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Twitch (service)

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Twitch (formally Twitch.TV) is a live streaming video platform oriented towards video gaming.[1][2] The website was launched in June 2011 by Justin.tv co-founders Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, as a subsidiary of Justin.tv focused on gaming related content.[1] Twitch is headquartered in San Francisco. According to internal analytics, there are over 35 million viewers on Twitch every month, with the average viewer watching an hour and a half a day.[3][4][5]

Purpose

Twitch is designed to be a platform for electronic sports, widely known as eSports, in which video game players can watch, in real-time, other players. The platform has become a popular way for gamers to watch tournaments and learn strategies from other gamers. Streams also include watching popular broadcasters such as gaming-related talk shows.[6] TwitchTV is intended to be "the ESPN of gaming".[3]

Twitch has become a popular way for gamers to make money as well. Twitch has made it much easier for its users, and essentially any gamer, to broadcast their live gaming.[3] Broadcasters are awarded with money when they consistently attract a large amount of viewers to their channel. The more popular broadcasters include players who excel in the game and players who are interesting to watch because of their commentary. This leads to unique gameplay that attracts less-talented players of the game who may want to learn top strategies. Broadcasters who aren't as talented but deliver great commentary also attract a large amount of viewers due to their "personality" according to Marcus Graham, who is a popular eSports commentator.[3]

History

After Justin.tv launched in 2007, the site quickly began building subject-specific content categories like Social, Tech, Sports, Entertainment, News & Events, Gaming and others. Gaming, in particular, grew very fast and became the most popular content on the site.[7] The company then decided to spin off the gaming content under a separate brand at a separate site. They named it Twitch.TV, inspired by the term twitch gameplay. It launched officially in public beta on June 6, 2011.[8]

Since then, Twitch has attracted more than 35 million unique visitors a month.[5] Each month averages about a 13 percent increase in viewers. On May 1, 2012, Twitch won a Webby Award called the "Webby People's Voice Award" in the games-related category.[9]

Partners

In July 2011, Twitch launched its Partner Program.[10] Similar to the Partner Program of other video sites like YouTube, the Partner Program allows popular content producers to share in the ad revenue generated from their streams.

Twitch's partnership has over 4,000 members.[5] Some of the more widely known partners include Electronic Sports League (ESL), Day[9]TV, IGN Pro League (IPL), Major League Gaming (MLG), and North American Star League (NASL).[citation needed]

On April 17, 2012, it was announced that Twitch would be partnering with CBS Interactive, owners of GameSpot and Giant Bomb, who will exclusively sell advertising, promotions and sponsorships for the community.[11][12] On June 5, 2013, Twitch announced the formation of the Twitch Media Group, a new in-house ad sales team. The Twitch Media Group will take over CBS Interactive's roll of selling advertisements.[5]

Phone Application

Twitch is available as an app on the iPhone and iPad. Key features include viewing Twitch's streaming content in high definition and in landscape view. It offers a browsing option of the top streamers. Users can browse by game title or featured games. The app also allows users to follow their favorite channels. In addition to this, there is also an in-app chatting feature which allows viewers to chat with other viewers. An application is also available for Android.[13]

Content and audience

Twitch features a broad range of videogame streams that covers most game genres. More popular genres include real-time strategy (RTS) games, fighting games, racing games, and first-person shooter games, among others. Popular titles on the site include as of June 2013 include League of Legends, Dota 2, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, World of Tanks, Diablo III, Team Fortress 2 and many others. The Twitch homepage currently displays games based on viewership.

Currently, Twitch does not support viewing streams on the PlayStation 3, but does on the Xbox 360 with a dedicated app. However, Twitch is hoping to change this in the near future by providing its app across all gaming consoles.[3] On June 10, 2013, Microsoft announced a partnership with Twitch to allow users to stream and view streams on the Xbox One.[14]

Electronic sports has dramatically increased over the past few years and still continues to grow. Under CBS Interactive games, more than 3 billion minutes of video are watched each month. The typical viewer is predominately male and aged between 18 and 34 years of age.[12] However, TwitchTV is looking to expand their viewers, including attracting more female gamers. To achieve this, one of the proposed goals is to increase the kind and types of games people come to spectate.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "About TwitchTV". JustinTV.
  2. ^ Rao, Leena (August 11, 2011). "Justin.TV's Video Gaming Portal Twitch.TV Is Growing Fast". TechCrunch.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Webb, Charles (May 2, 2012). "Interview: The Big Broadcast - TwitchTV, eSports, and Making it Big as an Online Gamer". MTV.
  4. ^ "Twitch Media Group". TwitchTV. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  5. ^ a b c d Lawler, Ryan (5 June 2013). "With 35M Unique Viewers A Month, Twitch Hires An In-House Ad Sales Team To Ramp Up Monetization". TechCrunch. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  6. ^ Miller, Patrick (October 31, 2011). "Twitch.tv Releases iPhone App, Feeds Your Addiction". PC world.
  7. ^ Matthew Lynley (March 10, 2011). "Live-streaming site Justin.tv buffing up for e-sports channels". VentureBeat.
  8. ^ Alex Wilhelm (June 6, 2011). "Twitch TV: Justin.tv's killer new esports project". The Next Web.
  9. ^ "TwitchTV Wins a Webby People's Voice Award". Business Wire. May 1, 2012.
  10. ^ Tassi, Paul (July 27, 2011). "JustinTV Lets Gamers Earn Cash with New Twitch Partner Service". Forbes.
  11. ^ Lish (April 17, 2012). "CBS INTERACTIVE EXPANDS INTO ESPORTS CATEGORY WITH EXCLUSIVE LIVE GAMING VIDEO AND LEAGUE PARTNERSHIPS". MLG.
  12. ^ a b "CBS Interactive Expands Into eSports Category With Exclusive Live Gaming Video and League Partnerships". PRNewswire. April 17, 2012.
  13. ^ "TwitchTV Launches iPad and Android Apps; Expands Mobile Market Presence for Live Video Game Streaming Movement". Business Wire. April 12, 2012.
  14. ^ Lawler, Ryan (10 June 2013). "Twitch Integrates With Xbox One For Live Broadcasting And Viewing Of Video Game Streams". TechCrunch. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
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