Forbes argues that social media count has turned into fiscal fortitude for supermodels. The higher the digi-fame/following, the more models tend to earn - landing more magazine covers, campaigns and runway gigs because people want to be associated with their particular online brand and in turn gain access to their audience.
Here are the top 5 earners on the Forbes highest paid supermodels list for 2016:
1. Gisele Bündchen - 9.8 million Instagram followers
2. Adriana Lima - 8.2 million Instagram followers
3. Karlie Kloss - 5.3 million Instagram followers
4. Kendall Jenner - 64.9 million Instagram followers
5. Gigi Hadid - 22.3 million Instagram followers
The earning front-runner remains the Brazillian supermodel, Gisele, who recently retired from the runway. She made a chilling R 444 million last year and has held the top spot on the Forbes list for 6 years.
Lima sits very comfortably in second spot with R 151 million, while Karlie earned the amount of R 150 million. Kendall and Gigi closely followed The Kloss making R 143 million for Kendall and Gigi with R 129 million.