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Days after announcing new security tools designed to protect streamers from hate raids, Twitch is experimenting with a new feature that will allow users to pay money to promote a stream. Rumors have circulated on social media that the new feature is in the works, and a Twitch spokesperson has now confirmed The edge that it is testing the functionality with a small number of streamers.
“We are launching an experiment on a small number of growing channels that allows their communities to buy promotions on highly visible parts of Twitch,” said a spokesperson for Twitch.
Twitch explained the new paid boost feature in detail during their patch notes schedule. Consult the relevant part of the program here.
Promotion works like this. For 10 minutes during a stream, a notification will appear informing viewers that the boost option is available. Participating viewers can then pay for a certain number of recommendations. In the demo, there are two purchase levels: 1000 referrals for 0.99 percent and 3000 referrals for $ 2.97. These boosted purchase windows occur randomly for participating streamers and can occur as often as each time a streamer goes live.
This boost feature is essentially a paid version of the “Boost this stream” community challenge program already in place. In Boost This Stream, viewers can pool channel points – essentially points a viewer earns by participating in streaming activities like follow-up and replay – and use them to promote a creator on the set. of the platform.
Jacob Rosok, Twitch Product Manager, said the new paid program was born out of community feedback. He said streamers want more opportunities to promote their stream and want this promotion to have more impact. So that meaning seems to be that Twitch is simply giving the ‘impact’ a monetary value. The more money we spend on recommendations, the more a streamer is exposed on the front page, the more “impact” a boosted stream has on its creator.
At any given time, there are hundreds of thousands of creators streaming on Twitch, all vying for more eyeballs on their stream. But the algorithm that suggests streamers to viewers tends to favor the best streamers – behemoths like Amouranth and auronplay, who have millions of subscribers and tens of thousands of viewers on average at a time. So, for little streamers, one of their only hopes of discovery depends on landing on the coveted front page of Twitch. This new boost program essentially allows streamers to bypass the luck of the algorithm draw and pay directly for their extra time. Being on the front page means more viewers. More viewers means more ad revenue, more subscription revenue, and more appeal when applying for a sponsorship, which also results in, you guessed it, more revenue.
And at all levels, Twitch takes a portion of that revenue. Twitch currently takes 50% of a streamer’s subscription revenue (less if you’re a special partner). When a viewer purchases songs to celebrate, Twitch also takes a portion of that purchase. Twitch also takes a share of ad revenue, but none of the money spent on boosting a stream is shared with the creator.
It looks a bit like a game of gacha. Of course, you can play for free (as well as participate in community challenges), but to have any chance of success (the rapid growth of the community) you have to pay. And like any game of gacha, there will inevitably be whales. Twitch knows that community members want to see their streamers succeed. What better way, then, to ensure this success than by simply paying for it.
“We believe that paying to help a creator grow their community will be worth it for their supporters,” said Rosok.
There are other ways for viewers to support streamers and for streamers to find a larger audience. Tags allow viewers to search for feeds that meet their specific criteria. Raids (of the hate-free variety) share viewers from one creator with another. Promotions during Black History Month, Pride Month, and World Accessibility Awareness Day also push little streamers to the top of the homepage. Rosok also points out that the free version of the Stream Boosting Community Challenge will remain available for people who don’t want to spend any money but still want to support their streamers.
Right now, the program is only targeting small streamers with fewer than 250 subscribers and will run for the next four weeks. Twitch will share data with creators so they can measure the impact of a boost on their traffic. Twitch also points out that this is just an experiment and that there is no guarantee that the program will be rolled out site-wide or even in its current form.
“This experience is not final and will continue to evolve based on feedback from the community,” a Twitch spokesperson said.
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