The teenagers were in force today in San Jose for the annual TwitchCon game transmission conference. There, Twitch announced that at one point, 1 million people were watching it (from 746,000 last year), and it seemed that many game lovers were at TwitchCon in person to meet some of the nearly half a million of celebrities web. That is issued every day in the service. Considering that Twitch said that only 2 million were issued per month in December, the service growth remains explosive under the ownership of Amazon.
Among the main revelations in TwitchCon was a new Squad Streaming feature that allows four people to stream at once on a split screen that will be tested with select transmitters later this year.
There is also a new game Twitch Sings integrated in association with the creator of Rock Band, Harmonix. Broadcasters can play to run karaoke (although only with fake versions of songs, since Twitch lacks the main music licenses of the label). Viewers can use the chat to request the next song and control the lights on the virtual karaoke stage; broadcasters can register here for the closed beta version of Twitch Sings which starts later in 2018.
Twitch Squad Streaming
And Twitch transmissions can now use Snapchat's augmented reality lenses thanks to the new application of Snap Camera desktop and the complementary release of Twitch. . Users can use hotkeys to activate different Snapchat lenses, allow viewers to test those masks by scanning a Snapchat QR code on screen and rewarding subscribers with an additional thank-you effect. Read our full story on Snap Camera here.
There were many other minor announcements during the conference keynote:
- More than 235,00 users now have Affiliate status and are making money on their channels, while 6,800 have joined their Partnership Program so they can earn even more through subscriptions to channels and ads.
- Twitch is renewing Gear on Amazon, where users can display products and earn affiliate rates, changing their name to Amazon Blacksmith.
- The Twitch featured editor can now join. multiple clips of a broadcast session.
- New sections of the homepage will feature new releases, new partners and affiliates or local broadcasts for viewers.
- VIP badges will allow creators to recognize their favorite subscribers and moderators.
- Moderators can now see how long someone has been on Twitch, see the chat messages that person has sent on the channel, and see how many times they wait. or the prohibitions that the account has received in that channel to better understand who to initiate.
- 18 billion messages were sent in the Twitch chat and its Whispers feature in 2018, and fans have given creators 85 million cheers and subscriptions. [19659008] 150 million Twitch Clips were created in 2018 to bring the best flow of games and other strange content to the rest of the web.
- Twitch users have given $ 9 million in subscriptions to other users in just 9 weeks. [19659008] Twitch will open its Bounty Board of sponsorship opportunities to 30 brands more and more Partners and Affiliates in the United States and Canada in November.
- Twitch Rivals in-person gaming tournaments will double to 128 events in 2019. Some will have $ 1 million prizes, and already handed out $ 5 million in prizes to winners last year.
While CEO Emmett Shear made the announcements, members of the audience shouted and shouted for joy. They shouted even at the Apple attendees. Shear shouted at the first users that have been with him since Twitch was a Y Combinator Live-vlogging startup called Justin.tv. "When people back you up and support you for a long time, we think they should be recognized for it," he said, revealing the new VIP badges and an accountant that shows how many months a fan has been a subscriber who pays a channel. 19659002] "You spoke and we listened," said Shear. That really seemed to be the message of this conference. The Facebook F8 conferences that take place at the San Jose Convention Center often seem to produce updates that are designed to help the company as well as the users. But Twitch has realized that it can not be useful. It must continue to be loved if people continue to spend 760 million hours per month watching others play, joke and express themselves. Shear concluded: " I think we're scratching the surface when it comes to everyone playing together."
Twitch Sings
Update: an interview with Emmett Shear
I spoke with Shear after her keynote to get an idea of Twitch's priorities and how much of the violent reaction that affects Facebook is avoided, Google and Twitter. "I do not think we're exempt from the problem, we have to work every day to gain the trust of the community, I do not think you can let your guard down or stop working on that, it's only through hard work and constant effort to build the things that [the streamers] need and want. "
Balancing freedom of expression with security has been a struggle for all technology platforms, including Twitch. "I think this is the problem of our time, this is what all the technology, media and communications companies of the world have to face, we are not shy when it comes to asking people who do not meet the standards of our community. let them go, "Shear tells me.
I asked him if he would kick Alex Jones off the platform if he joined, even before violating Twitch's own rules because of his behavior elsewhere. "We are not talking about individual cases, generally speaking, trying to monitor the behavior of anyone on the Internet is difficult because … the internet can not say you are a dog," he says, referring to the old adage about anonymity on the web. "But we think, for example, that harassment on another platform is still you, we have to be able to know it's verifiable, you can not jump to conclusions, but it's verifiable that you and Twitt have left to harass people , we have no problem to prohibit that behavior. "
On the competitive landscape, Shear said, "I think it's amazing to see such a strong live broadcast worldwide, I've been working on live broadcast since 2006. It's good to get the validation that everyone realizes which is also a good idea … a decade later … "I've felt incredibly autonomous and with the support of Amazon," he says, "but are you going to leave?" You never know what the future holds. I love working, I love working with Twitch and the people I work with, being part of Amazon is pretty good, compared to the friends I've talked to to raise money from VCs, I think I prefer the current configuration. "