Later has passed a major creator economy milestone, with more than $300 million paid out to creators across its platform. The company says revenue has also more than doubled over the past two years, while growth over the last 12 months reached 50%.
The milestone arrives as Later continues pulling more of its creator marketing and affiliate commerce operations into one place. Mavely, the affiliate marketing platform Later acquired in 2025, is now being folded into the Later brand rather than continuing as a separate identity.
Later Creator Payouts Cross $300 Million
Later says cumulative creator payouts across its ecosystem have now exceeded $300 million. That figure gives the company a sizable milestone to point to as creator marketing becomes increasingly tied to measurable commerce rather than simple reach. Revenue has more than doubled over the past two years, while Later says it recorded 50% growth during the most recent 12-month period.
The number also shows how quickly creator commerce has been expanding within the company. Late in 2025, Later reported that creator payouts had passed $250 million. Reaching $300 million means another significant amount of earnings has moved through the platform in a relatively short period.
Creator Shopping Is Driving Bigger Transaction Volumes
Creator links are becoming a much bigger part of how consumers discover and purchase products online. Later says that during 2026, an average of 17 people clicked a creator’s shoppable link every second through its ecosystem.
That translates into more than 1.4 million clicks in a typical day, with roughly 86,000 purchases generated from those interactions. Affiliate link clicks are also up 73% year over year, according to the company.
Those numbers help explain why creator marketing platforms are paying more attention to commerce. A creator post is no longer just about getting attention or boosting brand awareness. Increasingly, brands expect that content to produce measurable sales as well.
Mavely Is Now Becoming Part of the Later Brand
Later is also retiring the standalone Mavely identity and bringing the affiliate platform under the Later brand. The company acquired Mavely in January 2025 as part of a broader move into creator-driven commerce and performance marketing.
Existing Mavely creators are not expected to lose their affiliate links, commissions or payout arrangements as part of the change. Later says those systems will continue operating while creators gain access to a wider range of tools and potential brand opportunities within the larger Later platform.
Bringing Mavely into Later also removes some of the separation between paid influencer campaigns and affiliate marketing. Creators can potentially earn through commissions while also being discovered for larger sponsored campaigns inside the same ecosystem.
Sales Performance Could Matter More Than Follower Counts
One of the more interesting parts of the integration is the way affiliate performance can be used to evaluate creators. Instead of relying mainly on follower numbers, engagement rates or audience size, brands can look at whether individual creators are actually producing clicks and purchases.
That could shift how smaller creators are valued. Someone with a modest following but consistently strong sales performance may become more attractive to marketers than a much larger account with weaker conversion numbers.
Later is also combining commerce information with its creator matching and predictive technology. The company says this helps marketers identify creators based on actual campaign and commerce performance rather than surface-level social metrics alone.
Later Reports 142% Growth in New Business
Later says new business increased 142% year over year during the second quarter of 2026. Creator campaign activations also increased 25%, while creator payouts during the period climbed 71% compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
The figures suggest more brands are increasing their investment in creator-led marketing while demanding clearer evidence that campaigns are delivering business results.
Creator campaigns can still be used for awareness, but brands increasingly want to understand what happens after someone watches a video, reads a recommendation or clicks a creator’s link. Platforms capable of showing that full journey are becoming more valuable.
Later Is Building a Bigger Creator Marketing Ecosystem
Later’s current structure is the result of several years of consolidation. Mavrck acquired Later in 2022, bringing influencer marketing technology together with Later’s established social media management tools. The companies later unified under the Later brand.
The acquisition of Mavely added another piece to that strategy by bringing affiliate commerce into the same business. With Mavely now operating under the Later name, the company is positioning itself as a platform capable of covering creator discovery, campaigns, affiliate sales and measurement.
Later says its wider creator index includes around 28 million creators. The company also draws on billions of social interactions and billions of dollars in influencer-driven purchases to support its technology and campaign tools.
Creators Could Gain More Access to Brand Campaigns
For creators already using Mavely, the rebrand could eventually mean access to more than affiliate income. Later says creators will have greater exposure to its enterprise brand network and may also be able to browse and apply for additional paid campaign opportunities.
That could make affiliate history more useful beyond commissions. A creator who can show that they repeatedly drive purchases may have a stronger case when applying for sponsored work.
Instead of relying entirely on follower numbers, media kits or previous brand collaborations, creators could increasingly use real conversion performance as proof of their commercial value.
Creator Marketing Is Becoming More Like Performance Marketing
Later’s $300 million creator payout milestone says something larger about the direction of the industry. Creator marketing is moving closer to traditional performance marketing, where clicks, conversions and revenue matter almost as much as visibility.
Brands still care about reach, cultural relevance and audience engagement. Those metrics are not disappearing. What is changing is the expectation that creators should also be able to influence purchasing behavior.
Creators who can prove that influence may have an advantage as the market becomes more competitive. Later’s decision to combine Mavely with its wider platform reflects that shift. Affiliate commerce and influencer marketing are no longer separate corners of the creator economy. They are quickly becoming parts of the same system.
Sources
PR Newswire — Later Surpasses $300 Million in Creator Payouts as Revenue More Than Doubles in Two Years
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/later-surpasses-300-million-in-creator-payouts-as-revenue-more-than-doubles-in-two-years-302866533.html
Later — Mavely Is Now Later
https://later.com/blog/mavely-is-now-later/
Later — $2.4B GMV and $250M in Creator Payouts
https://later.com/blog/later-hits-2-4b-gmv-milestone-250m-in-creator-payouts/
