Twitch’s Relationship With Its Streamers Shows Its Cracks

Amazon does not break out Twitch’s financials, though analysts do not believe the site, which has more than 1,800 employees, turns a profit.

“It’s wild that Amazon is trying to force Twitch to squeeze more revenue out of top content creators,” Hasan Piker, one of the site’s biggest names, said in an interview. At his booth on the convention floor, Mr. Piker, known as HasanAbi on Twitch, was giving out faux newspaper front pages with a provocative headline: “Twitch Steals 30% of Revenue From Content Creators.”

The subscription revenue change will only affect streamers with so-called premium deals with the platform that let them keep 70 percent of their subscription revenue, with 30 percent going to Twitch. Starting next June, those streamers’ subscription earnings will be split 50-50 with Twitch after their first $100,000. The company said several hundred streamers currently earn enough money to be affected by the change.

Dan Clancy, Twitch’s president, said in an interview that the change would help Twitch pay for the rising costs of hosting live video. He also argued it would eventually help streamers.

“Ultimately, the more we grow our audience, the more our streamers benefit,” he said. “A big part of it is about trying to get to this position that allows us to keep sustaining and steadily being able to invest, being able to grow.”

Mr. Clancy said Amazon was not involved in day-to-day decision-making.

“They give us a lot of freedom; they’re very bullish on Twitch,” he said. “And so that is not one of those things where there is a lot of detailed meddling.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/22/business/twitch-streamers.html