This creator spent $1.4 million on 'clippers' in just over a month to try to get his content in your feed

• Livestreamer N3on pays an army of "clippers" to post snippets of his content on social media.
• Clipping is one of his top expenses: He paid out over $1.4 million in a recent five-week period.
• The clipping economy can expand a streamer's audience and also incentivize inflammatory content.

You may have never tuned into N3on's livestream. Thanks to "clipping," he might have popped up in your social feeds anyway.

The top-10 Kick streamer, 21, belongs to a group of livestreamers who have gained mainstream attention in recent months thanks to clipping, where people are paid to post grabby moments from longer videos or podcasts on social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

An hourslong stream might only get 40,000 live viewers, but a successful clip can fetch millions of views, helping a streamer land partnerships with brands and celebrities.

Streamers like N3on have helped create an elite class of professional clippers who command high prices. Clipping is one of N3on's largest expenses. In a recent five-week period, he paid out over $1.4 million to 303 clippers, according to a document his team shared. In any given month, he estimated that he's paying at least one clipper upward of $100,000.

"I feel like my life is clipping now," he said.

N3on, whose real name is Mikyle Rafiq, said he has a network of around 1,000 clippers. About half belong to a group he and fellow streamer Adin Ross built. The rest are paid by Kick.

Other top creators also have clippers who post on their behalf. YouTuber MrBeast has his own clipping platform, Vyro, that helps promote his content.

Rates for clippers can vary depending on factors such as a streamer's level of fame. Rafiq pays clippers on the higher end of the market for a big Kick streamer — $40 per 100,000 views, or $50 if he especially wants to incentivize them.

Clipping has its defenders and critics

Clipping can help a creator reach a wider audience that might not be watching their livestream or podcast — and get them into the center of internet discourse.

On the other hand, the clipping economy can incentivize creators to create inflammatory moments and stretch the truth.

"A lot of it is staged," said Mustafa Aijaz, VP at SoaR Gaming, a digital entertainment company and creative agency. "Audiences will call it out as clip farming. But people will still watch it."

Rafiq, who's been trying to reform his negative public image, said he used to do "crazy stuff" and even paid clippers to post bad PR about him to keep his name relevant.

He said sometimes eye-catching clips can come from subpar streams.

One of his most-viewed clips came from a stream he and former rapper Iggy Azalea did from a yacht that ran into technical problems and was barely seen.

"The clippers made it seem like it was this insane, crazy stream," Rafiq said. "No one actually watched the stream. They just saw the clips, and they're like, 'Wow, N3on and Iggy had a great time on this yacht.'"