3 Trends Reshaping the Creator Economy in 2026

“The pace at which someone can become a face and a name with a following on the Internet has has increased. Now I think the half life of fame has also gotten shorter, like, in terms of how quickly someone's famous and then will we say this name at the end of this year? I don't think so.”

“There's a startup founded by a guy named Anthony Fujiwara. And he pays editors anywhere from $300 to $1,500 per million views that they generate. So now there's incentives for an army of editors to clip live content as it's happening. So the this startup, by the way, has 23,000 editors on the roster as of 2025.”

“The formula for fame seems to be one, start on the fringes, which clavicular was, you know, having this ideology. And then, two, lean into the fact that exposure over time will build trust, regardless of whether you are influencing people for the better or the worse. Like, a lot of times in society we've seen that a cancellation or someone who gets caught committing a crime, some sort of shocking thing is the impetus for the extreme differentiation of that individual that then leads them to have the ability to have a story that's amplified above other people's.”

“TPBM. We interviewed them on this show, and I think they represent the other lane of what we're talking about here. They represent, like, a lot of hope for me on the Internet of building small communities and making something fun and valuable, and show me the value of live streaming. So this is a daily technology and business show that's hosted by two guys named John and Jordy, and they stream for three hours a day. Their concurrent viewership can be anywhere from, like, 3,000 to 10,000 people on YouTube and Twitter. They have 312,000 Twitter followers, 58,000 subscribers on YouTube. And by every traditional metric, they are small or niche in this this world of the creator economy. But they are an absolute powerhouse media company.”

“Sora was this feed of AI video. Once you did it once, the novelty wore off in my opinion. And I like, when I was playing with it, I just thought it was interesting to create, and then I thought it was interesting to download my creations and text them to my friends. I I didn't care that there was a feed. I don't think we actually enjoy consuming any of it more than we enjoy creating it. And if we're creating it, it's mostly for private consumption, most mostly to show our friends or to to laugh. To me, AI video, again, is the equivalent of an inside joke.”

“AI Fruit Love Island is, scripted, short form, made with AI skits, largely about interpersonal relationships and drama, very much like Love Island was. Instead of people, the skits are played out through fruit personified as people. And, it is also kind of a car crash that you cannot look away. It was launched, on TikTok March 13, has 3,100,000 followers, or had, I will say. And the viewership ranges from 12,000,000 to 40,000,000 per episode.”

“Three days after The US strikes Iran, the official White House Twitter account began posting videos that were mixed real war footage with clips from video games and TV shows. And they were like hype reels Mhmm. That were memes and mashups of what were what was happening. It was almost like fan edits that you'd see on TikTok, but, like, from the official White House account.”

“Prediction markets are mostly led by two companies called Kalshi and Polymarket, and they've exploded from $1,200,000,000 a month in activity at the start of twenty twenty five to over $20,000,000,000 a month just one year later. As the world gets more absurd, you have to go to more absurd lengths to capture people's attention. What better way to capture someone's attention than putting real stakes on the line as they're watching to win or to lose truly by the end of watching this experience.”

“What's happening here is almost like you live in Las Vegas, and there's the Las Vegas Strip and the chaos of, like, the lights and the casino and everything's like, everyone's coming at you and it's all crazy. But down the street, there's, like, a cool coffee shop and your friends hang out there. And you you wanna go get some fresh air and go hang out there. That's what's happening with the Internet. It's, like, the Internet's getting so absurd that, like, our Slack our company Slack channel is, like, a safe space for me.”

“Offline is the new luxury. And and I think that's really true. I think people seeking out opportunities to be offline is a major thing. It's also why we've invested in putting on more events.”