After more than two years of the pandemic, livestreaming has gone from a niche activity to a very popular mainstream pastime. The platform of choice for many remains Twitch, a place where many very famous names can earn what could be described as astronomical sums. However, that may change very soon.
Indeed, according to a report from Bloomberg, Twitch is reportedly considering reducing streamers' salaries if they do not comply with a rather intrusive condition. According to the sources cited by the media, they will soon have the choice between putting more ads in their stream, or seeing their share drastically reduced with each new sub, going from 70% to 50% for the biggest streamers. In both cases, Twitch comes out the winner since it will either receive money from brands or from subscribers.
This potential change could affect medium to large influence streamers, depending on the partner programs set up by Twitch. While the smallest program already shares the revenue generated through subs 50/50 between Twitch and the streamer, the biggest can take between 60% and 70% currently. In return, Twitch would be willing to let its streamers use other competing platforms from time to time, such as YouTube for example.
What are Twitch's motivations?
Although this information is still only at the rumor stage, we can already advance on the reasons that would push Twitch to act in this way. Indeed, this may seem surprising when we know how popular livestreaming is today: it is a company that turns over millions of dollars, if not more. However, the other side of the story is not so rosy.
For several months, Twitch has lost many employees who say they are unhappy with the way the company operates internally. On the other side of the mirror, several streamers are also moving to competing platforms, some of them sometimes very influential. It therefore seems that many people have things to denounce and that Twitch does not intend to watch its ship sink without doing anything, if that were to be the case.
However, one can wonder if this decision will not rather scare away users (creators and spectators) in the long term. According to Bloomberg, these changes could be implemented as early as this summer. To be sure, however, we will have to wait for official confirmation from Twitch, which has not yet wished to answer any questions.
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