Wired interviewed AboFlah, the YouTuber known offline as Hassan Suleiman, who has built one of the largest livestreaming followings on the platform with 50 million subscribers. Having spent most of his life broadcasting, he is now expanding beyond streaming into a media company and other ventures, while saying he wants his own children to grow up away from constant online exposure.

Suleiman cofounded the company 8Flamez with Eyad Siyam and Saad Sarwar to manage creators and build infrastructure for the creator economy, and is working towards a target of 100 million subscribers. His best-known feat was a charity livestream in which he spent 12 days locked in a glass box in Dubai, raising $11 million (about £8.7 million) for refugees and setting two world records, for the longest livestream and the most viewers for a livestream charity donation event. He is also launching an animated character, Slayman, in partnership with the channel Spacetoon, expected to debut around the end of this year or early next year.