User-generated content was launched in the early 1990s as a conceptfor describing media content produced outside of professional media institu-tions by everyday media users. It gained widespread popularity around 2005and in the article it is argued that the rise of the concept coincides with the in-teractive web and the ability for industrialized media and culture production totake advantage of the productivity of ordinary users. The article discusses firstthe frameworks of production of UGC, including the business models of theplatform economy into which this kind of content is drawn. Secondly it dis-cusses the types of users who generate content, and thirdly it accounts for someof the criticism the concept has met. The article ends with situating UGC in thelonger history of media production and suggests an explanation for why theconcept appeared at the time it did.