Twitch "isn't profitable" admits CEO, in wake of recent layoffs
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has admitted the Amazon-owned streaming platform isn't profitable. Clancy led a Q&A stream on Twi…
Maybe a few more ads in the middle of the thing I'm trying to watch, with no way to pause or rewind to catch what I missed, will do the trick.
When did that start? I used to be on Twitch 4-5 years ago, but never went back since then.
I don't remember ads at all back then
Ads used to be run at the streamers' discretion, and they were beaten by adblock. Now adblock doesn't work on Twitch, because they did the smart thing and embedded them into the stream. Also, a few years back, even though streamers have an incentive to run ads, because they benefit from it too, Twitch implemented mandatory thresholds for number of ads that need to be run or else you lose access to some tier of monetization, so most streamers leave it on auto pilot now. It means that whenever the same stream is running on YouTube, I'm watching on YouTube so I don't miss anything.
Adblockers still work so I've never seen ads on twitch
You know what that means: Gifting a sub with Prime is about to go away and so are all the loot drops with Prime. Also, more no opt out ads, longer preroll ads, and a larger list of partnered games getting headway.
So you know typical enshittification stuff.
This always makes me wonder how their operation can be so pricey.
It sounds more like their human resource cost is just absurd, not that their underlying technical operation is the problem. Plus assuming they did any calculation on the ads at all, their server usage should pay for itself as more load means more views means more ad impressions.
But what does Twitch need X-thousand people for if they still cannot do anything about curating content with those endless people? All I see of them is someone writing flip-flopping statements about whether nudity on stream is okay or not, always depends on which month it is it feels like.
Or they just shutter twitch once they realize it’s unprofitable.
Don't get my hopes up
If you are bad at your job, you lose your job. If the CEO is bad at their job, you lose your job. If the CEO is REALLY bad at their job, they get a golden parachute.
I simply don't believe this. They probably don't count all the gamers, who get Amazon prime for all the twitch loot. Then you also have people who throw around subs like confetti. Thot streams.
I simply don't believe this.
Best financial analysis I've ever heard. But maybe look up video hosting and streaming costs before speculating so confidently?
very typical for people that never even run or host their own server from data center or even cloud service.
live streaming is worse in bandwidth consumption compare to youtube with same resolution input to output. Like youtube can do whatever they like to keep the outgoing low even if you encode according to spec. But streaming with the demand of like 4~6s delay their 2nd pass to try lower the output bitrate is just not gonna be as good as youtube. That's why twitch still don't have 4k stream, they have new beta programs thanks to newer codec on newer GPU, as otherwise their data center is gonna get crushed hard.
Subs of which they can often take 50% commission on.
It is believable when you remember that American companies simply don't need to be profitable anymore
Maybe he should take a big pay cut if he's doing that bad a job
Is our business plan out of touch?
No, it's the employees who are wrong.
Get a better CEO then.
Idk that homeless guy looks like he’s got it figured out!
Oh please they couldn’t fucking handle moderation I don’t trust them to handle fucking money either.
Let it rot
What’s your alternative? YouTube?
Justin.tv 2.
I'll be honest, if the solution is Twitch, then I don't need my problem solved. That is, compared to Twitch, I don't need an alternative. Not having Twitch is a solid improvement over having Twitch. (kidding of course, but all too often it feels like that with just how bad the technical aspects of their site are)
One has to wonder if they just split off adult content into a separate platform using the same Amazon logins, and including cross-platform notifications one way from the twitch site to the adult site whether it would solve both their cash flow and advertising problem.
Where's that article that shows firms that make workers redundant are worse off in the long run when one needs it? Fuck these cunts. Maybe we should just get rid of capitalism instead.
I've never understood the appeal of watching twitch streams, I enjoy the edited compiled stuff with all the boring moments cut out that ends up on YouTube sometimes, but I see no point in watching a dude eating and drinking and staring at his monitor and shouting out to viewers.
Actively, no, but passively on a second monitor, I occasionally join in the discussion in chat. Finding a smallish streamer who actually reads you messages is nice.
Maybe then watch better streams. I usually watch streamers play games while talking to the chat or commenting on the gameplay, while I play a similar game. It's entertaining.
There's a lot more than just dudes eating and shouting.
Is it the infrastructure costs? I imagine that costs quite a bit
They pay themselves for infrastructure costs effectively, so it would be the wholesale price. Would love to see their actual accounting book, public data says they made 2.8 billion, would love to see where it went.
Imho you're wrong there.
Amazon has every incentive to write down Twitches infrastructure cost as far higher than it needs to be, to make Twitch look unprofitable.
Both to audience and shareholders. It'll allow them to force more advertising and push up sub prices while making the main corporation revenue look better.
This while the long term plan looks to be more about getting an excuse to shut down the public facing side of Twitch and get rid of having to deal with the streamers and viewers as direct clients and renting out streaming infrastructure to other streaming sites instead.
They want to condense their streaming services to simply be simple products they can sell or rent out to other sites rather than having to deal with a load of consumers and legal liabilities that come with them.
They recently left South Korea too.
Data is surprisingly cheap. It's more than likely just reinvesting any profits into growth to boost stock price/investment. A lot of companies are hitting the point where growth is leveling off, so they've switched to cutting costs
Bandwidth, which you need for streaming is not cheap
They thought the party was going to last forever, so they ordered a bunch of jumbo pizzas and kegs
I mean it's more like they paid themselves a bunch of bonuses and hired super duper growth hacking experts or whatever, and now they can't pay for them, so god forbid they cut from the top
Fucking doubt it. This is just an excuse for the layoffs. All the big streamers have tons and tons of subs, a lot of users have Twitch Prime since it's so cheap and they show multiple unskippable ads all the time. Plus, they are owned by Amazon and use their server infrastructure. This is 100% bullshit.
Sounds like Hollywood accounting where the movies with the largest gaps between production costs and ticket sales magically lose money.
Former Amazon employee here - Twitch is IMO a perfect example of Amazon tactics. Acquire, ignore, drain the engineering team down to a skeleton crew, further en- 💩 -ify the platform, and then wonder why profits are dwindling.
What a weird rollercoaster.
Three months ago at TwitchCon he was all smiles.
