Twitch's Gaming Streamer Focus
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A story about how Twitch emerged from Justin.tv by focusing on a tiny segment of gaming streamers that others initially dismissed.
"Justin.tv was a site where anyone could create their own live TV channel. There was this small corner of the site where guys were watching video games - it was only 2% of the traffic. The data actually pointed against focusing on gaming. But they had two things working in their favor:
First, they were about to fail. They had nothing to lose, were running out of money, and had to try something dramatically different. The popular content was illegal sports streams, which they couldn't build a business around.
Second, Emmett personally enjoyed watching the gaming streams. When the company split, half the team went to work on Social Cam (Instagram for video) with Justin Kan and Michael Seibel. It was the hot idea - they got instant funding, press, and talent.
Even their designer Jacob wanted to work on Social Cam, but they told him the team was full and to go work with Emmett instead. What seemed like the worse assignment turned out to be the winning bet - Emmett leaned into this weird behavior of gamers streaming themselves playing for 8 hours a day, and that became Twitch."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.