Posted November 04, 2018 04:10:25The world’s largest streaming-video service, Twitch, is planning to shutter its popular live television streaming service and move to a new, less costly streaming-media-focused model.
The announcement is the latest move by the company to diversify away from the popular video-streaming platform Twitch, which has long attracted tens of millions of users worldwide.
The move comes as the company, which was founded by former Valve employees, faces stiff competition from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
On Tuesday, Twitch announced it would shutter its live television service, which it had been running for almost two years.
The service’s first year saw it generate over $3 billion in revenue, according to the company.
“While the growth of the Twitch community is important to us, we also see the potential of the platform as a new way for us to build our businesses,” CEO Noah Glass said in a statement.
“We’re going to work hard to make Twitch the best streaming platform for its community and beyond.”
Twitch was founded in 2010 by former gamers who are passionate about making a better live video experience.
The company has a history of being at the forefront of gaming technology and in particular its live-streamed gaming community.
Twitching was the most-streamable and most-viral channel on the service.
Its community members created thousands of “mocktails” to watch the games of other viewers, many of whom are former and current Twitch viewers.
This community, known as the “Twitch community,” has been dubbed “the biggest community in the world,” by one of the founders of the service, former Valve employee Jason Jones.
“It is not just that Twitch has the most active and engaged community in gaming,” Jones said in an interview with Polygon.
“It’s that the Twitch experience is so much more than a video game, it’s about creating a community that is part of that community.”
Jones said Twitch has made the transition from a video-game community to a live-gaming community, and that it’s now working to build a more holistic and global community.
“Our goal is to make sure that we have a world-class experience for the millions of people who use Twitch to watch games,” he said.
“That’s why we’re going off the live service and putting our focus on a much more global community.”
The company has also moved to a different streaming-service model, focusing more on video-on-demand and “game in-game content,” Jones told Polygon in an email.
Twitch has been criticized for the amount of money it makes from advertising.
In May, Twitch agreed to pay $100 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company made money from the sale of “influencers” that promoted the game “Destiny.”
Last year, Twitch’s chief content officer, Jason Kaplan, resigned amid allegations that the platform’s monetization was too low.
Twitch said Kaplan was not fired for his criticism, but was fired because he did not follow company policy and did not comply with its own guidelines.
After the settlement was announced, the company announced that it would create an independent board of directors.
“This is the beginning of a new chapter in Twitch’s evolution, one that will lead to a more robust, global community, more robust and deeper engagement, and a more inclusive and transparent Twitch,” the company said in its statement.
Jones also said that the transition was a step in the right direction for the company and the community, though he said it didn’t necessarily address the fundamental issues with the service and its approach to monetization.
“I think we’re doing a lot better with the monetization side of things,” Jones wrote.
“In fact, we’re pretty much in the business of monetizing people.”
The company also announced that the streaming-services team is “open for interviews,” and that the board will meet later this week.