5 ms·

I can't say I'm surprised. Combined with Emmett's departure, Amazon is painting a picture of the belief that Twitch has hit its cap. Video games are a hits-driv

by madrox 4y ago

I can't say I'm surprised. Combined with Emmett's departure, Amazon is painting a picture of the belief that Twitch has hit its cap. Video games are a hits-driven business, and that goes for Twitch as well. The popularity of the service is driven by games they show, and all attempts to break that ceiling or diversify revenue simply hasn't worked. Now it's time to cut costs and squeeze existing revenue streams. The good news is that, combined with the implosion of most esports, there may be room to innovate again. Twitch and game publishers didn't leave a lot of room for startups. If they no longer believe there's a ton of money to be made by taking risks, maybe there's an opportunity for new businesses to try again.

activitypea 4y ago
The "innovation" is really a retreat to Youtube. Their livestream UX can't hold a candle to Twitch or even Mixer, but you livestream on Youtube, you can slightly (re)structure your livestream and leave it up as a 2-3 hour video. Youtube's algorithm will gobble it up and spit it out on people's homepages and search results. A lot of people will watch a bit of your stream, usually the first 10-20 minutes, but the conversion rate from VOD to future live viewers is better than you'd think. And all of this despite Google's designers working hard to make the worst UI possible. Twitch's focus on live and hostility towards VODs makes it a zero sum game, and their discoverability makes it a "the rich get richer" system. If you look at your revenue as a function of hours streamed per week, YT makes more sense for everyone but the top 1% on Twitch.
- corbulo 4y ago
  There's also a culture on Twitch of once you make it big to almost never stop streaming. That above all else I think is what informs the rich get richer system. Twitch's hostility to VODs greatly contribute to that. You can't ever take a break and let passive income trickle in.
anon115 4y ago
so how does esports make any money?
- brutusurp 4y ago
  Money laundering.
- moogly 4y ago
  It doesn't. Especially not of late.
- dgellow 4y ago
  Virtually nobody makes money in esport
moogly 4y ago
> The popularity of the service is driven by games they show, The most popular content now seems to be Just Chatting and react content. These days you can get to see 4 levels of OTK streamers watching and reacting to each others' react videos, sometimes in some kind of circular dependency graph.
- madrox 4y ago
  I was over-simplifying for the purposes of a comment, but I think my point stands. Just Chatting is an interesting one, because it's mostly a parking space for streamers who are just engaging with chat. However, that's content that retains a streamer's audience most of the time. That's hardly the content that will draw new people to the platform. You have a few notable exceptions, but it's hardly anything Twitch can grow the platform on the back of.
  - moogly 4y ago
    That's true; those streamers tend to be the ones who have made it and have "tenure" now.

by madrox 4y ago

activitypea 4y ago

The "innovation" is really a retreat to Youtube. Their livestream UX can't hold a candle to Twitch or even Mixer, but you livestream on Youtube, you can slightly (re)structure your livestream and leave it up as a 2-3 hour video. Youtube's algorithm will gobble it up and spit it out on people's homepages and search results. A lot of people will watch a bit of your stream, usually the first 10-20 minutes, but the conversion rate from VOD to future live viewers is better than you'd think. And all of this despite Google's designers working hard to make the worst UI possible. Twitch's focus on live and hostility towards VODs makes it a zero sum game, and their discoverability makes it a "the rich get richer" system. If you look at your revenue as a function of hours streamed per week, YT makes more sense for everyone but the top 1% on Twitch.

corbulo 4y ago
There's also a culture on Twitch of once you make it big to almost never stop streaming. That above all else I think is what informs the rich get richer system. Twitch's hostility to VODs greatly contribute to that. You can't ever take a break and let passive income trickle in.

anon115 4y ago

so how does esports make any money?

brutusurp 4y ago
Money laundering.
moogly 4y ago
It doesn't. Especially not of late.
dgellow 4y ago
Virtually nobody makes money in esport

moogly 4y ago

> The popularity of the service is driven by games they show, The most popular content now seems to be Just Chatting and react content. These days you can get to see 4 levels of OTK streamers watching and reacting to each others' react videos, sometimes in some kind of circular dependency graph.

madrox 4y ago
I was over-simplifying for the purposes of a comment, but I think my point stands. Just Chatting is an interesting one, because it's mostly a parking space for streamers who are just engaging with chat. However, that's content that retains a streamer's audience most of the time. That's hardly the content that will draw new people to the platform. You have a few notable exceptions, but it's hardly anything Twitch can grow the platform on the back of.
- moogly 4y ago
  That's true; those streamers tend to be the ones who have made it and have "tenure" now.