“Words only go so far.”
It’s been a difficult year forTwitchso far.
Take revenue split for instance.
At present, Twitch offers streamers a 50/50 revenue split in comparison to 70/30 on rival platforms.
Twitch swiftly walked those back.
More positively,new labels for mature contentwere included following last year’s controversies around child abuse and gambling.
UK streamers were disappointed inTwitch’s lack of support for Pride Month.
A newly-launchedcharity tool included hate groups.
And Twitch is yet to fully amend its advertising practices, with streams frequently interrupted by unskippable adverts.
To top it all off,Twitch laid off 400 employees in Marchas part of job cuts at Amazon.
“We owe a lot of trust back to our community,” she said.
Words only go so far.
“Sentiment from the community always goes up and down.
From the outside, whenever sentiment is pretty low, I think it always looks bad.
But in general, the Twitch community - from a metrics perspective - I think is healthy.”
It certainly looks like the platform’s metrics are on the rise.
Anecdotally, too, streamers say they have seen a drop in viewership over the past year.
Despite all of this, there are positives on the horizon.
At TwitchCon Paris, the platform announced astring of new products to support the streaming community.
These are vital for smaller streamers looking to grow their communities.
“I think we still have a lot of opportunity [in mobile],” Forrester said.
“Twitch is very much a desktop platform, it’s very much a leanback experience.
Every idea we looked at is best for mobile.
So how can we use mobile as more of an augment to how we’ve watched Twitch traditionally?”
Another new feature announced at TwitchCon was an ad countdown in chat.
Who are the big chatters?
Who are the big people in the community who would love attention?"
AI is another potential area of growth, though Forrester recognises this can be a “blurry line”.
Beyond products, it’s the community that really drives Twitch as a platform.
You have to learn and you have to be willing to try."
Another major area for Kish as head of community is improving diversity.
Look at thetop 50 streamers via TwitchTracker, and the vast majority are men.
Kish is passionate about uplifting women on the platform and ensuring their safety.
“It’s extremely important to me that we are able to uplift women and make them feel safe.
Women have a lot of ceilings that impact them that I don’t think our male streamers currently have.
There is a massive influx of women who receive harassment.
She added: “We need to get women to ensure they have a seat at that table.
“I’m personally very bullish,” he said.
“You’re going to actually see influencers making games, getting involved in game dev.
And you’re going to start seeing the industry evolve in a sense it hasn’t done before.
This is something we’re already seeing, with popularYouTuber dunkey launching his own indie publishing company.
“Even though it would have been a solid experience, it thrives because of Twitch.”
For many, Twitch remains the best place to deliver and watch live streamed content online.