The provenance of the word creator is actually much more arbitrary than it might seem. Back in 2011, most top YouTube stars worked with two early multichannel networks (MCNs), Maker Studios and Next New Networks. These MCNs produced original content and acted like Hollywood producers, scouting YouTubers with potential and helping them distribute and monetize their videos.

Next New Networks in particular was an expert at making things go viral, before the concept of virality even went mainstream. Two of the most watched videos on YouTube in 2010 were from Next New Networks’ video talent: “Bed Intruder Song,” by the Gregory Brothers, and a Kesha parody video from a show called The Key of Awesome.

Seeking to bring some of Next New Networks’ secret sauce in-house, YouTube bought the company in 2011. The platform kept the founders of Next New Networks on staff, along with most of the company’s team, and created a new division within YouTube called YouTube Next. The purpose of this group was to “give certain partners access to a team of experts that can hopefully help them produce better content,” TechCrunch reported at the time.

YouTube had already launched its Partner Grants program in 2010, which gave 15,000 promising power users the option to receive an advance on future ad revenue, which they could then invest back into creating higher-quality videos. The number of partners making more than $1,000 a month shot up 300 percent in 2010. “We now have hundreds of partners making six figures a year,” the company announced via a blog post early the following year. “But frankly, ‘hundreds’ making a living on YouTube isn’t enough and in 2011 we know we can and should do more to help our partners grow.”

But if these “partners” were to become an integral part of YouTube, they needed a better name. And no one wanted to be called a “YouTube star.”

“These people were more than onscreen talent,” says Tim Shey, the co-founder of Next New Networks, who was by then working at YouTube. “They could write, edit, produce, do community management, and were entrepreneurs.” YouTube partners also had varied origin stories. Some had migrated from Hollywood, but many were native to the platform. The company needed a term for these people that was wide enough to encompass their many roles and backgrounds, but still unique enough to differentiate them from traditional Hollywood talent.

Before it was acquired, Next New Networks had developed a program that helped independent YouTube stars grow their audience and monetize. It was called the Next New Creators program. “I think I was the first to use the term creator,” Shey says. “Next New Creators was our way of branding that sort of group of people.”

When Shey and his co-founders joined YouTube in 2011, the language stuck. YouTube partners became known as creators, and the company quickly proceeded to build an entire infrastructure around them. YouTube opened a slew of creator hubs, studios where YouTubers could collaborate and produce content, in places such as London and Tokyo. The company began referring to partners as creators in press releases, and Shey and the former Next New Networks team founded what would eventually become YouTube’s Creator Academy, a program that helps train users to become professional YouTubers.