Twitch Streamer Motivations

A story about how Emmett Shear discovered what truly motivated Twitch streamers through user interviews.

"I had the realization that I had no idea why anyone would stream video games. I saw myself building products for these people for the past 4 years at Justin TV and not really having any idea why they did what they did.

I did about 40 interviews. I didn't want to know what they thought we should build - if they knew what we should build, they would have my job. I wanted to know why they were streaming, what they tried using for streaming, how they got started, what their biggest dream for streaming was.

I'd ask them what they wished someone would build for them, not because I thought they'd have a good idea, but because the follow-up question was really the killer one. They would say 'I wish you would build me this big red button' and I'd ask 'What does it do for you? Why is your life better after I built that?'

Then they would tell me the real thing - 'Oh, I would make money that month' or 'I'd get a bunch of new fans who loved me' or 'My fans who already loved me on YouTube would be able to watch me live.'

It was a revelation that people would want money because I was like, 'You're streaming 12 hours a week, if we let you monetize at the rates we can monetize today, you'd make like $3 a month.' They'd say 'Yes, oh my god that would be amazing!' I was like 'Wait, you're serious? You would be excited if it only produced a tiny amount of money?' And they're like 'Absolutely, just the idea that I could make money doing this would be so exciting.'"