remains a persistent threat, as geo-restrictions and subscription fatigue drive consumers back to illegal streaming sites. Finally, the sustainability of the creator economy is questionable. While top influencers earn fortunes, the vast majority struggle to monetize their work, leading to an environment of constant hustle and precarious labor. The streaming wars, with multiple platforms competing for exclusive content, have also led to ballooning budgets and viewer frustration over fragmented libraries.

To counter this, we are seeing a resurgence in , such as live-streaming on Twitch or specialized Discord servers, where the "media" is as much about the real-time conversation as it is about the video being shown. The Economy of Attention

: India, for example, saw users spend 1.1 trillion hours on smartphones in 2024, driven primarily by social media, gaming, and video content.