Marketplace Economics

The supply-and-demand dynamics of two-sided platforms connecting producers and consumers. Substack is analyzed as a labor marketplace — writers as supply, readers as demand — where the unit economics are: 500k paying readers × ~$18 AOV × ~2 subscriptions per reader = ~$18M gross monthly revenue, with an effective take rate of 15–21% (higher than the advertised 10% due to payment processing). The comparison to the New York Times (4.2x EV/revenue) makes Substack’s $650M valuation at ~3x gross revenue appear cheap if growth continues. See also Creator Economy.

Where this appears

• I Was Curious Re. Substack’s… (tweet)