WEBVTT - Twitch Switcharoos 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.960 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.160 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.360 and I love all things tech and Way back in 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.120 two thousand and fourteen, I did an episode titled text 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:30.040 Stuff Twitches about the video streaming service catering primarily to 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:35.440 gamers called Twitch dot tv. But it's time for an 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:39.199 update as since that time a lot has happened, and 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.640 this year we've seen some big names on Twitch leave, 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.479 a couple of them return, one of them got banned 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.800 for some reason. So today I thought we'd really dive 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.000 into the topic and learn more about Twitch, go into 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.040 a deeper dive than our previous episode, and learn how 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:01.040 a select percentage of users have become millionaires and what's 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.880 going on with all this moving around or, as I 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.200 like to call it, the old twitch a rue. So 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:13.080 before there was Twitch, there was Justin dot tv, founded 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:17.720 by Justin Kahn. Now, way back in two thousand five, 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:20.800 which would be the same year that YouTube would launch, 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.840 Kahn was working on an interesting experiment in his copious 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.319 spare time, as he was also pursuing degrees in physics 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.160 and psychology at Yale, so clearly he's a bit of 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.480 a busy body. He had already launched a business called 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:40.600 Keiko Software, which was an online calendar program, but that 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.240 business wasn't really a money maker, and so Con did 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:48.040 the sensible thing. He auctioned it off on eBay for 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.880 reels that brought in a quarter of a million dollars. 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.240 His next attempt grew out of a project at y Combinator. 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.800 This company is a startup accelerator, which essentially means it's 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:02.600 sir to provide seed money to start up ventures in 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:04.800 an effort to get them up and running enough so 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.360 that they can then seek out more substantial investors. And 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.320 it's played a big part in getting some pretty influential 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:16.400 companies started, like door Dash, Airbnb, instat cart, and Yes 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.839 Twitch in the form of justin TV now, Justin TV 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.720 was a totally different beast from Keiko Software. Con and 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.480 a small team of developers wanted to create a tool 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.520 that would allow them to stream live video over the 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.959 Internet and create something like a reality television stream Big 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.880 Brother style. Originally with a camera that was strapped to 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:43.200 a baseball cap that Con would wear, so you would 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.200 get sort of a first person perspective, slightly taller than 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.800 than Con himself. Perhaps it was a bit self centered, 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:54.160 but the idea of life streaming was just starting to 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.560 take off, you know, the idea of actually video streaming 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.399 your life, and it was doing that because the technology 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.800 you would need to do such a thing was coming 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:07.120 into maturation. Webcams were becoming more affordable, and in the 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.800 United States we were seeing some movement at least in 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:14.160 large markets of broadband connectivity rolling out. And it took 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.320 a couple of years to to build out the service, 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.679 but Justin DV would launch in two thousand seven. That 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:27.120 launch wasn't exactly a home run right away. People were 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.240 intrigued by the idea of it, but the reality show 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.080 broadcasting thing just wasn't winning over very many people. Con 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.400 and his team were receiving a lot of messages saying 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:39.920 that users would like to be able to use the 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.520 service and stream their own content online, not just watch 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:47.080 what they were being provided. So at the time Justin 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.120 TV was you know, mostly about Justin and his friends. 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.160 People were less interested in that, and it took a while, 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:56.520 but eventually the company changed its focus from being a 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:01.080 source of video streamed content to being a platform for 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.880 video streaming content, allowing users to create accounts and channels 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:09.200 and to stream their own stuff to whomever wanted to watch. 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:13.040 One thing a lot of folks wanted to broadcast would 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.680 be video game play sessions. Now this is not that 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:20.240 surprising for people who aren't into video games. I get 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.120 that this sounds strange, the idea of watching someone else 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.920 play a game. I mean, after all, aren't games meant 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.120 to be played? Why would you watch it? To that, 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.599 I would say, not all of you play football or 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.880 baseball or soccer, but a lot of you watch it, 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:38.480 and it's the same sort of thing. It's this idea 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.599 of you find enjoyment in watching people who are really 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:48.320 good at performing that particular sport and enjoying the the 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:50.480 feeling you get when you see them do well or 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:54.760 see a team you support beat out another team. So 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.280 this is really not that surprising to me. And I'm 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.440 also you gotta keep in mind I say this a 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.000 lot because Lauren's not on the show anymore. To say 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:07.160 it for me, I'm old, So I remember the classic 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.920 days of the video game arcade, where you would wander 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.760 among cabinets for games like you know, Elevator Action or 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.760 Spy Hunter. And while you would spend time playing games, 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.120 you would also spend a lot of time watching other 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.080 people playing, either because you were waiting for your own 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.400 turn at that particular game, or the person was just 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.240 really dang good at playing that game and you were 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.320 just watching because you were impressed. I remember one afternoon 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.560 at a Goldmine arcade where I stood for nearly twenty 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.800 minutes watching a kid play through all of Dragons Lair, 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.560 which was a LaserDisc based game that featured full hand 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.640 drawn animation in it. So while games were really made 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.240 for playing, lots of folks just really enjoyed watching them. 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:55.719 But streaming video games presented other challenges. Twitch was set 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.039 up to stream from a camera source like a webcam, 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.800 streaming from another video source like a video game, let 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:07.120 alone allowing for arrangements like a webcam picture overlaid on 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:12.880 part of that video source just wasn't supported Natively, Folks 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.040 were jerry rigging systems to kind of make it happen. 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:20.839 The team Adjuin TV considered it emergent behavior, and so 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.000 Con and his team hired on specialists who could help 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.880 video game streamers set up their systems to allow for 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.320 that kind of thing. To stream content from a video 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:34.400 game onto the service, users needed to rely on third 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.880 party software in those early days, and for the most 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:43.000 part today they still do. Several different developers had options available, 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.960 and one early one that remains popular to this day 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.440 is open Broadcasting Software or oh b s. These programs 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.480 typically operate as a full mixing and broadcasting service and 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.640 allows users to set up stuff like the audio levels 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.440 for their video stream incorporate the microphone and thus you 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.560 can set the audio levels for your mike in comparison 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.279 to the video game. Obviously want your mike to be 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:09.880 slightly louder than the video games so people can hear 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.400 you over the sounds of the game. UH support for 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.400 things like webcams and transitions and video effects and more. 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.920 And for years this was really the only way streamers 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:24.200 could work with streaming services, and it wasn't always a 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:29.440 user friendly or intuitive experience. Getting started could be a 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:32.840 little bit intimidating as there were lots of settings to manage, 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:36.920 but the determined gamers who wanted to stream found ways 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.800 to make it work. As the various types of broadcasting 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:45.040 software evolved and improved and added features. Over time, between 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:49.480 two thousand seven, when justin TV launched and two thousand eleven, 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:53.400 when it would spin off Twitch dot tv, video game 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:58.120 streaming really began to come into its own. There was 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.960 a particular focus on sports, that is, on games that 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.080 had an elite level of competitors who could play against 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:10.840 each other informal organized tournaments, often with significant cash prizes 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:14.320 for the winners. Players could make their own Twitch channels, 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.400 and people could watch as these players would practice their 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:21.320 strats and their skills, honing their techniques while training for 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.200 the next tournament. And maybe that sounds weird to those 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.720 of you who don't game, but it really is a 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.560 show of how play at that level is truly incredible. 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.319 I mean, these these players can see faster than I can. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:38.720 They will see details and and act on them faster 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.320 than I can even register what is happening. It's phenomenal 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.120 to me. Emmett Sheer, who served as the chief Technology 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.559 officer of Justin TV, saw that this trend was going 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:51.520 and he worked really hard to add more support for 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:55.800 video game streaming. Sheer himself had been a competitive StarCraft 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.839 two player and he really recognized what was going on. 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.240 So as the team to a more features to help 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.920 gamers back on justin TV, it became clear that what 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:09.040 was really needed was a separate streaming platform. Gaming was 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.920 starting to dominate the streams over at justin TV. It 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.960 was actually hard to find the other stuff there, So 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.080 the team decided that the right thing to do would 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:21.720 be to spin off a separate streaming service specifically intended 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.640 to support video games streaming from the get go, and 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.480 in two thousand eleven, that's how Twitch dot tv was born. 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.440 It was done to allow some of the stuff on 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:35.280 justin TV a little more breathing room, because it was 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:39.400 just getting avalanched by all this video game content. In 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.640 July two eleven, one month after the service had launched, 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.520 Twitch was ready to announce the launch of its Partner program. 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:51.880 The partner program represented a professional level of streamer, someone 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:57.400 who could actually make money off of streaming their video gameplay, 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.640 whereas most people couldn't really do that dire rectally through 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.280 Twitch at that time. If you were a streamer and 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:07.240 you wanted to make money, you had few options available 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.079 to you in those days, as the Partner program had 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.960 some really high requirements in those early days. Keeping in 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.120 mind this is when the service was less than a 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:20.040 year old, so to qualify, a Twitch streamer had to 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:24.440 have either five hundred minimum concurrent viewers on average, three 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:28.800 hundred thousand channel views and at least one thousand followers, 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.559 or you can meet one of three other tougher requirements. 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:35.720 You could have an average of at least one thousand 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.760 viewers at any given time, you could have a minimum 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.920 of eight hundred thousand channel views or at least four 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.440 thousand followers. Now, over time, what was required to be 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:49.000 considered for you to make the status a partner would 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.960 change and at times became less obvious to the average person. 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.640 Twitch partners could earn a share of revenue that was 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.120 generated on their streams, So to which is revenue model 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:05.559 was largely on advertising. It was video ads that would 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:10.439 run his pre role in channels or sometimes an overlay 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.600 AD or sometimes even a mid role AD, and that 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.040 was typically how Twitch was making its money. As a 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:23.520 revenue generation kind of strategy, Twitch dot tv would handle 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.520 all the ad sales arrangements and partners would get a 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.960 percentage of all the revenue generated on their channel on 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.199 a monthly basis, so once a month you would get 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.800 paid out. The more folks who are watching ads on 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.480 your stream, the more money you would make that month. 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.640 Partners would also get access to new Twitch tools and 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.559 features before the rest of Twitch users would. So if 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:48.640 you were streaming on Twitch you were not a partner, 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:53.920 then you might see partner streamers using tools that were 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:58.599 not available to you, and it sometimes can seem a 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.160 little unfair. At the same time, the people who are 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.520 making partner they were kind of acting almost as power 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.720 beta testers for these different Twitch tools and finding ways 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.360 of making them really useful, and then those tools might 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.720 later be rolled out to a larger group of users. 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:20.160 Not at some point, though I couldn't find exactly when. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.440 I couldn't find a definitive source that that really laid 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.240 this out. Twitch partners also got the ability to offer 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:32.240 subscriptions to followers. Now on Twitch you can follow an 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.839 account for free. You can sort of, you know, hit 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.520 a little follow thing, and that makes it easier for 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.640 you to see when your favorite streamers are active. Whenever 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.400 you log into Twitch, you would see it, maybe on 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.520 the landing page, so it made it much simpler. Subscriptions 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:52.240 are a way for users to actually support the streamers 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:56.559 they like to watch financially. So when they do that, 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.960 subscribers get access to a few bells and whistles, which 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.880 mostly play out in the chat room for those subscribe channels, 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.800 So as subscriber might have a particular badge next to 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.760 their user handle to designate that they are at a 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:15.280 certain level of subscription for that particular streamer, or they 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:19.079 might have access to a collection of special emote commands 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:23.440 that the average person doesn't have. The original subscription fee 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:27.439 in the United States was four dollars ninety nine cents 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:32.079 per month. Twitch took about half of that technically just 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:34.640 less than half, like two dollars forty nine cents, and 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.400 the streamer would get the other two dollars and fifty 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:42.480 cents of each of those subscriptions per month, and eventually 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:47.160 Twitch would increase the options to also uh to other 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.439 levels of subscription, so you still had the four dollars 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.840 nine cents per month as the base level, but users 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.160 could opt to subscribe at nine dollars nine cents a 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.800 month or twenty four dollars and ninety nine cents per month. 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.480 At those higher levels, users would get access to additional 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.959 emotes and bells and whistles, so it's not like it 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:12.160 was an enormous change in their experience, but they would 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.760 have the knowledge that they were giving more support to 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.280 those particular streamers. In addition, partners would get access to 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.000 more emote slots as they racked up more subscribers, so 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:25.040 it incentivized partners to try and get that number up, 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.920 not just for the money, but to create more reasons 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.720 to convince people to join and become subscribers. It was 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.960 a sort of a feedback loop. But again this was 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:39.760 all originally restricted to official Twitch partners, which represented a 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.640 tiny percentage of the overall streamers on the platform. So 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.920 if you wanted to make money off your streaming but 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.160 you did not meet twitches requirements, your only other options 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:54.720 were to find ways to benefit indirectly from your streaming, 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.680 such as by offering merchandise or setting up an affiliate 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.360 program through an online in store. So you would provide 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.360 a special link to your viewers and you'd say, if 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.800 you want to buy this chair that I have, you know, 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.360 the same kind of chair, then follow this link and 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:17.000 you can buy it there, and then the streamer gets 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.240 a certain amount of money from every purchase that's made 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:23.440 through that specific link. It's a little kick back to 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:25.680 the streamer, and all of this is on the up 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.960 and top. I mean, this is always where it's supposed 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.280 to be. You're supposed to communicate that to the viewers, 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.000 saying if you use this, then you help support the channel. 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.000 I get a little bit every time you guys get it, 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:36.680 and then you get the thing that you wanted in 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.200 the first place and no extra cost to you. You 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.440 can also try and get sponsorships from various companies. There 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:46.800 are a couple of other ways that you could monetize 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.120 your your streaming even if you weren't a partner, but 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:54.960 it always requires a lot of hustle. The Twitch management 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:58.280 team held a couple of different rounds of investment funding, 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.440 one in two thousand twelve and an other in two 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.840 thousand thirteen, and together those two rounds brought in about 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.600 thirty five million dollars of investment. And this is one 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.480 of those instances where if you could travel through time, 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:16.360 you might join those investors. That there's what we call foreshadowing. 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.040 Interesting side note. While Twitch dot tv would go on 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:25.720 to become monumentally successful and profitable, Justin TV didn't fare 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.320 quite as well. In February two fourteen, the parent company 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:33.040 that was Justin TV that oversaw both the Justin TV 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:39.040 service and Twitch TV rebranded as Twitch. So the spinoff 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.320 has now become the master. And in August that year, 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.960 Justin TV shut down entirely. It had become clear the 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:48.960 video game streaming was the winner here and the more 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:53.480 generic life streaming service was just not taking off at 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.880 a level where it merited the amount of attention that 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.760 was required to run it. So they cut their losses, 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.480 they shut it down, and they really focused on Twitch. 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.439 Also back in February two fourteen was the birth of 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:11.960 a great social experiment called Twitch plays Pokemon. So Pokemon, 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.840 in case you're not familiar, is a game series where 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.440 you play as a Pokemon trainer and Pokemon is short 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:23.119 for pocket monsters, So you go around collecting and training 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:28.560 monsters to do battle on your behalf against other monsters. Anyway, 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:32.480 not not important. This Twitch channel create an experiment which 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.600 viewers could influence what happened in a specific Pokemon game 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.800 called Pokemon Read. A bot was playing the game, and 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.600 the viewers could type in commands and the video streams 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.639 chat to make the bot do stuff, and because the 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.560 game is turn based, the bot would wait for the 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.840 next input and then act on it. As you might imagine, 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.520 this quickly resulted in true chaos. As people discovered the channel, 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:00.760 users would flood the chat with commands in an attempt 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:03.359 to to be the one to guide the Pokemon playing 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.520 bought to do a specific action, or sometimes just to 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.840 cause trouble. So within a month the experiment had grown 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.440 large enough that the channel's administrators changed things up a 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.399 little bit. They switched from a yell commands at the 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:20.840 bot mode to vote for anarchy or democracy. Anarchy was 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:23.120 the old style of play in which a bot would 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.600 take all the commands in the order that they were 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.439 received and then execute on them in turn, and that 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.920 resulted in a lot of chaos, and sometimes it meant 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.040 you would spend hours watching the bot navigate the same 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.960 menu due to all the different inputs it had received. 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:43.040 Democracy took a different approach. The bot would pause between 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.760 actions and players could vote on what happened next, and 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.280 they would have about twenty seconds to cast their vote. 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:51.720 Then the bot would look at all the votes and 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.840 whichever one one it would perform that action. Now I 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.880 could do a whole episode about the Twitch plays Pokemon experiment. 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.959 The interesting stuff really doesn't have that much to do 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.359 with the game or its mechanics. Instead had a lot 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.920 to do with how people find ways to game systems 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.040 and an effort to achieve specific goals. If you look 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.520 at the experiment as a whole, you start to see 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.040 stuff that might remind you of novels like Lord of 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:21.440 the Flies or Animal Farm. But maybe that's best say 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:24.080 for a different type of podcast, since the technical stuff 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:29.000 was really just an enabler. Anyway, Twitch plays Pokemon really 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.359 got the streaming service a lot of attention, and who 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:36.720 boy did that pay off. Twitches performance was gaining attention, 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.080 and it would soon lead to a couple of big 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:43.640 fish in the tech world to explore acquisition opportunities. I'll 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:56.720 explain more after we take this quick break. So rumors 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.480 were running wild at Google in the form of YouTube 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:04.520 was sniffing around Twitch for a possible acquisition. YouTube was 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:09.520 already the de facto go to for online prerecorded video. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.879 The site was aiming to create the same space for 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.200 live streaming video, and while the company was rolling out 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.400 some live streaming capabilities, the user base was already over 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:25.399 at Twitch. Meanwhile, Twitch was actually eliminating one major feature 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.800 that upsets some of its users. In early August, the 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.680 company began to delete archived broadcast recordings that were more 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.800 than two weeks old. Partners got a little bit more 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.960 breathing room. They could hold onto their broadcast recordings for 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.280 two months. Oh and I didn't really cover this, but 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:47.320 in the company introduced a paid subscription tier for users 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:51.560 called Turbo. This wasn't a subscription to a specific streamer, 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.840 but to Twitch itself, So for nine dollars a month, 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:59.720 users could log into their paid subscription version of Twitch, 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.640 where they would be able to skip all pre roll 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:06.640 and overlay ads. They also got access to more chat features, 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:10.120 which is really that's the only features that viewers get 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:14.400 access to on Twitch if you're not actually streaming stuff anyway. 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.680 Turbo subscribers could also have their broadcast recording stick around 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:22.000 for two months. Hit Box TV, a competitor to Twitch 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:27.520 that launched in attempted to use twitches announcement about clearing 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.240 out the archives is kind of a leverage of weapon, 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:34.160 saying that Twitch was out of touch with its user base, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.239 but Twitch already had the momentum and was really just 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:41.680 getting started. Ultimately, YouTube would not be the company to 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.280 scoop up Twitch. Instead, Amazon came in with a nearly 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:49.120 billion dollar offer of its own, and they bought the company. 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:53.320 Twitch would become an Amazon owned business. Kevin Lynn, who 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.520 was a co founder of Twitch and the chief operating officer, 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:01.000 later described the experience as frightening at east at first. 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.560 As someone who has been working in the same job 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:08.120 since two thousand seven but has gone through five different 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:12.879 changes in corporate ownership, I rock that by the end 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:16.359 of two thousand fourteen, Twitch had made an acquisition of 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:20.520 its own. The company purchased Good Game Agency, not to 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:23.720 be confused with Good Game Studios. That's the company out 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:27.639 of Hamburg, Germany. Good Game Agency grew out of Philadelphia 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:32.240 when CEO and founder Alex Garfield got interested in East 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:36.280 sports and competitive gaming and gradually became more involved in 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:39.440 the scene, ultimately stepping in to help a professional team 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:43.760 called Evil Geniuses after the team had been essentially swindled 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:47.080 by a crooked manager. The agency would become a big 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:49.879 player in East Sports, ultimately acting as the owners of 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:54.480 not just Evil Geniuses but another team called Alliance, as 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:58.680 well as holding its own tournaments. Garfield wrote a long 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:02.600 and fantastic blog is describing his decision to align with Twitch. 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:06.320 That really drove home his love for competitive gaming and 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:09.879 the belief that this would be a great relationship, a 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:15.720 belief that ultimately probably didn't hold true. Two years later, 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:20.080 Garfield would leave Twitch and Good Gain. In August two 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:22.840 thousand and sixteen, he announced that the company and the 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:25.520 E sports teams had changed his life, but it was 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:27.879 time for him to move on. Not long after, Twitch 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:32.160 would shut down Good Game Agency. Good Game employees were 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:37.520 now direct Twitch employees. Twitch later would hand over the 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:42.480 management for both Evil Geniuses and the Alliance professional teams 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:45.800 to the players on those teams and divested the company 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:49.320 of team ownership. Today, Garfield is the head of a 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:52.639 company called pop Dog and e sports streaming service that 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:55.200 seems to me to be a bit of a rebuttal 0:23:55.440 --> 0:23:58.040 of the way streaming is handled on services like Twitch 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:01.359 and YouTube, and he's also remained vocal critic of how 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:05.120 the new owners of Evil Geniuses have handled that brand. 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:08.880 But let's move back to Twitch. In two thousand fifteen, 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:12.959 Twitch did something really useful for streamers, and I'm really 0:24:13.080 --> 0:24:16.680 being totally serious about this. The company created a royalty 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:20.679 free music library that streamers could use the tracks in 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:23.960 that library were cleared for streaming. So if you want 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:26.840 to play music on your stream, let let's say you've 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:29.640 got a startup screen. You haven't actually started playing yet. 0:24:30.119 --> 0:24:32.920 You wanted to run your stream for a little bit, 0:24:33.000 --> 0:24:35.760 get some viewers, and then jump in. You can have 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:38.160