3 ms·

Twitch is bleeding users to YouTube--watch time is consistently decreasing YoY. IMO, they're stuck between YouTube and Discord and can't figure out a compellin

Twitch is bleeding users to YouTube--watch time is consistently decreasing YoY. IMO, they're stuck between YouTube and Discord and can't figure out a compelling offering over the two.

swyx 2y ago
source of stats please?
- stale2002 2y ago
  The stats are pretty public. https://twitchtracker.com/statistics https://twitchtracker.com/statistics This is on top of the fact that they laid off over half the company in the last couple years.
  - swyx 2y ago
    i'm not deep on this world so thank you for this. honestly yeah its declined some but not as bad as feared. it's still well above pre covid trendline.
dmix 2y ago
Why is that? Is it because the streaming creators are so chaotic? Or convergence on a centralized platform people already use (youtube)?
- stale2002 2y ago
  Former Twitch employee of 4 years here. Its a combinations of 2 things. 1: The Malaise of Big Tech caught up to them years ago, and Twitch simply can't build anymore. They are way too slow, bloated, and they have a list of dozens and dozens of failed/shutdown products/feature that failed to create growth. They laid off over half the company in the last 3 years. 2: More nimble competitors like Kick.com have finally started seeing success. This is compounded by the fact that kick has an unlimited wallet, because it is funded by the massively successful crypto gambling company Stake. This war-chest has allowed them to buy streamers by simply paying everyone on the platform an hourly rate to stream, based on viewership. And they can do so, profitably, because the streaming platform is simply a loss leader for the gambling platform. Short story is, Twitch is screwed. They can't wait out the competitors like they did with previous platforms like mixer, because the new competitor isn't losing money. Gambling is massively profitable. And they are too slow and have laid off too many people, to be able to innovate their way out of its current mess. The only two paths they have left are a slow, but steady decline, or a hail mary play of firing their entire executive team and replacing it with people who will run Twitch like a wartime startup.

Twitch is bleeding users to YouTube--watch time is consistently decreasing YoY. IMO, they're stuck between YouTube and Discord and can't figure out a compelling offering over the two.

swyx 2y ago

source of stats please?

stale2002 2y ago
The stats are pretty public. https://twitchtracker.com/statistics https://twitchtracker.com/statistics This is on top of the fact that they laid off over half the company in the last couple years.
- swyx 2y ago
  i'm not deep on this world so thank you for this. honestly yeah its declined some but not as bad as feared. it's still well above pre covid trendline.

dmix 2y ago

Why is that? Is it because the streaming creators are so chaotic? Or convergence on a centralized platform people already use (youtube)?

stale2002 2y ago
Former Twitch employee of 4 years here. Its a combinations of 2 things. 1: The Malaise of Big Tech caught up to them years ago, and Twitch simply can't build anymore. They are way too slow, bloated, and they have a list of dozens and dozens of failed/shutdown products/feature that failed to create growth. They laid off over half the company in the last 3 years. 2: More nimble competitors like Kick.com have finally started seeing success. This is compounded by the fact that kick has an unlimited wallet, because it is funded by the massively successful crypto gambling company Stake. This war-chest has allowed them to buy streamers by simply paying everyone on the platform an hourly rate to stream, based on viewership. And they can do so, profitably, because the streaming platform is simply a loss leader for the gambling platform. Short story is, Twitch is screwed. They can't wait out the competitors like they did with previous platforms like mixer, because the new competitor isn't losing money. Gambling is massively profitable. And they are too slow and have laid off too many people, to be able to innovate their way out of its current mess. The only two paths they have left are a slow, but steady decline, or a hail mary play of firing their entire executive team and replacing it with people who will run Twitch like a wartime startup.