The two-level structure: industries and niches
Favikon organizes creators into two tiers:
Industries are top-level groupings — broad professional or topical domains such as Marketing & Sales, Tech & Software, Finance, or Health & Medicine. As of June 2026, Favikon has 31 active industries.
Niches sit within industries and represent more specific creator communities. Favikon currently has 529 active niches across those 31 industries.
Every creator on Favikon is assigned:
One primary niche — the main context in which their scores are calculated and where they appear first in Favikon Rankings
Up to two secondary niches — reflecting meaningful overlap where a creator's content spans adjacent communities
Why your niche determines your rank
Favikon's scoring system is relative, not absolute. Each creator's scores for engagement, reach, consistency, and content quality are ranked within their niche cohort using the centile method.
A creator in the 91st centile for engagement has higher engagement than 91% of creators in their specific niche — not across all of Favikon.
This means niche placement has a direct, significant impact on rankings. A creator in a broad niche of 800 will have a very different Authority Score than the same creator placed in a precise niche of 80 where their content genuinely fits. The niche defines the competitive set.
How the niche engine works
Niche assignment is AI-driven throughout. The process follows three steps:
Step 1 — Generate a creator description
The engine analyzes each creator's content and bio and produces a single-sentence description capturing what that creator is best known for.
Step 2 — Convert descriptions into vectors
Each description is converted into a mathematical vector encoding its semantic meaning. Creators with similar descriptions end up with similar vectors.
Step 3 — Match vectors to niches
Similar vectors are grouped together. These groups reflect natural creator communities — defined by what creators actually do, not by externally assigned labels. Each creator is matched to the niche their vector sits closest to. A second AI pass then reviews the 15 closest niches and confirms or recalibrates the initial match.
What changed in the June 2026 taxonomy update
The June 2026 update replaced Favikon's legacy taxonomy entirely. The previous system had approximately 520 niches across 34 loosely defined industry columns, built from manually assigned labels. The new taxonomy introduced 529 niches across 31 industries, with every creator assigned through the niche engine.
New standalone industries
Several creator communities that had no accurate home in the previous taxonomy now have dedicated industries:
Aviation — includes niches for Aviation Industry professionals, Pilots, Flight Crew, and Aerospace Engineering
Design — covers UX/UI Design, Graphic & Brand Design, Interior Design, and adjacent niches
HR & Workplace — HR practitioners and people operations creators, previously grouped under "Careers & Office," now have dedicated niches including HR & People Leaders, HRTech, Employer Branding Professionals, Talent Acquisition & Recruiting, and Corporate Learning & Development
Industries that were split
IT & Tech became two industries: Tech & Software (29 niches) and Engineering & Operations (10 niches) — reflecting meaningfully different professional communities
Health & Medicine was separated from Wellness & Lifestyle Health, giving clinical and wellness content distinct homes
Arts & Culture was split into Entertainment & Culture and Visual Arts
Broad niches that were subdivided
"AI & Machine Learning" (previously one niche) is now five: AI & ML Engineering, AI & ML Researchers, AI Governance & Policy, AI Safety & Tech Ethics, and AI Workflow Automation
"Finance / Web3" became 21 finance niches — including Corporate Finance & FP&A, Payments & Fintech, Accounting & Bookkeeping, Sustainable Finance, and Crypto Trading & Analysis (separated from professional finance content)
"Law, Media & Politics" is now two separate industries: Law & Legal (11 niches) and Politics & News (16 niches)
New niches for previously unrepresented communities
The niche engine identified professional communities that existed in the data but had no accurate category in the prior taxonomy. New dedicated niches include:
DevRel / Developer Advocacy
Revenue Operations & Sales Operations
Compliance, Ethics & Governance
LegalTech & Legal Entrepreneurs
Employer Branding Professionals
Corporate Finance & FP&A
B2B SaaS Marketing
B2B Sales Coaching
Consolidations
Where the old system had overlapping tags describing the same community from different angles, these were merged into a single niche. Creators in these cases may see a different label without any meaningful change to their actual placement.
How niche connects to your Authority Score
The Favikon Authority Score is a composite built from the Influence Score, Social Media Score, and Authenticity Score. Each component is computed relative to a creator's niche cohort using the centile method.
The Authority Score is not an absolute measure of performance. It measures a creator's standing within their niche. Reassigning a creator to a different niche changes their centile position across every scoring dimension, and therefore their overall score.
This is why the June 2026 taxonomy update caused ranking changes for many creators. Creators did not change; the niche they are measured within did.
Frequently asked questions
Why did my Favikon ranking change after the June 2026 update?
Rankings are calculated within your niche. If your primary niche changed as part of the taxonomy update, you are now being measured within a different, more precise peer group. Your Authority Score reflects your position within that new cohort.
How does Favikon decide which niche I belong to?
The niche engine generates a description of your content and profile, converts it into a vector, and matches it to the closest niche. A second AI pass reviews the 15 closest niches and confirms or recalibrates the initial match.
Can I change my niche?
If you're not satisfied with the niche assigned to your profile, you can contact our support team at [email protected] to request a niche change.
Does being in a smaller niche hurt my ranking?
No. Ranking is relative to your niche cohort. Being in the top 10 of a well-defined niche of 60 is a stronger and more precise signal than ranking #200 in a broad niche of 800.
Where can I explore creator rankings by niche?
All current rankings are available on the Favikon Rankings page.