Paris Creator Week is doubling in size. The business gathering for the creator economy opened this week at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris with about 8,000 attendees, executives from YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn, Spotify, and SoundCloud, and traditional media groups like Banijay and Mediawan. Co-founder Marc Lesage-Moretti, a former Goldman Sachs vice president who became a YouTuber known as Jokariz, says the goal is “to create the VivaTech of the creator economy.”
A new study unveiled at the event revealed that the global creator economy is on track to reach $217.3 billion in 2026, up 26.2 percent year over year, and has nearly tripled in five years. It’s projected to hit $1.22 trillion by 2033. France is a growing hub, with a local market of $10.1 billion this year, up 23.7 percent, which could more than double to $24.3 billion by 2030. That makes France the world’s seventh-largest creator economy and the third-largest in Europe, behind the U.K. and Germany. The sector already supports 227,000 full-time-equivalent jobs there.
Those numbers would have gotten a blank look three years ago. “When I started using that term in France three years ago, people looked at me as though I was speaking Chinese,” Lesage-Moretti said in a recent interview. People assumed it meant teenagers making videos in their bedrooms. He points to HugoDécrypte, the French news outlet that now employs around 40 people, including journalists and HR staff, as evidence of how professional it’s become. The event has grown with it. Attendance is up from about 4,000 to 4,600 last year, depending on the account, and exhibition space has grown from 200 to 1,000 square meters, with YouTube alone taking a 100-square-meter stand. Overseas attendees now make up 30 percent or more of the crowd.
The study also shows where the money comes from. Sponsorships and commercial partnerships account for 49.8 percent of the global creator economy, followed by advertising on creator content at 22.7 percent and paid subscriptions at 13.8 percent. Advertisers are expected to contribute $172.8 billion in 2026. “Brands that traditionally invested their money in other media or advertising channels are redirecting those budgets toward content creators,” Lesage-Moretti said, adding that the money from these partnerships goes straight from a company to the creator without the platform taking a cut. That 13.8 percent is the share that matters most for OnlyFans and other subscription platforms, which rely on fans paying creators directly. It’s far smaller than brand money, but it’s where creators own the relationship and how much they can move the needle on their income.
That ownership question runs through the event. Drew Baldwin, head of Prentiss Media and founder of Tubefilter and the Streamy Awards, says creators on social platforms are still “renting audiences.” “They don’t own the audience,” he said. “And the creators who can figure out how to take their audience and own that relationship are the ones who are going to be able to build new businesses around that community.” He expects consolidation over time, with some winners and some who close shop, and points to MrBeast, Dhar Mann, and the Sidemen as examples of creators building businesses that can scale beyond their original audiences and tap real media budgets, not just marketing ones.
Deals are already happening. The study counts 70 acquisitions in the first half of 2026, up 23 percent from a year earlier. North America accounts for 64.3 percent of targets, Europe 27.1 percent. This year’s program adds an M&A track on how to value creator businesses and manage “key man risk,” which is the danger when a company is built around one personality. Lesage-Moretti says some founder-driven businesses have drawn investment anyway, like the French podcast company Legend, which attracted a Belgian fund at a valuation of €72 million. Co-founder Pierre Allary says Europe has few creator businesses to buy, but that’s beginning to change.
The program has four tracks. One covers how creators start, grow, fund, and exit companies, with a session featuring fitness creator Tibo InShape, who has more than 50 million followers and runs a supplement business. A second focuses on how brands choose and work with creators. A third, called ScreenTube, looks at the convergence of television, press, and creators. The fourth looks at creators’ role in elections and whether creator-entrepreneurs have social status and legal protections. Allary says he never wanted AI to be the central topic, preferring to ask where it’s profitable and who it helps.
Why a business conference for creators now? Baldwin sums it up. “It’s not a fan event. This is the business of the creator economy.”