Twitch is a live streaming video platform owned by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon. Introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general streaming platform, Justin.tv, the site primarily focuses on streaming live video games, including eSports broadcasting competitions, in addition to creative content, a "real-life" stream, and more recently, music. Content on the site can be viewed live or via video on demand.
Twitch's popularity outperformed his common interest partners. In October 2013, the website has 45 million unique viewers, and in February 2014, the site was considered the fourth largest source of Internet traffic in the United States. At the same time, Justin.tv's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent a focus shift - Justin.tv was shut down in August 2014. That month, the service was acquired by Amazon for US $ 970 million , which then leads to the introduction of synergies with Amazon Prime's subscription service. Twitch later acquired Curse, the operator of the online video game community and introduced a way to buy games through links in the flow along with programs that allow ribbons to receive commissions on the sale of games they play.
By 2015, Twitch has over 1.5 million broadcasters and 100 million viewers per month. Starting Q3 2017, Twitch remains the premier live video streaming service for video games in the U.S., and has advantages over YouTube Gaming. As of February 2018, it now has 2 million monthly broadcasters and 15 million daily active users.
Video Twitch.tv
History
When Justin.tv was launched in 2007 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, the site was divided into several content categories. The categories of games grow very fast, and become the most popular content on the site. In June 2011, the company decided to turn off game content as Twitch.tv, inspired by the term twitch game. It was officially launched in public beta on June 6, 2011. Since then, Twitch has attracted more than 35 million unique visitors in a month. Twitch has about 80 employees in June 2013, which increased to 100 by December 2013. The company is headquartered in the Financial District of San Francisco.
The buoyancy has been supported by significant venture capital investment, with US $ 15 million in 2012 (above US $ 7 million initially raised for Justin.tv), and US $ 20 million in 2013. Investors during three rounds of fundraising towards the end of 2013 include Draper Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Thrive Capital. In addition to the entry of venture funds, it is believed in 2013 that the company has become profitable.
Especially since the shutdown of Direct Own3d.tv competitors in early 2013, Twitch has become the most popular e-sports streaming service with large margins, leading some to conclude that the website has a "close monopoly on the market". Competitive video services, such as YouTube and Dailymotion, are beginning to increase the benefits of their game content to compete, but have far less impact so far. By mid-2013, there are over 43 million viewers in Twitch every month, with average viewers watching an hour and a half of the day. In February 2014, Twitch was the fourth largest source of Internet traffic during peak times in the United States, behind Netflix, Google, and Apple. Tweaks make up 1.8% of total US Internet traffic during peak periods.
Growth, acquisition speculation
On February 10, 2014, the parent company of Twitch, Justin.tv, Inc. renamed Twitch Interactive, which reflects the increasingly well-known service above Justin.tv as the company's main business. In the same month, a stream known as the Twitch Plays Poky, the crowdsourced effort to play Pokémon mon Red uses the system to translate chat commands into game control, to be viral. On February 17, the channel reached over 6.5 million total impressions and an average concurrent view of between 60 and 70 thousand viewers with at least 10% participating. Vice President of Marketing Matthew DiPietro praised the stream as "another example of how video games have become a platform for entertainment and creativity that extends HOW beyond the original game maker's goals By combining video games, live video, and participative experience, broadcasters have created habits an entertainment hybrid made for the Twitch community.This is a great concept proof we hope to see more in the future. "Starting with the 2014 edition, Twitch became the official streaming live platform of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
On May 18, 2014, Variety first reported that Google had reached a preliminary agreement to acquire Twitch through its subsidiaries on YouTube for approximately US $ 1 billion .
August 2014 changed
On August 5, 2014, the original Justin.tv site suddenly stopped operating, citing the need to focus resources completely on Twitch. On August 6, 2014, Twitch introduced an updated archive system, with multi-platform access to the highlights of previous broadcasts by channel, higher-quality video, server backup enhancements and new Video Manager interface to manage previous broadcasts and compose "highlights" of broadcasts which can also be exported to YouTube. Due to technological limitations and resource requirements, the new system contains multiple regressions; the option to archive a full broadcast indefinitely ("save forever") has been deleted, meaning that they can only be saved for a maximum of 14 days, or 60 for Turbo partners and customers. While compiled highlights can be archived indefinitely, they are limited to two hours in length. In addition, all on-demand video becomes the subject of acoustic fingerprint using the software provided by Audible Magic; if copyrighted music (especially, songs played by users from outside the game they play) is detected, the 30 minute section of the video containing the music will be muted. Live event is not subject to this filter.
The audio filtering system, along with the lack of communication around changes in general, proved to be controversial among users. In particular, users feel that the new filtering system is too inaccurate, the marked music played in the game itself, and voiced concern that it may affect the service's ability to present snippets of games that primarily include large amounts of licensed music, such as> Grand Theft Auto series. This change also makes comparisons with similar policies used by YouTube - especially given rumors surrounding Google's offer to buy the service. In Reddit AMA, co-founder Emmett Shear acknowledged that his staff had been "messed up" and should have given early warnings of change, and promised that Twitch "had absolutely no intention" to apply audio filtering on live broadcasts. On August 7, 2014, the 2 hour long limit on the highlights is removed again, and the appeals process is added to the flagged audio contained in the on-demand record. In January 2015, to fix this problem, Twitch introduced a royalty-free music library featuring songs from various independent labels deleted for use in the stream.
Amazon Subsidiary (2014-present)
On August 25, 2014, it was announced that Amazon.com would earn Twitch Interactive for US $ 970 million . The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. Sources report that the rumored Google deal has failed and allowed Amazon to make an offer; Forbes reports that Google has stepped down from the deal because of potential antitrust concerns around it and its ownership on YouTube. This acquisition closes on September 25, 2014.
Twitch is now operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com with the remaining Emmett Shear as CEO. Shear praised the Amazon Web Services platform as an "attractive" aspect of the deal, and that Amazon has "built relationships with major players in the media," which can be used for service benefits - especially in the area of ​​content licensing. Twitch purchases marked the recent acquisition of video-oriented video by Amazon, which previously acquired the developers of Reflexive Entertainment and Double Helix Games.
On December 9, 2014, Twitch announced it had acquired GoodGame Agency, an organization with eSports Evil Geniuses and Alliance team. In March 2015, Twitch resets all user passwords and disables all connections to external Twitter and YouTube accounts after the service reports that someone has gained "unauthorized access" to user information from multiple Twitch users.
In June 2016, Twitch added a new feature known as "Cheering," a special form of emoticons purchased as microtransaction using the currency in a site known as "Bits." Bits are purchased using Amazon Payments, and cheers act as a donation to the channel. Users also get badges in the channel based on how much they cheer.
On August 16, 2016, Twitch acquired Curse, Inc., the operator of an online gaming community and game-oriented VoIP software. In December 2016, GoodGame Agency was divested by Amazon to its respective members due to a conflict of interest. On September 30, 2016, Twitch announced Twitch Prime, a service that provides premium features exclusive to users who have an active Amazon Prime subscription. This includes ad-free streaming, free additional monthly content ("Loot Game"), and game discounts.
In December 2016, Twitch announced a semi-automated chat moderation tool, which uses natural language processing and machine learning to set aside content that may be undesirable for human review. In February 2017, Twitch announced that it would allow users to purchase games through the service, with major launch partners such as Paradox Interactive, Telltale Games, and Ubisoft. Links to buy eligible games will be displayed in the Twitch's browsing interface, and partners can choose to display purchase buttons in their streams when eligible games are being played. If a game is purchased through a streaming purchase link, the channel in question receives a 5% commission on the sale. Users also receive "Twitch Crate" on every purchase, including Bits and a collection of random emoticons.
Twitch and Blizzard Entertainment signed a two-year contract in June 2017 to make Twitch the exclusive streaming announcer of Blizzard eSports' escapade championship event, with viewers under Twitch Prime getting special rewards in Blizzard games.
In August 2017, Twitch announced it had acquired the ClipMine video indexing platform.
In December 2017, the National Basketball Association and Twitch announced that they would broadcast the NBA G League game in Twitch beginning on December 15th.
In January 2018, Twitch announced a two-year exclusive deal in Overwatch League with Blizzard with reports calling it the largest esports transaction.
In April 2018, Twitch secured rights to the National Football League through the 11th game of Thursday Night Football. The deal extends the previous NFL deal with Amazon and makes the game package freely available, a provision previously requested but not respected in Amazon's 2017 contract, which requires viewers to purchase Amazon Prime.
Maps Twitch.tv
Content and audience
Twitch is designed to be a platform for hot content, including eSports shorts tournaments, individual player personal streams, and game-related talk shows. A number of channels are live speedrunning. The Twitch homepage currently displays games based on viewers. The audience is generally male and aged between 18 and 34 years old, although the site has also sought to pursue other demographics, including women. Starting in February 2018, some of the most popular games streamed in Twitch are League of Legends Fortnite , Battlegrounds PlayerUnknown , Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 with a combined total of more than 174 million watch hours.
Twitch also makes an expansion to non-gaming content; as in July 2013, the site broadcasts the show 'Fester's Feast' from San Diego Comic-Con, and on July 30, 2014, the action of electronic dance music Steve Aoki broadcast live performances from nightclubs in Ibiza. In January 2015, Twitch introduced the official category for the flow of music, such as radio shows and music production activities, and in March 2015, announced that it would be the new official streaming live partner of the Ultra Music Festival, an electronic music festival in Miami.
On October 28, 2015, Twitch launched a second, "Creative" non-gaming category, aimed at streaming featuring creative and artwork. To promote the launch, the service also broadcast an eight-day marathon from Bob Ross ' The Joy of Painting . In July 2016, Twitch launched "Social eating" as a beta; it's inspired by the Korean phenomenon of Muk-bang and the Korean players involved in this exercise as an intermission in their game stream.
In March 2017, Twitch added an "IRL" channel that lets users stream videos doing anything. This channel is typically in the top 10 most watched channels.
In May 2017, Twitch streamed a marathon for the classic PBS Kids show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood . They repeated the Marathon on March 20 to honor what will be Fred Rogers's 90th birthday.
Charity
Broadcasters on Twitch often hold streams that promote and raise money for charity. In 2013, this website has hosted events that, in total, garnered more than US $ 8 million in donations for charitable purposes, such as Extra Life 2013. Since 2017, the website this has raised more than $ 75 million in donations for charitable purposes.
Lag Problem
By the end of 2013, primarily due to increased viewership and using the legacy Adobe Flash plugin to serve videos to desktop users, Twitch has problems with lag, especially in Europe. Twitch has added a new server in the region. Also to address this problem, Twitch implements a new video system that proves to be more efficient than the previous system. Initially, the new video system was criticized by users for causing significant stream delays, which disrupted audience viewer interactions. The Twitch staff said that the increased delay may be temporary and at the time, is an acceptable tradeoff for the buffering decline.
Illicit content
Tweet users are not allowed to stream any "Adult Only" (AO) game in the United States by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), regardless of their ranking in other geographic regions, and any games that contain "overtly gratifying content sexual "or" haphazard violence. "Twitch also explicitly prohibits certain games from streaming, regardless of rating; this includes games like BMX XXX , visual eroge novel games (like Dramatical Murder ), HuniePop , Rinse and Repeat , Second Life , and Yandere Simulator . The banning of Yandere Simulator was criticized by YandereDev, the developer of the game. He believes that the game is haphazardly chosen without explanation, since Twitch does not ban other games with overly sexual or violent content such as Mortal Kombat X , Grand Theft Auto , or The Witcher 3 . User twitching is also not allowed to stream content that violates terms of use of third party services. Emotes
Twitch displays a large number of emoticons called "emotes". There are free emotes for all users, emotes for Turbo users, emotes for Twitch Prime users, and emotes for users who subscribe to Twitch partners. Kappa is the most commonly used emote in Twitch. Twitch partnering broadcasters open more "emote slots" as they get more subscribers up to a maximum of 50 emotes per channel.
Partner and affiliate programs
In July 2011, Twitch launched the Partner Program, which reaches more than 11,000 members by August 2015.
Similar to Partner Programs from other video sites like YouTube, the Partner Program allows popular content producers to share in ad revenue generated from their stream. In addition, Twitch users can subscribe to partners' streaming channels for $ 4.99 per month, often giving users access to unique emoticons, direct chat privileges, and many other perks. Twitch retains US $ 2.50 per subscription channel US $ 4.99, with the remaining US $ 2.49 going directly to partner streamer. Although exceptions are made, previous Twitch requires that potential partners have "an average audience of 500", as well as a consistent streaming schedule at least three days a week. However, since the launch of the 'Achievements' feature, there is a clearer "Road to Partnership" with trackable goals for concurrent viewing, the duration and frequency of the stream.
In April 2017, Twitch launched its "Affiliate Program" which enabled smaller channels to generate revenue as well, also announcing that it would allow channel access to subscriber rates that are costly. The participants of this program get some but not all the benefits of Twitch Partners. Ribbons can generate profits from cheering with Bits that can be purchased directly from Twitch. Affiliates can also access the Twitch Subscriptions feature, with all the same functionality that Partners have, along with one emote subscription. Affiliates are currently unable to receive revenue from ads, but Twitch has stated their plans to introduce this functionality in the future.
Ads on this site have been handled by a number of partners. In 2011, Twitch had an exclusive deal with Future US. On April 17, 2012, Twitch announced an agreement to provide CBS Interactive the right to exclusively sell advertising, promotions, and sponsorships for the community. On June 5, 2013, Twitch announced the creation of Twitch Media Group, a new internal ad sales team that has taken over the role of CBS Interactive advertising sales.
Platform support
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear has expressed a desire to support multiple platforms, stating that they want to be on "every platform where people watch videos". The Streaming Twitch app is available for mobile and video game consoles, including Android and iOS, as well as PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360 video game consoles.
PlayStation 4 and Xbox One video game consoles include built-in support for streaming to Twitch. Twitch has been integrated into PC software, including streaming video to Twitch directly from EA Origin software, Ubisoft's Uplay, games played on modern Nvidia video cards (via ShadowPlay driver feature), and games like Eve Online >, PlanetSide 2 and the Call of Duty franchise. Players also have the ability to link their Twitch accounts with accounts in Steam Valve. In 2013, Twitch released a software development tool to allow developers to integrate Twitch streaming into their software.
In November 2017, it was reported by Cord Cutters News that Twitch stopped the Twitch application in the Roku channel directory, probably to support Amazon's own Fire TV platform.
TwitchCon
TwitchCon, a fan convention devoted to Twitch and the culture of streaming video games. The inaugural event was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from September 25-26, 2015. Since its inception the TwitchCon has become an annual event. The second TwitchCon is held in San Diego at the San Diego Convention Center from September 30 to October 2, 2016. The third annual TwitchCon is held at Long Beach at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center from 20-22 October 2017.
Media
A film produced by the National Film Board of Canada and Arte was announced in May 2017, which will include recordings of a Twitch channel called "Streamers Doc" to host live panels about streaming games.
As a teaching tool
A 2017 study examined and compared the performance of teaching students and experts in video game instruction. More than Twitch, students can educate to the same level as the experts. People who score high on hospitality and low on neuroticism (two of the five great personalities) learn better than beginner instructors. The nature of Twitch also allows participants to interact with each other and the instructor. Extroverts benefit from this interaction while introverts do not.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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