Hi there. It’s Brady, kicking off a new week.

The creator economy is a tough beast to read. How does a platform and the content creators who utilize it make money from an experience that many consumers expect to be free?

The short answer is to step into multiple verticals—livestreaming e-commerce, gaming, and entertainment content—to glue users to your app and create diversified ways for people to spend money, whether by hitting the “buy” button or by purchasing “beans” that are gifted to livestreamers. Khamila dived into the matter by unpacking Bigo Live’s business.

There are risks. The platform depends on creators, whose individual behaviors impact the overall operation. Bigo Live faced partial bans in Indonesia and severe scrutiny in Malaysia in 2016 because of its “vulgar” content. The same happened in Pakistan last year.

Check out Khamila’s feature for a full recap of what Bigo Live has been up to, and what it means for the monetization of the creator economy.

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