Short answers, pulled from the story.
British journalist Ben Hammersley coined the word podcast in early February 2004 while writing an article for The Guardian newspaper. The term is a portmanteau of iPod and broadcast and was created before Apple added podcasting features to the iPod.
The story of podcasting began in earnest in September 2000 when i2Go launched a service called MyAudio2Go.com. This early MP3 player manufacturer allowed users to download news stories for listening on their PCs or MP3 players until the company collapsed in 2001.
Apple released iTunes 4.9 in June 2005, adding formal support for podcasts and negating the need for separate programs. This release also prompted Apple to issue cease-and-desist orders to many developers for using the term iPod in their product names.
The Ricky Gervais Show became the world's most successful podcast for several years and gained more than 300 million unique downloads by March 2011. The second series of the podcast was distributed through audible.co.uk and was the first major podcast to charge consumers to download the show at a rate of 95 pence per half-hour episode.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office invalidated five provisions of Personal Audio's podcasting patent on the 10th of April 2015. This decision cleared the way for the industry to continue growing without the threat of crippling lawsuits from the company known as a patent troll.
The number of Chinese podcast listeners exceeded 220 million in 2023. India emerged as the third-largest podcast listening market after China and the US with over 57.6 million listeners and was projected to have 95 million Podcast monthly active users in 2021.