Dubai: At the 1 Billion Followers Summit, Khalid Al Ameri makes the case against chasing followers

Dubai: Would you rather have a million followers or only a million followers?

That was the question Emirati content creator Khalid Al Ameri posed to a packed hall during the opening session of the 1 Billion Followers Summit 2026. The audience was split almost evenly. Al Ameri, who commands millions of followers across platforms, was unequivocal in his answer.

A smaller, deeply engaged audience, he argued, is far more valuable than a massive following that exists only on screens.

“Sometimes there are creators with millions of followers,” Al Ameri told the crowd, “but when they host a meet-and-greet or try to sell a product or a book, no one really shows up. And you have to ask - why?”

Al Ameri pointed to a common disconnect in the creator economy: inflated follower counts that don’t translate into real-world trust, action or support.

“If you have 1,000 strong, interactive followers who support you beyond social media with their time, their attention and their money — that’s more lucrative,” he said. “You don’t want to be the type of creator people just scroll past.”

That philosophy, he explained, lies at the heart of the 1 Billion Followers Summit, now in its fourth edition. Despite its name, the world’s largest gathering focused on the creator economy is not about going viral or amassing followers. Its central message this year was impact — content that has purpose, meaning and consequences beyond the algorithm.

Virality, Al Ameri reminded the audience, is easy and often empty.

“Anyone sitting in this crowd could go viral,” he said. “I could go viral right now. If I came up here in my pyjamas or my underwear and started dancing, and you all recorded it, I’m sure that would get a million views.”

There was laughter in the room, followed by a pause.

“But I’m also very sure I wouldn’t be invited back next year,” he added. “So what kind of virality do you want?”

He warned against content that spreads quickly but leaves behind no substance and, in some cases, a damaging digital footprint.

“You’re going viral, but no one wants to work with you. No one wants to associate with you,” he said. “So again, what is the type of virality that you want?”

Algorithms can be gamed. Trends can be copied. Formats can be replicated. Impact, Al Ameri said, cannot.

“If virality were a formula, the one thing that can’t be hacked is impact,” he told the audience. “The impact of the work that you do that cannot be hacked.”

To illustrate the point, he recalled a campaign he worked on with Noon. In the video, families expecting food deliveries were instead surprised with reunions with loved ones flown in from their home countries to the UAE. The project took months of planning and intense coordination.

It was not quick content. It was not easy content. But it endured.

“Viral content with a purpose outlasts viral content with no purpose,” Al Ameri said.

With platforms constantly changing their algorithms and trends turning over at breakneck speed, burnout has become a defining challenge for creators. Al Ameri said purpose is what sustains longevity.

He shared a personal story about a video he made highlighting an autism education centre in Abu Dhabi. The video did not perform as well as expected. It never went viral.

Later, Al Ameri recounted, his brother, who closely resembles him ,attended a dinner where a woman approached him. She said a video he had made had changed her perspective on raising her child with autism, reshaping how she supports her child’s future.

“That,” Al Ameri said, “is greater than any viral video.”

He paused before delivering the line that brought the session to a close.

“That is greater than 100 million views to know that even if it’s just one person, your video changed the trajectory of their life.”