{"id":21401,"date":"2020-01-28T17:43:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T17:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/prosumer"},"modified":"2026-09-18T10:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:18:28","slug":"prosumer","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/prosumer","title":{"rendered":"Prosumer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad wp-image-79841 size-full alignright\" style=\"margin-top: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/prosumidor-en.jpg\" alt=\"Prosumer\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/prosumidor-en.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/prosumidor-en-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>prosumer<\/strong> is a person who combines producer and consumer roles by participating in the creation, adaptation or distribution of what they use.<\/p>\n<p>The concept does not simply describe an informed or active consumer. It requires some contribution to the product, service, content, knowledge or community from which the person also obtains value.<\/p>\n\n<h2>History of the term prosumer<\/h2>\n<p>The word prosumer combines producer and consumer. <strong>Alvin Toffler popularised the term in his 1980 book <em>The Third Wave<\/em><\/strong> to describe situations in which the separation between those who produce and those who consume becomes blurred.<\/p>\n<p>The concept did not originate with the Internet and is not limited to marketing. It can also apply to production for personal use, collaborative services or energy generation. Digital tools expanded its forms by enabling people to publish, modify, recommend and distribute content.<\/p>\n<h2>How a prosumer participates<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Participation can occur at different stages in the creation and circulation of value.<\/strong> Common forms include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Co-creation:<\/strong> Contributing ideas, proposals or decisions to the development of a product, service or content.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Customisation:<\/strong> Adapting a solution to personal needs when that intervention meaningfully changes the result.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Content and knowledge:<\/strong> Publishing text, videos, images, documentation or other materials used by a community.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Evaluation and improvement:<\/strong> Contributing through testing, detailed reviews, corrections, bug reports or applicable suggestions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distribution and community:<\/strong> Organising, recommending or sharing resources and participating in their interpretation, maintenance or distribution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not every interaction constitutes prosumption. Reacting to, selecting a predefined option or occasionally sharing a post may be consumption or distribution without a sufficient productive contribution.<\/p>\n<h2>Examples of prosumers in digital environments<\/h2>\n<p>On a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/social-network\">social network<\/a>, a person may consume content and produce posts that become part of the platform&#8217;s offering. In an open-source software project, a person may use an application and contribute code, documentation, translations or bug reports.<\/p>\n<p>Prosumption also occurs when a community maintains shared knowledge, creates modifications for a video game or contributes reviews, photographs and guides that help other people assess a product. Some processes are organised through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/crowdsourcing-2\">crowdsourcing<\/a>, although the two concepts are not equivalent: crowdsourcing describes a way of obtaining contributions from a group, while prosumption describes the combination of production and consumption.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-marketing-agency-spain\">digital marketing<\/a>, prosumer contributions may influence the perception, improvement or distribution of an offering, but they do not guarantee commercial results.<\/p>\n<h2>Scope of the term prosumer<\/h2>\n<p><strong>A prosumer is not necessarily a professional creator, an influencer or any customer who interacts with a brand.<\/strong> A creator may produce for an audience without consuming what they create; an influencer is defined by the ability to influence and distribute; and an active consumer may compare, comment or complain without participating in the production of value.<\/p>\n<p>Participation does not mean that the prosumer controls the product or platform. Companies and services may establish the rules, moderate contributions, retain exploitation rights or capture a significant part of the generated value.<\/p>\n<p>The contribution may be voluntary, remunerated or part of using the service itself. Analysis of prosumption therefore needs to consider what the person contributes, what they receive in return and their actual ability to alter the result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Definition: A prosumer is a person who combines producer and consumer roles by participating in the creation, adaptation or distribution of what they use. The concept does not simply describe an informed or active consumer. It requires some contribution to the product, service, content, knowledge or community from which the person also obtains value. History [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":79843,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1310],"class_list":["post-21401","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-business-models"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/21401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=21401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}