world in podcast listeners, with 58% of South Koreans listening to podcasts every month. For comparison, in 2019, 32% of Americans had listened to podcasts in the last month. In 2020, 24% of Americans had listened to podcasts weekly. Comedy is the most popular podcast genre in the United States. There are more than 1,700,000 shows and nearly 44 million episodes as of January 19, 2021. Podtrac reports iHeartRadio's shows had more than 243 million downloads. IAB and PWC project that U.S. podcast advertising revenues will surpass $1 billion by 2021. Video podcasting A video podcast or vodcast is a podcast that contains video content. Web television series are often distributed as video podcasts. Dead End Days, a serialized dark comedy about zombies released from October 31, 2003, through 2004, is commonly believed to be the first video podcast. Never Not Funny was a pioneer in providing video content in the form of a podcast. Joe Rogan Experience has great examples of a litany of video podcasts, with many of them now being hosted on YouTube rather than as part of a feed (which was much more common when video podcasting was a brand-new medium). The key difference between a vlog and a video podcast is the length. While a vlog could technically be a video podcast, long-form conversational-style videos are generally considered to be a video podcast. Popularization Business model studies Classes of MBA students have been commissioned to research podcasting and compare possible business models, and venture capital flowing to influential content providers. Podnography As is often the case with new technologies, pornography has become a part of the scene, producing what is sometimes called podnography. Podsafe music The growing popularity of podcasting introduced a demand for music available for use on the shows without significant cost or licensing difficulty. Out of this demand, a growing number of tracks, by independent as well as signed acts, are now being designated "podsafe". Use by conventional media Podcasting has been given a major push by conventional media. (See Podcasting by traditional broadcasters.) Broadcast media Podcasting has presented both opportunities and challenges for mainstream radio outlets, which on one hand see it as an alternative medium for their programs while on the other hand struggle to identify its unique affordances and subtle differences. In a famous example of the way online statistics can be misused by those unused to the nuances