Twitch CMO Says Rival Platforms Are Good For Creators

(CTN News) – There was a noticeable difference between last year’s TwitchCon and this year’s despite attendees’ grumbles about Las Vegas.

It was a tense year for 2023, punctuated by rounds of layoffs, unpopular policy decisions, and competitors poaching major streamers with glitzy deals and more favorable revenue splits.

Prior to ,Twitch walked back several controversial policy decisions in order to mend its relationship with its community.

The company announced during the event’s opening ceremony that it would allow simulcasting to other livestreaming services.

For much of Twitch’s history, Simulcasting, or streaming on rival platforms at the same time, was banned. In the past, Twitch’s exclusivity clause prohibited partners from streaming to YouTube or Facebook. Simulcasting videos is also allowed on Instagram and TikTok since last year.

As the creator industry evolves, Twitch is moving away from exclusivity. Rachel Delphin, Twitch’s Chief Marketing Officer,

Tells TechCrunch why investing in the Twitch community is so important.

Delphin: I think part of it has to do with our experience and history. It’s been 16 years since we started doing this. How many players have been in the game for 16 years? Focus is also important.

It’s not something that’s part of our business, it’s our business. We do this. The community has transcended technology. That’s what’s really hard to build.

A community’s behavior is also important to me. Streamers have an engaged chat because of the norms and culture that have been established.

You’ve got people who will subscribe to your channel, donate, moderate your channel, and attend your meetups. As a result of our culture, which was established very early and obviously has grown over 15 years, we have been able to lead for so long.

Despite your insistence that the core of Twitch will always be livestreaming, Twitch has added several features other platforms lack, such as Stories and discoverability feeds. 

Ultimately, they’re about serving live content creators. What do you do to support their needs? A lot of is a really meaningful experience, and discovery and growth are interconnected.

It’s not just for a quick 10-second, two-minute session. You’re really engaged, aren’t you? It’s been a while since you sat down.

That’s how some people do it, however. What if you’re in line at Starbucks and want to dive into the content quickly? People can discover new creators relatively quickly and much simpler than trying to navigate Twitch.

As well, content creators need a way to nurture, build, and update their communities even when they’re not online. After all, we’re trying to support our live content creators – stories are a great way to connect with community when you aren’t live, and feed is great for quick check-ins. New content creators are much easier to discover.

It’s mostly designed to keep viewers on Twitch instead of checking other platforms. I’d love to know what went into the decision to allow simulcasting? 

Ultimately, we’re here to support content creators. As of last August, you can do simulcasting with mobile livestreaming services.

When I talk to streamers, they’re like, “Look, I’m trying to get more people to watch, and simulcasting is a great tool that I either feel strongly about or have used myself using these mobile services, where I see more people actually come to my channel because I’m able to reach them through those other services.”

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