Livestreaming has gotten big, but is it business?

It’s here: the final episode of The Vergecast’s three-part Creator Economies series. We’ve explored emerging elements of the business of being a creator. We dug deep into creator funds and how giant pools of platform money change the way those platforms operate. We dove headlong into the animated creators of the future. We also look into livestreaming and why everything from shopping to sleeping is suddenly big livestream business.

This week, The Verge’s David Pierce is joined by producer Hadley Robinson to explore that wild world of livestreaming. From the early days of webcams, livestreaming was popular with people who spent all their time online, but it never seemed to catch mainstream audiences. Now, at any given moment, you can find thousands or even tens of thousands tuning in live to watch a court trial or a high school chemistry class or a Funko Pop collector selling his prized possession. How did we get to a point where livestreaming might be big business? We get into all that and more in the show.

You can listen to the full show here or in your preferred podcast player.