Streaming for Dummies
Streaming is a somewhat new-ish concept where people will broadcast their activities online, today it’s predominately used by gamers to publish their gameplay. In case you were wondering about these channels, I’ve broken down the primary platforms and some of the other apps/tools used by streamers.
Twitch — The Market Leader
- Founded: 2006 (as Justin.tv)
- Acquired by Amazon in 2014 for $970M
- 44B Minutes of Content Watched per month
- 81.5% Male
- 55% of users between 18–34
- 21.32% of viewers from the US
Twitch was originally founded as Justin.TV named after founder Justin Kan who even broadcasted his life 24/7 on the site for a period of time. At first, the product was intended to allow anyone to live stream videos online and the Twitch/gaming network was just one of the many channels available. In August 2014 the gaming channel grew so much that the company made the decision to rebrand and focus on Twitch. After some rumors of Google potentially buying the company, eventually those died out and Amazon swooped in for the acquisition.
Although, Twitch is the current market leader for Esports/gaming content you don’t necessarily have to be a gamer to grow an audience on the site. Interestingly enough, when I was on Twitch last week at 12:25am (I’m a night owl) the category with the most active viewers were in the “Just Chatting“ group.
Just Chatting is a miscellaneous category where you’ll find a wide array of videos outside of gaming, from streamers providing commentary on TV shows, giving tutorials, or simply just chatting with viewers, etc.
Youtube — The Forerunner
- Founded: 2005
- Acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65B
- 50B hours of gaming-related videos were watched last year (Venture Beat)
Youtube has made moves in the space by partnering with Esports leagues and is particularly popular for showcasing video highlights for tournaments and match fixtures. However, is nowhere close to Twitch’s viewership. Last year Youtube shut down their standalone Gaming App “Youtube Gaming” and integrated it into the main site. Still, many Esports teams will publish content on both channels.
Comparison of the Esports market between Twitch and Youtube via Newzoo
Facebook — The (More Than) Social Network
Facebook’s gaming platform has been relatively unnoticed by the greater FB population, however the direction seems to be upward trending which is the third most popular streaming service. It does appear that a large emphasis on their gaming initiatives have been mobile games and also has planted some early seeds into VR gaming as well.
Mixer — The (relatively) New Guy
- Founded: 2014 (as Beam)
- Acquired by Microsoft in 2016 for an undisclosed amount
- Hit 10M MAU (Monthly Active Users) last year
- Over 119M hours watched in first half of 2019 (Jan — Jun)
Mixer is a dedicated video game streaming site that is owned by Microsoft. The company recently made headlines after signing an exclusive contract with Twitch’s most popular streamer Tyler Blevins aka Ninja (see below most popular Twitch channels in July).
Ninja is a kind of big deal. Mixer’s move has been applauded by this power move.
Streamlabs — The Go-To Complimenting Product
- Founded: 2014
- Raised $16M to date
- 1.48M+ MAU (Monthly Active Users)
Channel Breakdown (Streamlabs blog)
- Twitch: 1.76M
- Youtube: 755K
- Mixer: 69K
- Facebook: 87K
Streamlabs is an interesting player in the space, they provide tools for streamers to build, produce and customize their channels and most importantly facilitate payments.
A large part of how Streamers make a living is through “donations” which are essentially tips from avid viewers.
Discord — The Slack of the Gaming Community
- Founded: 2012
- Raised $279.3M to date
- 56M MAU (Monthly Active Users) — (Games Industry)
Discord is the go-to communication for gamers and gaming communities. Its user experience is very close to Slack — featuring channels, teams, private messaging, etc.
It’s very common for Popular Streamers and Video Game titles to have their own Discord channels to cultivate their communities.
The resemblance to Slack is quite noticeable…🤔
Honorable Mentions:
- DouyuTV — the Chinese live-streaming site which raised over $1B in funding IPOed last month and is not doing so hot in the market, a large part due to US — China trade conflicts
- AfreecaTV — Korean live streaming site — there’s a lot of “Mukbang” content on the site: live video shows where hosts eats large quantities of food and socialize with their fans.
- Showroom — Japanese live streaming site, popularized by Japanese celebs.
- dlive — Live streaming site powered by the Lino blockchain, popular Youtuber PewDiePie recently announced he would move to.
- Tiltify — the largest fundraising tool for streamers and go-to charitable giving service for Twitch.
What did you think of this post? Any other tools, sites, etc. that you would have included? Let me know your thoughts!
-SK
