Twitch CEO Emmett Shear's Top Prioritizes Are Growth and Monetization
*By Brandon Brathwaite*
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear knows that, while his streaming service is thriving, the company still has a lot of work ahead to make its platform more friendly for streamers.
In an interview from TwitchCon 2018, Cheddar CEO Jon Steinberg pointed out some of the difficulties with setting up Twitch's streaming tool, OBS, and asked why Twitch didn’t do more to make streaming easier. Shear admitted to the tool's shortcomings, but also made the argument that streamers were sending Twitch a different message about their top priorities.
“Their top priorities are around reach, monetization, and trying to create healthy, thriving communities,” said Shear. “I’m sure at some point we’ll invest in trying to make streaming easier, it just hasn’t reached the top of the priority list.”
Despite the barrier of entry for streaming, Twitch is still enjoying a renaissance that can contribute to the rise of gaming and esports. Shear explained that the business of Twitch, which he describes as multiplayer entertainment, is “having a moment."
Fortnite is having the kind of moment that Shear is speaking of, but he doesn’t see Twitch's success as a detriment to the games on the platform.
“We still see games from Activision-Blizzard ($ATVI) doing well," he said. "We still see games from EA ($EA) doing really well. We see a ton of indie games doing well."
The formula of success for Twitch is in its ability to ride the wave of hit games that take off on its platform, according to Shear.
“Every time there’s a new hit game that’s a new thing that works on Twitch... it doesn’t destroy the old stuff, it adds to it.”
TwitchCon 2018, the annual event for streamers and industry partners that's hosted by Twitch, is now in its fourth year. And despite more attention than ever, the event has still been able to uphold its quirky, gamer-centered culture that helped Twitch gain early dominance as the live-streaming platform for streamers.
Shear led off the event's keynote by pointing out that more than a million people are watching streams on the platform with half a million streamers providing the content. As part of its revenue program, over 235,000 streamers are Affiliates on the streaming service, and more than 6,000 have reached Partner status. The achievement speaks to how well Twitch can create revenue streams for its broadcasters.
To make the most of the growth the company has seen, Twitch rolled out a number of new and upcoming features centered around helping grow communities and sharing in the streaming experience. One such feature is the new Squad Stream, which allows up to four streamers to stream together in a single view. Viewers will be able to customize the experience, selecting the viewpoint they wish to have from the streamers that have been paired together. Revamps to the Twitch homepage to highlight different segments of its growing broadcaster base and better moderation tools were also announced during the keynote.
For the full interview with Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/twitch-ceo-emmett-shear-on-growth-of-twitch-the-rise-of-fortnite-and-amazon-during-twitchcon-2018)
After two incredibly close games, the Super Bowl matchup is set. On February 13th, at the SoFi stadium in Inglewood, California, the Los Angeles Rams will face off in their home stadium against the Cincinnati Bengals. After 54 Super Bowls where a home team never hosted the game on its field, it will now happen for the second year in a row, after Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs last year. Speaking of Brady, ESPN dropped a bombshell of a headline Saturday that Tom Brady was set to retire after 22 seasons and seven rings. To discuss all the latest NFL news, Anthony Tall, President of Miracle Sports Group, joins Cheddar News.
In January alone, the gaming sector has seen three major acquisitions. Yesterday, Sony added to the flurry of M&A activity in the gaming space, snatching up game developer 'Bungie' for $3.6 billion dollars. Renee Gittins, executive director at the International Gaming Developers Association, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
NFL legend Tom Brady says he is done playing football after 22 seasons. Cheddar News speaks with Trey Wingo, Chief NFL Analyst at Pro Football Network, about Brady announcing his retirement.
Greg Bishop, Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says Tom Brady's legacy is all about 'progress' and expects the future Hall of Famer to bolster his entrepreneurial ventures following his retirement.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has been a driving force for youth mentorship since 1904. The nonprofit organization is launching its annual Big Draft campaign this month in partnership with the NFL, and Artis Stevens, the first Black CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, joined Cheddar to discuss the push for adding more "Bigs" as mentors on his one-year anniversary leading the non-profit organization. "While the NFL is recruiting and drafting more players, they're also helping us to draft more mentors and, particularly, men all the way from across February to all the way to April of this year," Stevens explained.
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, Jim Riordan, Director of the MBA Sport Management program at Florida Atlantic University, breaks down the successes, failures, and chaos of the first seven months of the Name, Image, Likeness policy in college athletics; Adi Kunalic, President of Opendorse, discusses the first-ever association-wide deal in college athletics between Opendorse and the NAIA, and how Opendorse is marketing and educating student-athletes to make the most of their NIL deal potential; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Predicting a Pro'.
Jim Riordan, Director of the MBA Sport Management program at Florida Atlantic University, joins Cheddar Reveals to break down the successes, failures, and chaos of the first seven months of the Name, Image, Likeness policy in college athletics.
Adi Kunalic, President of Opendorse, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss the first-ever association-wide deal in college athletics between Opendorse and the NAIA, and how Opendorse is marketing and educating student-athletes to make the most of their NIL deal potential.
With the Beijing Winter Olympics set to get underway on Friday, Dan Wolken, a national columnist for USA Today, joined Cheddar News to break down the big storylines as the pandemic and international conflicts threaten to cast a cloud over the event that is aspirationally seen as a beacon of international cooperation. Wolken noted specific issues over cybersecurity for visiting athletes and disputes over human rights leading to a diplomatic boycott have been making waves even before the opening ceremony. "So you've got sort of these barbs going back and forth already between the Americans and the Chinese, and things haven't even started yet," he said. "We don't even know what's going to happen once the games start and people actually start winning medals."
