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Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

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Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#91

Post by fragola »

chippy wrote: post #26
wehadfun wrote: post #21

Watching people play video games is something I still don't understand.

Give it a try, see if you like it. I'd suggest a variety streamer first. The main thing for me, is that it's entertainment, not really the game itself. Visualise this: Imagine your favourite comedian cracking jokes, now imagine him cracking jokes while playing a video game. Now imagine a chat of thousands joining in and interacting with your favourite comedian. Now imagine yourself talking to and cracking jokes with…

This sounds terrible, really! Which makes sense because I do not like Twitch etc. :)

The GP is getting downvoted, so I guess a lot of people do enjoy watching games be played instead of playing them. Thank you for providing an explanation. As someone who does not enjoy it, it IS really difficult to understand.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#92

Post by Multiplayer »

My 9 year old son would rather watch people play minecraft than actually play it. I'm not talking about competitive or pro play (if that even exists for minecraft) - just people goofing around.

Potentially just an enormous new business for games.

I still can't get my head around it. It's like his version of cartoons.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#93

Post by justicezyx »

alexandre_m wrote: post #33

This whole industry of game streaming is operating in a gray zone. It's a matter of time before we see some big lawsuits against the streamer and streaming platforms which make a lot of money by publishing the whole content, without any royalties to game developers /publishers. For certain games. it doesn't spoil or ruin the fun factor for viewers, but some others it just removed the incentives to buy a copy of the g…

I think you probably did not watch gaming videos a lot. So far the streaming are vides are an integral part of the gaming industry.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#94

Post by kmnc »

thecolorblue wrote: post #45

What is a good example of a twitch stream to show how great live streaming can be?

Look for semi popular games with viewers in the 200-1000 viewers and you will find a lot of really good, entertaining people who interact with chat. Big streams are entertaining but fail to capture the magic and often become horrible people. In my opinion the glory days of twitch are already behind them because they have failed to incentivise small time streamers. Most pro esports players don't stream because the income is not worth the bullshit of the community.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#95

Post by ben_jones »

dexwiz wrote: post #2

Amazon bought two things with Twitch: 1) A social community 2) a monetization model. The video service itself is secondary. The past several years has shown the social communities grow organically. But its hard to make users adopt one. If you build it, they probably won't come. It's easier for a big company to buy one up than start one from scratch. (Think Instagram versus Google Plus). Second, Twitch is one of the f…

They bought, in one form or another, the very phenomenon of video game addiction. I'd love to see their user activity numbers because I really believe a large portion of the twitch demographic spends Facebook-esque # of hours on the site per day. And here's the thing, people love Twitch. Their seen as a champion of gamers that allowed streamers to stream, giving monetization strategies as a gift.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#96

Post by durga »

AndrewWarner wrote: post #18

Maybe the most useful interview I've ever done on Mixergy is with Twitch's cofounder about how he founded the company. Do yourself a favor and get the transcript. He's super-methodical. https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Bcu32XwL4S0BHB2fybaqRRQ...

this is amazing. thanks for sharing... His talk on user testing at Stanford is also amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAws7eXItMk

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#98

Post by lonelycoder2 »

Multiplayer wrote: post #92

My 9 year old son would rather watch people play minecraft than actually play it. I'm not talking about competitive or pro play (if that even exists for minecraft) - just people goofing around. Potentially just an enormous new business for games. I still can't get my head around it. It's like his version of cartoons.

It's not really a new phenomena. Look back in the 70s or 80s with arcades, people would stand around watching their friends play. Then later young people went to each others houses and played video games (mostly multiplayer but some single player and watched).

It's entertaining watching how other people do things. They might play differently than how you would play it.

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#99

Post by erichocean »

AndrewWarner wrote: post #18

Maybe the most useful interview I've ever done on Mixergy is with Twitch's cofounder about how he founded the company. Do yourself a favor and get the transcript. He's super-methodical. https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Bcu32XwL4S0BHB2fybaqRRQ...

Thanks! That interview is a textbook example of an entrepreneur applying the approach documented in Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Blank (and taught, I believe, at Stanford).

If you haven't read Blank's book and you liked the approach in the interview, do yourself a favor and read the book. :)

Re: Twitch could be a $20B company within Amazon

#100

Post by bballer »

strictnein wrote: post #36

If you're interested in the backstory of Justin.tv (which became Twitch), StartUp has a two part podcast on it: https://gimletmedia.com/episode/almost-famous-season-3-episo... https://gimletmedia.com/episode/season-3-episode-2/

Just wanted to say thanks for these links. One because the story was/is awesome, and two, I had no idea about StartUp Podcast.

It was funny when one of the co-founders said something along the lines of "who the hell wants to watch other people play video games on the internet," little did he know... I beat my head on my desk some days thinking "why didn't I think of that!!!!" and then I beat my head on my desk again thinking, "what other ridiculous sounding simple idea is lurking out there yet uncovered." If anyone stumbles across that very thing and needs help brining it to fruition, pm me :D

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