So Lets Talk About Twitch

How It Started

So lets be honest with ourselves, we would all love to do something we find fun for a living. Whether it be creating something with your hands or doing something with your brain, we all have this deep connection with doing something that we could never imagine getting paid for. For these reasons alone is why the streaming platform Twitch dominates and leads a now fast growing community of people called "streamers" who either play video games or live stream themselves doing other things. On the surface what makes the platform amazing is the ability to make content and help grow your following while giving yourself the possibility of making a comfortable living, but what really makes Twitch stand out above anything else is the cult like following some of these streamers have, while some have become so famous that they have broken the reigns and image of what the average "streamer" is and what the future can hold for other streamers. Now while this all may sound great and ground breaking but to start this story we all need to go back to 2007 when Justin Kan and Emmett Shear decided to do something different.

Really if you think about all good ideas start from the idea of doing things differently. Facebook started with connecting college students with other college students in one giant network that was only intended to stay within door rooms. Air BnB came from a idea of not wanting to pay outrageous rent prices and to make couch surfing a little bit more easier (even one of the founders lived exclusively through early Air BnB listings). So to understand Twitch it is good to understand that it becoming the behemoth it is now in 2021 was not the original intention. It really began when Justin Kan wanted to live stream himself living his daily life with also a very few of his friends allowed as well. This was of course properly named Justin.tv. (ironically enough it didn't even start with video games).

Some Background Context

Back in 2007 streaming was not what it is now, 2005 was when Youtube started taking off but their streaming was confined to just people uploading videos and you watching them on your computer. Netflix had just launched its own streaming video site in 2007 but again it was for only videos and television shows. So when Justin.tv started opening up more and more "channels" as they would call them, it opened up opportunities that were not seen before, with everyone producing their own content in their own way. At the time it was mostly IRL channels (In Real Life for all you normies out there), but something slowly but surely starting clawing its way to the top like the apex predator that it is: VIDEO GAMES.

Now like anything that is created there comes test runs and trials to see what works and what doesn't work, that is what it is supposed to be at least. Twitch at the time (still formerly known as Justin.tv) was creating something for streamers by letting the channels find their own way. Nothing was curated for streamers other then giving them the tools to show and entertain people in any sort of way (per policy guidelines of course). So this is how Justin and Emmett were able to start seeing that this little platform they had created was slowly grabbing the attention of high profile pro gamers aka the E-Sports League. These were all the big names of streaming mostly started. From the iconic Ninja to the lowkey yet popular Shroud and many many more, most started streaming on Twitch to show off their skill set for their respective games and represent their team and more importantly their own namesake. This is what started making Twitch into what it is now.

Trials, Tribulations, Success

Lets be real Twitch was not supposed to last more then a couple of years let alone over a decade. The first concept of it was labeled as a "terrible idea" by one of its founder, Justin Kan, and had constant hate from people on the outside. Most people didn't get the whole IRL thing (even at the time it was called life casting... so weird) and Justin from Justin.tv himself got swatted in its early stages, and by the way being swatted is by far one of the most scariest things that can ever happen to someone. It literally involves calling the police and saying someone is armed and holding hostages or violently attacking someone and having a SWAT TEAM RAID YOUR LOCATION! Like dude, that would be enough for anyone to not keep a company going but these guys shook it off and kept treading forward.

Even with all that hoopla and backlash this company was getting it was still forging its own destiny and in 2011 it finally all came into a reality when Justin.tv, as it was formally known as, became Twitch.tv. The name "Twitch" came from a video game reference that test a players reaction time, a simple yet powerful nod to show the past and future were all conveying into one social hub for gamers and streamers alike, and boy did this thing blow up. The first year alone it pulled in over 3 million unique visitors a month and in just one year it was at over 20 million unique visitors a month and by 2014 that number was at over 55 million unique visitors. The growth of the company was exploding and every individual streamer had the potential to create their own identity and content for their own audience and following, making the possibilities endless.

From the average gamer to the hardcore pro who knew all the tricks in the book (or in this case video games), all the way to streamers who wanted to just interact with people and show them their daily lives to people trying to create a brand for themselves, Twitch was right for everyone. Twitch is unlike anything before itself and creating its own path to greatness, so that is why when Twitch decided to sell itself to Amazon for 970 million dollars it kind of shocked a whole bunch of people. Most of the questions didn't even come from people within Twitch but from outsiders looking in, begging the question on why Bezos decided to get into the streaming/gaming industry (little did anyone know Bezos was about to make a butt load of money from this transaction). Really what it came down to was funding and frustration, Emmett Shear at this point was the main shot caller for Twitch back when Amazon acquired it and gave him the ability to keep working at the company he helped founded while not having to worry about raising more money to keep everything afloat. This was in itself the best thing for Twitch as Amazon helped scale the business into something that would have took Shear way more years to do with a lot more complications.

The Continuation and Future of Twitch

April 24, 2017 was a glorious day for Twitch streamers. It marked the beginning of a new era of how people can monetize their own streams by starting the Twitch Affiliation Program. This meant that a person who was not signed with Twitch could start making some money while streaming by having their viewers "cheering" and sending "bits", it is kind of like a currency on Twitch that people that are effectively mini-donations from viewers. This meant that budding streamers could start making money while trying to go full time, which is important especially when most of the streamers on Twitch are not partnered making some streamers having to make the difficult decision of either working their normal jobs or go after their goal and stream full time. This is just one of many things Twitch has done for its streamers, but another market also has Twitch as the forefront runner. This is of course is from hosting major gaming tournaments like Overwatch League & CS:GO ELS Pro League (which are some of the most watched tournaments in the world by the way) to even starting its own convention, TwitchCon back in 2015. This convention was created to cater to its millions of dedicated followers and subscribers, giving a chance for viewers to meet and greet some of their favorite streamers.

I think what is the most important parts for Twitch becoming what it is today, and I would stress this is from a pure opinionated standpoint, is that Twitch didn't try to be anything other than being a source of entertainment. Yes there is labels on what can and is popular but that is what makes Twitch so unique is not the ability to be someone but the ability to be anything you want on their. If you go to Twitch now you will see of course the new favorite Call of Duty game or the teams grinding it out on competitive Valorant tournaments but what you see are also channels dedicated to art, music, and even in real life streams (comes back full circle doesn't it). This is what makes Twitch so amazing and fun is that you can hop on and watch a brand new streamer with 0 views and 0 followers and watch them take this journey into the great beyond or watch the veterans of Twitch do their thing day after day to near perfection. It is the ability to not just make a living from streaming but to start a career off of something that came from pure enjoyment, it is in essence the ability to do something different that makes Twitch so amazingly unique.