The Twitch CEO says what he really thinks about Kick (Twitch)
Dan Clancy says Kick is making a mistake going for their star streamers, while stating Twitch is ‘hands down’ the best streaming platform.
Livestreaming has grown to become a popular entertainment outlet in the last decade. Much of that is thanks to Twitch, but other platforms such as Kick, YouTube, and TikTok have recently upped the competition with their own investments into the industry.
Kick launched in early 2023 and it didn’t take long before it started poaching streamers from Twitch with huge million-dollar deals, including stars such as xQc, Amouranth, and chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.
This was a mistake, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy now says, as it doesn’t help grow the industry as a whole, while he questions if Kick is in it for the right reasons.
Clancy was on NateGentile7’s Twitch stream, where he was asked what he thought about the company.
The Twitch CEO found the question amusing but happily answered it. First, he made the point that his focus is on growing the industry ‘because livestreaming isn’t big enough.’
‘It’s not a secret where their [Kick] money comes from, and the question is how long-term stable is that and what are they in it for? And how much are they trying to grow the livestreaming market?’ Clancy says, seemingly referring to the Kick owners’ background in online gambling.
‘You know, TikTok doesn’t try to get our streamers, they go and try to get new people streaming.
‘I think it’s a complete mistake to say, “Oh, the livestreaming market is fixed, I’m just going to try to get what the other guy has”.’
Clancy also mentions Mixer, the Microsoft-owned streaming platform that reportedly signed Ninja for $50 million (£39 million) before it folded in 2020, as a cautionary tale during the interview (the Kick segment starts at 02:40:48).
Ninja is now back on Twitch after Mixer went down (Twitch)
The Twitch CEO admits that in the past their focus was more on the competition and making sure that their content creators stayed with them, but that now their eyes are more on Twitch and what they can do to grow from within.
This was evident last year when Twitch loosened its terms on exclusivity, which allowed streamers to go live on other platforms as well.
Despite all of this, one of Twitch’s most popular streamers, Mizkif, explained why he thinks Twitch and Kick won’t even be that big in 10 years.
What the future holds, nobody can predict, but right now Clancy is sure of one thing: ‘I do think we are hands down the best platform.’
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