Our 2026 Creator Economy Predictions

Okay, before we get into these predictions, question for you. Do you think you speak 2025? Do I speak 2025? Is this a TikTok trend that I know this is the New York Times calling? Okay. This is a quiz. Oh I definitely don't question one. Let me guess. Let me guess. This is like six seven. Yeah, that's stuff. I'm not gonna ask you those questions. Those are obvious, but let me just start with question one They're the easiest one. Imagine you're wearing a new outfit. What culinary term would you not want someone? To use about your appearance cooked That's not an option eight served chopped devoured chopped chopped correct ding ding. Wow impressive. Okay Question two a little bit harder in 2025. What fairy tale inspired the new impolite slang term for dating people who are perceived not to be on par with their mates. I barely understood that, but you know, many guests before you deliver it. No, there's it's multiple choice. Okay. You're just guessing randomly. I haven't done multiple choice in like 20 years. Okay. Shrecking Beauty and the Beasting Cinderella Princess and the Frogging I'm gonna go princess and the Frogging. Is that right? You would be incorrect. My friend. It is Shrecking. Yeah Okay, last one and then we'll we'll get into predictions in 2025. Which of the following scenarios might one crash out about? Select all that apply Winning the lottery getting bed bugs running out of creatine powder Getting a promotion for getting a Netflix password seeing your SX post a new partner Getting a free flight upgrade Anything negative there you would crash out about okay, so getting bed bugs bed bugs Losing your Netflix password something about the X Okay, I can't even oh, yeah, I can't click on these okay getting bed bugs running out of creatine powder sure You can crash out about that. Okay, so you probably have crashed out about that All correct well done. Okay turns out. I guess I do. Yeah, you kind of speak 2025 That's surprising to me That is surprising. I mean some of this is the New York time some of these are pretty obvious that feels base level Yeah, I'll just read the question number seven before we move on the Italian brain rot crew and absurd group of AI generated Creators became a meme that flooded TikTok in 2025 Which three of the following names were not breakout Italian brain rot stars There's no shot in getting that Trelello trellala bella bella Carmella Ballerina cappuccini you can stop there bombadero crocodile Yeah, I mean, there's two more that I'm not gonna read, but that's like one of the most absurd questions. I've seen Anyway, I thought this was really funny and something that the New York times did that actually Hank Green did in a video that made me laugh So that's pretty good to ask you some of these questions But here we are the end of 2025 another year in the books and I would say a year that kind of surprised me in the creator economy to be honest Yeah, yeah, I think heading into 2025 I Was weirdly a little bit pessimistic actually about the creator economy. I felt like Maybe it was a not a fad that was over but a Story that people were less interested in and that it had Started maybe evolving a little bit less and changing and progressing and this year it felt like it just shot way into the future Yeah, I think it felt similar to You know, there was eras over the past five years that people got really into crypto was an era AI became a bit of an era But but I think what you realize is within those eras there's things that stick and and it felt like the creator economy was one of those eras Like there was a moment where the creator economy was a very hot term But I think What has stuck is just that like people who are good at making videos and telling stories Are just good at making videos and telling stories and we have always had space for that and what has changed is Watch time on televisions. Yeah, right that like Viewer behavior sitting and watching on TV has just changed completely what the creator economy is because now We're in the same environments on the same screen as some of these major streamers and we're seeing you know the challenges of trying to Make money in the Hollywood environment when you're spending a hundred million dollars or 70 million dollars on something So it feels like I thought we were over the mountain of the creator economy moment But recognizing that is not a moment. It's just the entertainment industry now Like we are and that is it is just on the rise That that independent creators continue to be on the rise so Within that just when we talk about what's happening in the creator economy? We've been experimenting with a format called inner out which if you guys watch our shorts or or us on Instagram right now Basically, we talk about a subject and then we debate if we are in or out on that subject I've picked six things that I think will be trends That we will continue to see in 2026. I'm going to bring them up and then we will talk about if we are in or out on these trends for 2026 All right starting with number one the video podcast Now quick stat YouTube has become the absolute dominating platform when it comes to video podcasts a Really interesting stat from YouTube 700 million hours of video podcast content was watched on living room devices in October of 2025 the viewership of video podcasts on YouTube is up 75% year over year when we look at 2026 Are you in or out on the video podcast? I'm out and I will tell you I was walking crazy. I know and we have a we are video podcast podcasters Yes, I'm not saying that People won't find success with video podcasts. I think there will be a group of people of course who are finding major success with video podcasts definitely the biggest the heaviest hitters. I Was speaking with Hayden Hillier Smith about two weeks ago. We were taking a walk and We were talking about this about whether podcasts are truly over the hump the video podcast and he told me he said You know what? I think Haley Welch with the hawk to a girl That was peak podcast This idea that in culture if you hit if something happens to you the next step is a podcast You got to have a podcast. You're everyone wants to listen to you now like capitalize on your moment start a podcast And he told me you know what? I think that was the beginning of the decline of the video podcast culturally in and the place that it holds in Sort of Hollywood and entertainment in capturing attention That potentially that was the beginning of the end that it became oversaturated. I think that's a really good good observation I think that might have been the moment it died Because remember Bobby all-talk preceded that right and like Bobby all-talk had a moment and then started a podcast I think the the classic saying Ain't nobody got time for that is kind of how I feel about Video podcast and podcasts in general right now and I'm a podcaster, but like I Understand if you don't have time to listen to you and I talk about what we think is gonna happen in 2026 in the creator economy like I get it if you have other things to do can I tell you a good story? Yeah, so we're watching the track star podcast on YouTube my wife and I and The intro plays and it's this really beautiful great intro for their podcast and she goes you guys should have an intro for your podcast Uh-huh, I said we do yeah, right and nobody got I nobody got time for that even my wife Yeah, but no I mean like look we get comments to and I Amputized with it, you know that people say hey, I just I actually don't have time for an hour and 45 minutes with this creator Can you please post clips or highlights? Yeah, so dire to sit yo great example started a clips channel Some of those clips are outperforming the episodes and the clips are in the 20-minute range or 12-minute range and like Obviously, it's been a strategy forever, but even with us as we've been experimenting in short form with this in or out The question is what is a two-minute podcast look like or is that even a podcast? What is what is that? And a lot of that, you know driven if you've been listening to the show you've heard us at nauseam talk about Kareem and Subway takes But he has a quote where he says what if I made a podcast with just the best parts and and I think we are at that moment where To get to a weekly video podcast that people are die hard about I think we'll be challenging in 2026. I think There are shows like track star not necessarily long form podcast But the the short form version of it that that to me is what what we're seeing as the the modernization of the talk show But the question here is that like of course this is a massive genre on YouTube It's also coming to Netflix now and this is just like top content in general my next guest with David Letterman is a great example of this Yeah, I think I think I am it's hard for me to say in or out here because I think this format will be highly monetizable and We'll have there'll be more of them in 2026 But I think when we look at the long-term view I do think the audience in general is going to have fatigue over like the two hour podcast and Won't be loyal to the two hour podcast That's that's what I think is the most important thing is that it will be guest dependent It will be topic dependent. It will be like if there's a controversy and you can hear someone talk about What's going on or like after Jake Paul fought Anthony Joshua You know the next morning. He's on Logan Paul's podcast and a lot of people wanted to hear him talk about that So there you go that podcast did really well So I think it'll be event based and topic based and guest based But the loyalty to the video podcast. I think just remains in comedy right now in comedy podcasting because comedy consistently delivers On that group hang sort of experience. Yeah, and and it's a it's a way to learn about the news That's fun with entertainment with entertainment. So I think I think that's that's what I'm noticing and I'll talk a little bit more about that So yeah, I feel like with podcast it used to be about getting the big guest getting the big interview But now every guest is on every show. So it's about getting the big guest at the big moment. Yes That's what matters now and there will only be a handful of shows that get the big guest at the big moment. Yes Another example of this real quick is Tim Ferris. He started posting clips Of his of his podcast on YouTube with the full length being you know across other pod platforms and the clips are doing great and clips Meaning 12 minutes or 20 minutes and like I'm looking at that. I'm like, yeah, that makes sense I think people have time for a 12 minute specific pointed moment I'll post a clip in 2026. Yeah, yeah, I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid Okay, number two AI-generated video now I want to be really clear about this one because a report just came out and It's really interesting. So what these guys did is they started new YouTube accounts and went on shorts and started to see How many of the shorts that they were getting fed were AI-generated versus human created and What they found is that 20% of the videos were AI-generated and That doesn't include you know kind of like brain rot content and they added that in as well And basically saw that somewhere between 20 and 33% of YouTube shorts shown to new users are either AI-generated quote-unquote slop or repetitive brain rot and and Basically as they dug deeper what they found was like there's actually some Areas and some some companies that are like really winning with this content There is an Indian YouTube channel called Banda up na Dost and it is the most watched AI channel globally It has over two billion views and it is estimated to earn $4.25 million dollars in revenue this year. My gosh and collectively between Spain, South Korea, India and all the slop channels that they found They are estimating that they collectively earned $33 million per year based on the view estimates and the RPMs now Importantly Neil Mohan has recently talked about AI-generated video on YouTube and said we are getting back to a return to YouTube what YouTube was when it first started or the barrier to entry is low There's a lot more content more people can create and honestly when I think back to early days of YouTube and my experience on YouTube There was a lot of weird stuff like annoying orange or like the my spoon is too big videos Yeah, I mean we also sometimes would post multiple times a day. Yeah, right You just looked at it differently. There weren't as many options for video on the internet period So it was the home to just upload videos. So so this trend like What does this mean because like This feels significant that if if 20% of the videos that a new user is getting fed are AI-generated content And people are making money on YouTube doing this like there was another creator who reported that they made $9,000 in a month posting AI generated kitten videos I'm out. I'm out in that I am not necessarily interested in spending time scrolling through AI Slop and BrainRot However on the other side of this as a creator, I am without a doubt Prompting video and seeing what I can do with it and changing the styles and you know Experimenting with animation and you know I find it fascinating Yeah, as a tool to layer on my Taste and do things I couldn't do before You know, there are some of the things that I'm experimenting with In AI video are not Relevant to what we do with a long-form video podcast, but I feel like I'm still building skills that will be important I just find it. It's like entertainment. You've brought this up before like Prompting with AI for me is entertainment I could be watching a video or I could be making video, but I I wonder what this means for the the future of audiences where like You know, I have discounted this trend of AI generated video in our feeds because I'm like It doesn't matter nobody actually wants to watch this and it's not like commercial content like you can't make money on it But these channels are proving things differently and actually this this Indian channel. I would urge a lot of people to go check out If you want to be able to spell it. It's in Hindi, but it's B.A. N. D. A. R. A. P. N. A. D. O. S. T Because it's really bizarre to watch. It's like a character. It's a monkey character who's like doing interesting things and Hundreds of millions of views and and Able to crank out content at a serious scale. So just to clarify. I am also out on this. I think This is this is a bizarro world, but I don't doubt that good content can be created like this. Yeah, I really don't doubt that I'm out on bad content that waste my time. Yes, I you know, I think Videos and stories told with AI that are good. I'm not out on right so You know, I think it's just it's a tool. I think You know progressive made an ad Using AI and with a bunch of animals driving a car. I think it's progressive and if you look at the bottom It says this made with AI and It's only interesting because of that disclaimer at the bottom right right now But long term people are going to get so good at prompting and creating video with AI I don't think we're going to have to put made with AI at the bottom of a commercial Right, it's just like I'm not putting that like hey, I made this graphic with after effects All you're watching right right right, you know like yeah, yeah, so yeah, I think long term. That's just going to go away And it's just going to be about bad content that waste your time Yeah, so again, I think we're good content that makes you feel good. I think this report Well, honestly urge more people to create AI January video and post it on YouTube because like why not like if you can make this kind of money Why would you not if you were like a business person or someone who's like okay? Sure. I'll just Make a large volume of content if it doesn't work. It doesn't work. But if it works it works and I think this is Gonna push the inverse effect of like at least for me what this makes me want to do is make more meaningful content even if it's 20 to 50,000 people watching It's like more interesting to make meaningful content. I do think this trend will reduce viewership for creators. Yes, I think we will see less viewership across all creators on YouTube because there's going to be more content and more Interesting content that is coming out at a output volume that we've never seen before and I agree that's a net negative. I think the next but I don't know if it's a net negative because the audience who wants to watch that Who cares if you lose them right Yeah, I guess but if the trend of history with young people watching these videos and getting exposed to this AI slot because it's more prevalent If it creates generations of people who are more interested in that Yeah, right wasn't brain route was the word of the year. I think yes It's true. Okay, so then I can I quickly layer on one more inner out. Yeah That has to do with this. Okay, so Greg Eisenberg tweeted this a few weeks ago. I thought it was interesting He said it feels pretty obvious at this point that someone's going to make billions building a social app That's just for friends no AI slot no brain rot calm design chronological feed and no concept followers You believe that? No, I don't either. I think we're past that as a society. I don't think we care. I think that's a niche Thing. I don't think that's billions of dollars. I think it's niche and I think we're all holding on to the nostalgia of what was Not realizing how beautiful that was when we had it and If that can't happen again in my opinion. I think that's filled with People who end up having the self discipline to go outside and put the phone down exactly. Yeah It's filled with people who don't want to be on their screen So I do want to just while we go into this like the concept of creators viewership going down I was texting with my cousin who's in college at Michigan and She texted me after listening to one of our episodes saying by the way my screen time is just as bad as yours on Instagram But I don't really follow any quote-unquote creators. I just watch a bunch of reels and I said wow That's really interesting. This is the second conversation. I've had about this. I mentioned to you I had a conversation with two kids who are at Harvard who also said they don't watch quote-unquote creators And I said yeah, I just talked to some people Some other college kids they said they just watch tiktok edits And that they find creators to be too commercial and she said yeah, I guess that's it. I have a fear of being too advertised to Yeah, wait when you told me this. I thought it was interesting that potentially Creators end up having a negative connotation With the younger generation because they feel like they're trying too hard and the too commercial and they're gonna sell you something And so I said that's so interesting. Are you loyal to any shows podcasts or creators? Is there anything you make sure to watch weekly? She said podcasts I definitely listen to a bunch But I just pick randomly based on guests or topics. I don't really listen to every episode of any show every week The only thing that I was loyal to this year was dancing with the stars The only thing I've cared about watching every week in a while And I said that is so interesting is that because of Alex Earl or how did that happen? She said no, it's because I live in a sorority house I said that makes sense but um I think we are at a point where we may not have as much loyalty to creators Interesting that I share that viewing behavior with her and I of course do not. I'm not a part of a sorority kind of though Your house has like sorority house. It does. Yeah, it doesn't feel to it. Yeah Um So this brings me to my next point uh The summarization of content So I have been using the Gemini button on YouTube content being summarized. I thought you meant the season. No, no, it's like this sounds fun. No, I don't know uh Like have you used this on YouTube? There's there can there's videos and I use this most recently when all the phase kids left phase There's a long video it's like an hour long and it was like yeah the real story why we left phase and they're all sitting on a couch Yeah, and I opened it back to the top of the show. I was like anybody got time for this uh and I pressed Summarize this video and it gave me Gemini gave me bullets of what happened And I was like cool. I'm good and I moved on I haven't done that but I have on YouTube mobile when you scroll it'll just give you A quick summary of what's in from Gemini. Yeah underneath. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah So the summarization of content is a really big deal Because like that's me not watching an hour of that phase video Because I can just get it in bullets underneath. I guess The question though is like you know, I watched Of to bring up Hayden again. I watched a video that he made this morning About five videos that he really likes and What they mean for YouTube If you read the AI generated summary it does not tell you what the five videos are It doesn't tell you what you should learn from those five videos. But you're reading like dude if you go into the ask you can prompt that I guess that's what I'm saying is that I haven't done that. Yeah, you haven't done that I started doing this where right here. Okay, so underneath the video. There's a button that says ask Right and it's the Gemini button So I can say right here the first the first prompt that's auto prompted is summarize this video Okay, so I'm actually now doing that for Hayden. Yeah And so now it gives you the five videos And now it gives you why he thinks these five videos are the future That's a pretty big deal. It's a really big deal that I don't think we're talking about And when I looked at where things are going and when I think about 2026 I think the summarization of content is a really big deal Because if this takes off Well, I think people are doing this and I've done this where I'd all like look at a really long article all download the PDF of it And I'll put it into Gemini and be like explain this to me and that's changing that's true. I'm summarizing everything you're summarizing everything right and so then then you go You watching that Hayden video. I wrote down like why does this matter Because I think perspective delivery and entertainment Now matter a lot more when I can just summarize something Like I hate and delivers that video really well and that's that's that's fun to watch But it makes me think that smart content Like academic content doesn't really have a place At scale on the internet anymore versus comedy and entertainment. Yeah without personality and perspective because Academic content I can just get summarized. I'm looking for an efficient way to get the information And this button ask is so substantial So if you're playing around on YouTube, I would urge you to just start Exploring this and seeing what this means when you can summarize content it changes the dynamic of like in Information is not that interesting like why would information be interesting now You can get information and just get it. So now it's like perspective and entertainment value and Again, why I'm starting to notice that when I ask a lot of people who they're loyal to It's mostly comedians So the summarization of content are you in or out on this? This is tough because now that you've brought this up. I'm doing it for videos as we speak and it's really efficient and But it's like that means the video watching thing like video watching process is not fun Yeah, I actually don't know what this means Huh I'm just doing it right now with our episode with Casey Neistat. Yeah, just ask for five of the most important bullets from the conversation. What does it say? Uh, it gets into making art versus the algorithm the value of niche content his perspective on commercializing art navigating Hollywood Yeah, so like the only reason to watch it is because you you Enjoy the three of us talking and you want to hear the inflection and you want to hear what it sounds like But what if ain't nobody got time for that That's what I'm saying and nobody got time for that Damn, so the summarization of content I think as a consumer it's been a really great way to learn a lot of things Really quickly as a creator You know what actually in general? I'm gonna say I'm in on this because As a creator, I think this is gonna push us to actually make entertaining stuff Yeah, you kind of have to play defense against you're just like Information being available everywhere. You need to add perspective and to add style tone taste Basically, we have to take a step back and go if you summarize this is it enjoyable? Did it capture the full experience? Is it already the whole experience if you just pressed ask and summarize this video and if so we have to do something totally different Right, and so like it I really wonder what happens to some of these like education channels and information based channels because it's like I think they get pushed to make more visual interesting content with style And taste and tone. Yeah, that's interesting. So All right, so you're in or out on it I'm in I mean, I you borrowed up to me and I started using it immediately. Yeah, so you're okay, summarization of content. All right Creators on streamers. We've talked about this a lot Is this something that continues in 2026? Is it over after a couple of deals? No, no, no, I think this continues in a major way Okay, let's talk about I just think We've talked about it before but Netflix does a deal with Mark rober. They repackage 10 of his greatest hits from YouTube lightly repackaged them. It's a top-tiered show on Netflix is a number one kid show Of course the people who watched on Netflix into much smaller audience, but it's a different audience for Mark And they bought a competition series for him and he had an Elmo special on Netflix, right? He starts to become a character in a different environment next to other Actors and hosts who people deem fully apart of Hollywood, right? You look at Hulu They did a very similar thing with Jesser A lot of Jesser's videos same thumbnail same title I don't even think they're re-edited and they're just on Hulu right now And so I think from a creator perspective if you have videos where you own The rights to everything within the video and you can license it and sell it to someone else. Why not Money new audience these videos are old anyway does this happen though with the original shows Like you know one thing that we're seeing especially with the the 2025 YouTube culture and trends report one big Trend that YouTube brought forward was the rise of the series that creators are now Putting out content in series. So Druski has a dating show called could have been loved. It's basically like the bachelor I show speed has speed ghost pro and he just launched a new Series of speed goes to Africa which had a trailer to it. It's a series Quinlan blackwell has a series called feeding starving celebrities these look and feel like TV shows Even the Nico omelana. Nico omelana right now. Zero pound travel series traveling the world of zero dollar. Yep It looks and feels like TV. He just seems like a host on any show. Yeah so now The question becomes why do that on Netflix? When is isn't YouTube the biggest streamer? The model is you put it out first on YouTube Has the biggest opportunity and then to reach the most amount of people And if you're reaching the most amount of people you have the biggest opportunity to monetize it But then once you've already made it monetize it twice Like you put on YouTube TV and the office is still on every single day all the time Did you see the chart of the most watch TV shows of 2025 from like the office ridiculousness? No, it wasn't ridiculousness. The office is squarely in the middle of it, which is crazy to me An unbelievable that's still there, but it was mostly like cops and NCIS and like stuff like that There's like most watch TV shows of the year. It's pretty amazing. Stranger Things was up there and so I feel Bad about a couple episodes being like nobody cares about stranger things because clearly people care about stranger things So I was wrong But anyway, I was amazed to see the office in there But yeah, I what I wonder is does do things start going the opposite direction So Netflix invests in some season of TV, let's say, right Like a great example is this my next guest with David Letterman is you know a talk show that has a bunch of episodes with like Jason Bateman and Adam Sandler and like big celebrities and one of the episodes this season was with Mr. Beast Do you think start going the other way where Netflix goes hey can can we make a deal? Distribution deal with Mr. Beast to put this out on like Mr. Beast 2 This episode of my next guest so that we can promote this format over there Yeah, I think that type of thing that just feels like a marketing move if you think that's just one episode Yeah, I don't know if I see Netflix saying you know what let's put out the entire catalog of stranger things on YouTube No, I don't think yeah, so okay, so then maybe that's marketing not distribution because I'm what I'm calling out to you is the Distribution deals we're starting to see happen on YouTube. I mean obviously the biggest one Is the Oscars coming to YouTube that feels like a huge deal To me maybe because I just grew up with the Oscars, but looking at YouTube as a distribution channel And exploring Netflix as a studio You know where like YouTube Will likely never be or never say never but presently isn't a studio. They are a distribution channel Netflix is a studio and a distribution channel, but when you're a studio like you need more distribution right now So I don't know they're just like I'm I continue to be very interested in the the meshing of these two worlds and specifically these two platforms It feels like the battle is only heating up between them Obviously if Netflix gets the Warner catalog they get like They get some really big shows And seeing that the office is still in the top 10 TV shows watch for the year. I think that'll matter but Yeah, I'm definitely in on if if we're to sit here in 2026 I think we're talking about a lot more creators who are making a lot more original shows with streamers Yeah, I'm I'm in because I think it also continues to still position YouTube On top as the first home for distribution that if there's a world where you're windowing content People who figured out a way to get distribution and monetization on YouTube will always release and upload to YouTube first All right now for YouTube prompted feeds So what I mean by this right now YouTube is testing and we have it on one of our channels Something called custom feed where you can tell YouTube what you want so you can prompt the algorithm to change what you're seeing Um, and you can update your feed so what it looks like is this you can type in your own words Basically, um, looking at like a what looks like a search bar, but it says we've started with your home recommendations Now it's your turn to refine ask in your own words you can type in there and then update feed and it shows Different options of what you can do show me inspiring home designs and architecture and latest late-night sketches To me, this is like an updated version of search. Yeah. This sounds exactly like search Yeah, with the layer of it's AI Which search has generally been AI. Yeah, I'm not sure I'm like I've tried it a couple times and experimented with it. It just feels like search to me So I think which it is yeah, which it is I think the question is like And I'm neither in or out on it. It's I find it to be Kind of neither here or there. It's just a different way of search I think the question is like do we want and get more control over what is being fed to us or actually are removing further into a lean back experience Across these platforms. I think we're moving further into a lean back experience You know, even the way I talk about like brain rot and AI Slop. I don't watch much brain rot or AI Slop So I don't get served much brain rot or AI Slop I don't have to ask to not get it I would have to ask yeah, I don't know I just like yeah, that's interesting. I wonder if this has to do with like like so you and I are very different consumers of media like I am Chronically online. So I I end up in pockets that I don't want to be in anymore Right where I like I would love to tell someone like like please stop like do not show me anymore Italian brain rot Like I don't want it anymore And so I wonder if that's part of the The consideration here is like my version of that is like I see too many guys on Instagram who've bought cool vintage far Like cool vintage cars and have moved to the country and are farming and like growing all their crops Got it. So you would tell you would tell I mean like I can't handle it anymore. Yeah, stop it I'm not gonna do that. I live in a city. Yeah, I think this this is kind of like A response to like addicty behavior. Yeah, right? Like to have to tell your algorithm like please stop like I can't I can't see this stuff anymore. Don't let me see it. Yeah, right? I think that's like I think this this has to do with the relative like lack of self-control And I'm part of I'm talking about myself like I find this to be useful to be like Like let me just tell you what I want to see Don't go based off my actions like if I'm sitting on an Italian brain rot video for If I watched 80% of an Italian brain rot video Don't take that as a signal. Don't show me more It doesn't mean I want more of it Yeah, I guess so it's like almost parental controls, but To yourself do as I say not as I do. Yeah, yeah, so I'm I'm in on it because I think it's good. I think it's good For I understand that it's a different version of search, but I think it's I think it's a good thing Okay IRL events we've talked about this, but I want to tell you some data from a creator's IRL survey So this is a survey of a bunch of people who watch creators 41% of respondents attended at least one creator led in-person event over the past year pointing to a strong appetite for IRL interaction Amongst those who haven't attended yet 67% are open or interested in future events Meet and greets rank highest amongst desired event types followed by product launches workshops and pop-up activations And the sweet spot for ticket price for many fans is between ten and fifty dollars And more than one and three respondents say that they are very likely to make a purchase at a creator event Last stat 34% of fans indicated that they'd be comfortable paying $50 or more for a live performance or live show from a creator I'm in I don't see anything bad about going out and having a good time I'm in on this to the point where like I think it's a bit of a requirement for creators now if you if you're building like a significant brand and you want to Like I think if we if we come back to the term influencer like how do you know if someone has real influence? I think the only way that I can tell you with any certainty that somebody has influence is if people show up to their event Yeah right like I don't I honestly don't know another way um To To tell you if it's just views Or if it's a real connection Yeah, I would agree. I think it's one thing to watch someone's video It's another to share it with a friend and it's completely the other thing to leave your house On a Saturday night and go see someone that you watch on your phone. Yeah, or in our case with press publish And why see like people flew yeah people flew from India yeah to come that was crazy or Brazil like that was crazy And that to me was like oh yeah, we have real connections with real people even from the creator side I think it's important right now to to experience that um So I am extremely in on this I think in 2026 we'll see a lot more IRL events I think there will be a lot more ad spend in IRL events I agree with that is going to be like Brand dollars will come to IRL events because also brands are gonna get lost In the world of just in the sea of content right now And we are we are built off of marketing uh dollars So I think I think the marketing dollars will come to IRL events and then also like Fans will vote with their with their wallets now on what matters to them for real We had Ludwig on the show many years ago Maybe it was 2022 and we asked him why do you do all these big events? Why not just make right videos because he does you know Chess boxing and these you know these massive arena style events that he streams on his channel and there's tickets And he said that for his community When they look back on the year they won't remember his videos. They'll remember his moments the big moments that he put together right and I think That stands for creators and the brands who get involved with these events even if 10,000 people or a thousand people or 50 people go The media about the big moment and the big event I believe is what's Getting shared and remembered at the end of the year by the larger community You know even when I think about Jake Shane Like I think about his tour and the photos of it selling out in the videos That to me is what I think about with him right Right, and I think that that applies for a lot of creators and the communities even if you don't attend the events yourself So I think back to the um Ain't nobody got time for that I think There is a group people who like definitely has time for the IRL event And that's that's crazy to say because that is a way higher lift than watching a hour-long podcast But but it's way more interactive. It's way more it's way more engaging and and interesting and like I think That's what we have to think about is like if we're making something kind of have to take a step back and go like Could this be can this thing be summarized like really easily by Gemini? Does anyone have time for this like does this does this mean anything is this entertaining? And when I think about all those things like events come to mind as something that answers the question of Yeah, I think this matters. This can't be summarized. This is a real experience that has real emotional impact on you Um, and it's entertaining. It's fun to be with other people Mm-hmm in in a similar context So it's harder actually in my opinion to find the videos that match that criteria right now Then it is to find an experience that matches that criteria. Mm-hmm Okay, so we're both in we're both in all right I want to end with our two trends that we both put into the publish press If you haven't read the publish press then you'll learn about our two predictions That we think we're going to see in the new year start with yours My prediction is that in 2026 Netflix will open up a creator model So I was listening to Matt Bellany on the town and he said that Netflix Looking to buy Warner Brothers was an admission of sorts that their model is stuck that they're not able to grow without acquiring Uh, and so this is an effort to acquire and to continue to grow and that is Really premium Legendary IP. It's expensive to make it so that's Netflix going in one direction I think they will also as we've already seen with what they're doing with Mark Rover go in the other direction of okay Let's go search for what youtube is doing and I think they're starting by just licensing some videos But I believe there will be creators who are Accepted into some sort of creator model creator plus where it's Netflix saying these are the requirements to upload it might be a little bit more Intense than youtube. It's not just anything But you have been given the green light We will do some sort of revenue share on what on subscription revenue or oh you think it's on the ad model I think that'll be the biggest sort of open market is Here are the restrictions you have to get accepted into it you can produce for the ad to your basically What is great will service to the top what isn't great Whatever I do think they're always going to be the big creator tier of like the mark robers right who are given the bigger deal with the new series But I think in 2026 we'll see maybe at the end of the year Netflix announced some sort of More open Program for ugc for the first time Not opened to everyone like you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hope it It's very hard for me to believe that'll happen in the next year But I think it could happen and it might need to happen But it is very hard for me to say that at the end of 2026 Netflix will Launch something like that because companies like Netflix like they they require a lot like look at look at the way they're moving with Even video podcast like to me they're late on exploring the video podcast By the time they get their stuff together to to solve something like that. I think it'll be longer than a year Unless they've been working on it for a while. I think though they already did it with amazing digital circus Yeah, right which is an animated show where the episodes come out on the same day same time on YouTube is on Netflix So I even if it's a small cohort of creators. I could see it happening towards the end of the year where it's like hey these 50 All of you You have been given the green light to upload to YouTube and Netflix at the same time Very possible I I think people will still even contextually When they get offered a deal from Netflix like if I if we got offered a deal from Netflix my expectation would be up front cash I would I don't know that I would participate in a revenue share model with them unless there was a guarantee against it Yeah, I mean, I think the creators I'm talking about like Mark rober and amazing digital circus They're not just uploading right for some sort of now after the fact revenue I will say to be is doing a similar model to that and actually finding a lot of success So I don't want to discount it I think to be's growth has been substantial uh and and and pretty amazing So I don't want to discount it, but I think it'd be hard for me to see that in the year. We'll see if it happens We'll check back in December 30th 2026. All right, what do you got? All right, my prediction is Around the creator ad product. So I think as YouTube continues to be the dominant platform on connect TVs The creator ad product will evolve away from host red integrations. This part might seem obvious Long story short, I think we're going to see a lot more Creators in ads meaning in the 30-second pre-roll that runs before YouTube video. I also think we're going to see category exclusivity and Athlete-style endorsement deals for creators largely because of what I said about my cousin who's like I don't want to be advertised to and I think The like quick break in the episode to you know give you a sponsor. I think that's uh Been been played out to a point where people are numb to it and so I think the ad product has to change Now did you see Emma's Shopify ad? No wait that with nicely the barista one. No, which is a new one What is it? I just saw it yesterday. It was before a video I watched on YouTube. She's Behind a really cool coffee cart and she's just delivering information about starting Chamberlain coffee and how great Shopify was and it's running as pre-roll. It's running as pre-roll and it's something that she would never it would never be like content Exactly and it would never even be you know with how low-fi Emma's videos are and you know, she doesn't post that frequently anymore It would be so bizarre if in the middle of it it dropped into a really premium ad read But as a commercial as a pre-roll with her in it. It's perfect because I'm like wait I watch Emma I didn't click on an Emma video But here she is telling me information about Shopify. This is perfect. I'm hooked I think it's a way better ad model for creators for brands for everyone It is a better ad model like put us in the ads. Let us produce the ads Use us as in the same way you use a celebrity in an ad endorse us in different ways put us on billboard like make it Make it a softer ad product than like a direct call to action to go buy something and get a discount code Like I think that which I think can work in a podcast because because it's similar to the regular you're like used to that So now the other thing is as this starts to scale. I think there are ripple effects to this I think creators are now the creatives and I think somebody has to make that Emma ad and My prediction is that we're going to see creator led creative agencies next year And we're going to see more we saw some this year. We saw anthropo launch pufferfish We've seen a bunch of like x mr. Beast people launch things like our friend Rohan who has A great agency that did the ramp campaign like I think we're we have now mature creatives Who have been in the industry for five years or maybe ten years and who know how attention works online And are better suited to execute your campaign than the legacy creative agency And I think that's going to be really disruptive and I the read one of the reasons why I think this is happening is also because A lot of creators are creative, but they don't want to run a media company They don't want to make a show that comes out once a week or it has a clear ad product and that gets more efficient over time Or they're too early in their creator journey or there are so many super talented people right now who I will watch one of their videos. I sent you Tim Runez video. Yeah, hold so I chased my dreams for a year about You trying to make it on youtube. Yeah, it is So beautifully shot like it is perfect. It's incredible But it doesn't have that many videos on his channel. Right. I've been coming across a lot of videos like that Where I'm like this is amazing and you click on the channel is one video. It's like that's not a business yet One video or five videos isn't a business and these are the types of creators That I think paired with the creator led creative agency can make exactly credible work for for brands I think we're going to see a big rise in that next year and I think that's going to make a lot of sense Like I think that makes a ton of sense it take people who make great youtube videos and great Instagram content and have them make the ads for your brand And I think the creative agencies are going to have to adapt really quickly um Either bring in in-house creatives like this. They also they got to get more nimble. They got to be able to produce things quicker Um, I think the creator led creative agency is going to be a big trend in 2026 Look I'm in All right Those are some of our predictions some are in and out Uh, if you guys feel like we miss something that's going to be big in 2026 Comment if you're watching on Spotify or listening on Spotify. You can comment here You can also send us a tweet send us an email. We're always available I'm chronically online and I still will be in 2026. Thanks so much for listening to this show this year We landed at the number one spot on business podcasts in October. That was crazy That was exciting Yeah, and you just sent me this morning. We're a featured top tech and business podcast on Spotify. Yeah Yeah, I mean Man, what a wild year if you know anything about this year for some year and I it started with both of our homes burning down We've both had kids. It's been a One of the wildest weirdest years will never forget ever but eternally grateful for all of you uh, whether you found us this year or 15 years ago when we I'm playing our first YouTube video just crazy man. Thank you so much Here's to another year of being creators and hopefully another 10 years of being creators Happy new year everybody. We'll see you in 2026 [BLANK_AUDIO]