QYOU Media turns profitable as Chtrbox IPO and creator focus power 44% Q3 growth

New Delhi: QYOU Media’s Q3 2025 numbers have done more than just turn its P&L black for the first time.

They have also underlined how deeply the company, and its India arm Chtrbox, is now wired into the global creator economy and influencer marketing business.

In its latest earnings call, QYOU Media reported its highest-ever quarterly revenue of over USD 9.6 million, up 44% year-on-year, driven entirely by its creator and influencer businesses after exiting loss-making channel and gaming units.

The company also posted its first net profit, a little over USD 738,000 for the quarter.

Co-founder and CEO Curt Marvis told investors, “As many of you are aware, when we stopped having some of our other businesses, including our channel business, gaming business, etc., that were contributing revenue to the overall business but also contributing massive losses that we were facing, we cut that out, and now we only report what’s happening with the two businesses that we’re focused on, which is all around what’s become known as the creator economy or influencer marketing. Both Chatterbox, which has had its successful IPO in India on October 3, and Raj will talk a bit more about Chatterbox in a bit.”

At the centre of the India story is Chtrbox , QYOU’s influencer marketing arm, which completed a successful IPO on October 3, 2025 and is now listed on the BSE. Management described it as the first influencer marketing company in India to go public, a milestone that has significantly raised its visibility with both brands and investors.

Raj Mishra (who leads India and Chtrbox) said the listing has “built a momentum in the country which is here to stay”, adding that the IPO has sparked “euphoric value about the company” and triggered more inbound interest in its capabilities and tech stack from across the region.

He pointed out that the global creator economy could be worth around USD 500 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 20–25%, and that Chtrbox and QYOU are still “a drop in the ocean” in terms of potential.

“For us, 2026 is all about three North Star pillars – scale, profitability and tech,” he said, outlining plans to grow wallet share with brands, strengthen margins and ramp up technology infrastructure to keep pace with demand for data-led influencer marketing.

Post-IPO, Chtrbox is already seeing the halo effect in the market. Mishra told shareholders that the listing has attracted “bigger mandates,” more top-tier creators, including ex-TikTok stars and large YouTubers, and deeper wallet share from existing clients.

“We’ve seen creators who are top-heavy creators… reach out to us that they want to be part of our ecosystem. We’ve bought into more wallet share of brands. The momentum is really real.” he said, adding that the team is “here for the win” as it chases the next phase of growth.

The company also highlighted strong interest from institutional and QIB investors in India, which has helped validate its long-term creator economy play and set expectations for more aggressive scaling in 2026 and beyond.

On the global side, Marvis framed the Q3 performance as proof that a pure-play creator and influencer strategy can be both scalable and profitable as social platforms become central to brand marketing.

He cited industry estimates that put creator economy growth at roughly 25–35% annually, and pointed to Unilever’s decision to allocate up to 50% of its 2025 brand marketing spend to social media platforms as evidence of how mainstream creator-led marketing has become. Unilever is one of QYOU’s and Chtrbox’s clients in India.

“What that translates into is that brands and advertisers that want to reach audiences at scale must use these platforms to reach their target customers,” Marvis said.

He stressed that the decision to focus the company entirely on creator and influencer work, and to shut down legacy TV and gaming businesses is now being validated by both revenue growth and the first net profit in the company’s history.

Beyond pure campaign volume, QYOU is betting heavily on technology and data to differentiate its creator offering.

The company has teams in India and the US working on new tech capabilities that will give brands deeper measurement, audience insights and performance tracking across campaigns, something Marvis described as “very much a data-driven industry and a data-driven business.”

Because influencer campaigns run on platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, he noted, QYOU can see exactly “what has been shared, what the demographic is… what they’re doing with the content”, which, in turn, is a “huge advantage” for partners. 

The plan is to unveil more on the tech roadmap before the end of 2025 or early in 2026, along with expansion into additional markets.

A key agenda item for 2026 is deeper integration between QYOU’s North American business and Chtrbox in India, both on technology and on client delivery.

The two teams already run joint cross-border campaigns and speak “once or sometimes twice a day” to operate increasingly as one company, with more formal integration of performance, tech and client strategies lined up.

While India and North America remain core, QYOU and Chtrbox are preparing to expand into a set of “focused markets” where creator ecosystems are already strong.

In response to investor questions on new offices, management pointed to the Middle East, Indonesia, South Asia and other emerging markets as key priorities, but stressed that expansion will remain tactical and financially disciplined rather than a “throw a bunch of money up in the air” land-grab.

Mishra said the goal is to build profit centres in high-potential regions with large creator diasporas, and confirmed that the company is “already setting up shop in a couple of these emerging markets”, with announcements expected soon.

For most new territories, the go-to-market will lean on the Chtrbox brand rather than QYOU, given India’s cost structure advantages and its status as the world’s largest social media user base outside China, especially on YouTube and Instagram.

For the broader creator economy and influencer marketing ecosystem, QYOU’s Q3 numbers and Chtrbox’s BSE listing mark an important moment.

The company has become one of the first pure-play creator outfits globally, and the first in India, to show that an influencer-led business can deliver both high double-digit revenue growth and net profitability at scale, off the back of real campaigns and long-term brand relationships rather than hype alone.

For Indian creators and marketers, Chtrbox’s public market journey also pushes the sector into a more institutional phase, with listed equity, quarterly reporting and global investors now plugged into the story.

If QYOU and Chtrbox can sustain their growth, tech build-out and disciplined expansion into new creator hotspots, their Q3 “inflection point” could end up being remembered as a marker of when India’s influencer marketing business moved from hustle to mature, globally benchmarked scale.