This story was originally published in On Background with Mark Stenberg, a free, weekly newsletter that explores the key themes shaping the media industry. You can sign up for it here.
By now you have surely heard of Clavicular, the live-streaming looksmaxxer whose internet-addled argot and obsession with physical appearance briefly captured the national spotlight.
Or perhaps you have lately caught wind of TBPN, the live-stream technology podcast whose cohosts have attracted a wave of incredulous press coverage, documenting everything from their eye-popping sponsorship rates to their surprise Super Bowl spot.
If both have escaped your attention, maybe you saw Kai Cenat hosting an unlicensed PlayStation 5 giveaway in Union Square, IShowSpeed challenging Tyreek Hill to a footrace, or Clix in a shootaround earlier this month with Chris Paul?
If none of these names ring a bell, well then congratulations—your daily screen time must still be a single-digit number.
But for a growing cohort of the terminally online, not to mention a broad swath of younger audiences, live-streamers like the ones above have become household names.
Unlike TikTok, whose capacity to mint digital superstars came as a result of introducing a new format, i.e. vertical video, live-streaming is by no means a new technology. The home base of the medium, Twitch, launched in 2011 and was acquired three years later, by Amazon, for $970 million.
Pioneers of the form, such as the political pundit Hasan Piker and the gaming phenom Ninja, have built established followings over more than a decade of consistent streaming. And many others, including a crop of ambitious, if premature publishers, have sought to establish themselves in the space—though largely to mixed results.
