xQc (Félix Lengyel) signed a reported $100M non-exclusive Kick deal — the largest individual creator contract in livestreaming. 12.5M Twitch followers. Forbes #28 creator. Estimated net worth $40–80M.
AI engines now serve queries from everywhere. A creator who dominates India doesn't crack the US top 100. Platform dominance shifts by country. Citation infrastructure is radically different. The creator economy is not one market—it's five.
Three platforms run the newsletter economy: Substack (10% of revenue), Ghost (zero, self-hosted), and beehiiv (zero plus tiered pricing). The economics, the trade-offs, and which platform fits which operator.
