Caspar Lee

Up, Up, Upload: How YouTube Became the Blueprint for the Creator Economy

A 19-second video of a man admiring the elephants at San Diego Zoo has been viewed more than 360 million times. That means that almost 220 years of collective human history have been spent watching YouTube’s first-ever video, Me at the Zoo, posted by one of the company’s co-founders, Jawed Karim, 20 years ago.

How TV can compete for the eyes of Gen Z

Rob Chapman, Amber Gill, Caspar Lee, Timothy Armoo and Paul Bojarski (Credit: RTS/Richard Kendal)

Video-sharing platform TikTok was the word on everyone’s lips leaving the second session, “Exploring Gen Z”. Many had not heard of the Chinese-owned social media sensation, but were keen to find out more in order to reach the elusive next generation of viewers. Many market researchers describe Generation Z as those born after 1997.

Defined by session chair Rob Chapman as the generation “for whom 9/11 wasn’t a coming of age event”, Gen Z were instead shaped by the recession of the last decade.