The Vergecast · Friday, July 10, 2026
Eli Schwartz observed at Cannes that the creator economy is thriving on platforms like Instagram and YouTube, where creators integrate advertising and market products directly. TikTok, while a discovery mechanism, is seen as secondary due to monetization challenges.
“They all make long YouTube videos and they've integrated the advertising into the videos very directly, they market products.”
“And the two pieces of the creator economy that are booming are Instagram and YouTube.”
“And TikTok is actually pretty secondary, like in really interesting ways.”