User:Justinsmithtechfall22/Twitch (service)

FINAL WILL NOT BE DONE UNTIL DEC. 9TH

Lead
Twitch is an American video live streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions, in addition to offering music broadcasts, creative content, and "in real life" streams. It is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv. Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand.

The popularity of Twitch eclipsed that of its general-interest counterpart. In October 2013, the website had 45 million unique viewers, and by February 2014, it was considered the fourth-largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. At the same time, Justin.tv's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the shift in focus – Justin.tv was shut down in August 2014. That month, the service was acquired by Amazon for US$970 million, which later led to the introduction of synergies with the company's subscription service Amazon Prime. Twitch acquired Curse in 2016, an operator of online video gaming communities and introduced means to purchase games through links on streams along with a program allowing streamers to receive commissions on the sales of games that they play.

By 2015, Twitch had more than 100 million viewers per month. In 2017, Twitch remained the leading live streaming video service for video games in the US, and had an advantage over YouTube Gaming, which shut down its standalone app in May 2019. As of February 2020, it had 3 million broadcasters monthly and 15 million daily active users, with 1.4 million average concurrent users. As of May 2018, Twitch had over 27,000 partner channels.

Creators: XQC, KaiCenat , Yourragegaming , and many more have over twenty thousand subscribers on Twitch. They all play video games, twitch has become a haven for the gaming community. It has also grabbed the attention of big celebrities and they have begun to use the streaming service themselves. A lot of rappers like T-Pain, Snoop Dogg, and others have made content on Twitch. Even Drake, one of the biggest rappers in the world, hopped on for a game of Fortnite on Twitch with a streamer named Ninja. Twitch has also had a big impact on the electronic music industry.

Charity
When a crisis arises, Twitch has evolved into a highly valuable tool for media. Twitch creators are supported by their viewers' daily and monthly donations along with monthly subscriptions. Many streamers use these donations for humanitarian purposes. They organize a fundraising stream, and any donations made on that day go to an organization that works to improve people's lives. Over 83 million dollars have been donated to various charities via Twitch streamers.

Benjamin "Dr.Lupo" Lupo has been one of the main contributors to the Twitch community. Last weekend, he hosted his annual Build Against Cancer charity event. Lupo raised $892,195 during the 24-hour event this year. Plus, he raised more than $10 million over the previous five years for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. This was the biggest donation that has been raised on the Twitch platform.

Twitch's platform has been the catalyst of successful charities. Due to its accessibility and daily traction,

Founding and initial growth (2007–2013)[edit]
In 2005 Justin Khan was studying psychology and physics at Yale University. He met Emmett Shearer and they worked together to create Kiko Software, which was an online calendar. This project soon failed and they sold their software on eBay for over 250,000.

In 2006, there were a lot of reality TV shows coming out shows like Housewives, Survival of the Bachelor, and Big Brother. These all were shows that had simple production. Justin and Emmett were influenced by reality tv shows and thought about creating a website where people can live stream themselves. All they needed was a camera and a website to host. This led to the creation of Justin.tv.

When Justin.tv was launched in 2007 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, the site was divided into several content categories. The gaming category grew especially fast and became the most popular content on the site. In June 2011, the company decided to spin off the gaming content as TwitchTV, inspired by the term twitch gameplay. It launched officially in public beta on June 6, 2011. Since then, Twitch has attracted more than 35 million unique visitors a month. Twitch had about 80 employees in June 2013, which increased to 100 by December 2013. The company was headquartered in San Francisco's Financial District.

Twitch has been supported by significant investments of venture capital, with US$15 million in 2012 (on top of US$7 million originally raised for Justin.tv), and US$20 million in 2013. Investors during three rounds of fundraising leading up to the end of 2013 included Draper Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners and Thrive Capital. In addition to the influx of venture funding, it was believed in 2013 that the company had become profitable.

Especially since the shutdown of its direct competitor Own3d.tv in early 2013, Twitch has become the most popular e-sports streaming service by a large margin, leading some to conclude that the website has a "near monopoly on the market".Competing video services, such as YouTube and Dailymotion, began to increase the prominence of their gaming content to compete, but have had a much smaller impact so far. As of mid-2013, there were over 43 million viewers on Twitch monthly, with the average viewer watching an hour and a half a day. By February 2014, Twitch was the fourth largest source of Internet traffic during peak times in the United States, behind Netflix, Google, and Apple. Twitch made up 1.8% of total US Internet traffic during peak periods.

In late 2013, particularly due to increased viewership, Twitch had issues with lag and low frame rates in Europe. Twitch has subsequently added new servers in the region. Also, to address these problems, Twitch implemented a new video system shown to be more efficient than the previous one. Initially, the new video system was criticized by users because it caused a significant stream delay, interfering with broadcaster-viewer interaction. Twitch staff said that the increased delay was likely temporary and at the time, was an acceptable tradeoff for the decrease in buffering. There were a lot of connectivity issues, which is normal for a service that is just getting on its feet.

Content
Through a number of tools and services, Twitch, as a service, provides a user-friendly platform for live streaming and the streamer can be described as a host. The technology itself provides different degrees of participation and is mindful of the various levels of experience and skill of the streams that are conducted.

When Twitch. tv debuted as a dedicated platform in the early 2010s, and live broadcast material for gaming gained traction as a source of entertainment. Video games and streaming go hand in hand, allowing millions of spectators and broadcasters a means to engage with one another and create unique material. The audience for streaming will pass one billion by 2023 and grow with a CAGR of +16.3% from 2020 to 1.4 billion by 2025. According to Amazon, Twitch receives more than 31 million visitors every day. Twitch is an effective channel for non-endemic firms looking to attract gamers because of its constantly expanding selection of non-gaming content, such as TV shows, music, and even live sports. (more on that later). The appeal of streaming has recently soared, with Twitch currently being the most popular site for online game streaming.

Twitch has over a hundred categories for users to choose from. Which would explain the high amount of viewers that they have every year. Twitch is known as a streaming service that is solely based on gaming. With the variety of content that is available on the platform, anyone would be able to find something that they are interested in.

Creators
In October, Kai Cenat became the most subscribed streamer on Twitch. he also was the first African American streamer to reach such a milestone. This was a great sign that the twitch Community is becoming more diverse. He is A streamer that does not stick to one specific category. He plays video games, dances, reacts to videos, and sometimes he even interviews celebrities on his stream. This could be the reason why he became the number-one streamer on twitch in such a short span of time. Kai Cenat's Twitch channel gained 104,772 active subscribers, about whom 71,325 were premium subscribers and 47,577 were subscriptions that the streaming community gifted to the Twitch star. Nickmercs is in the top five most subscribed channels on twitch. He strictly plays first-person shooter games. Previously, he was a professional esports player and then transitioned to become a streamer.

Twitch has become such a big platform that it is deemed a normal job. The average twitch streamer makes about $20,000 a year. The platform has created jobs for editors, moderators, and people in the computer engineering field.