrise industry, these are issues the creator economy is just about coming to cope with. And creators are devising intricate modes to cope with it. A classic example lies closer to home, with viral podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia. There is a reason why his ID is ‘Beer Biceps’: Allahabadia started off posting fitness clips online before he pivoted, wisely so, into motivational advice and eventually, a multi-genre long-form podcasting format.

But how many can? Especially when fitness and beauty creators grow older, or even worse, their followers grow older and move away? Some pivot away into other topics, while others stick on but change their format from focusing on themselves to an educational narrative or launching their own spin-offs.

With pet accounts having the shortest shelf-life—dogs and cats average around 10 years of lifespan, and considering the time it takes to build up an account to the ‘winding down’ (later years when the endorsement tie-ups start dwindling), they get barely 5 years on average when the sun shines on their bank balance. Some have tried to milk their virality by maintaining the page as a sort of memorial, while many have tried to bring other pets into the fold and maintain the same account (though some influencers have faced backlash from angry fans for this).

In some rare cases, the owner themselves stepped into the spotlight and pivoted the account into other subjects, like pet rescue, mental health awareness, or those that appeal to children—Jonathan Graziano of ‘Noodle the Pug’ fame did exactly this by becoming a children’s book author.

For Tucker’s parents, it’s a matter of millions of dollars and their livelihood at stake, and it will be interesting to watch which strategy they will go for. They did bring Tucker’s son Todd into the household and had started off a page for him also, but at 4.5 lakh followers on Instagram, the son’s following is a sliver of what his famous father managed.

There is also the already-announced book ‘written by’ Tucker slated for a November launch, so the tills could continue to ring even after the Golden’s passing. But will he continue to be a golden goose long after is the existential question the Budzyns will have to face up to. As well as many in the creator community, sooner or later.