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Greed gets you nowhere Twitch!

Aside from YouTube, I'm not really a social-media sort of a guy.

I have a Facebook account but don't bother trying to contact me on that platform because I log in about once a month (if that). Likewise I have a Twitter account but tend to operate in read-only mode most of the time.

Tiktok?

Hahaha... life's way to short to spend my days consuming inane short-form video content mostly created by teenagers seeking the dopamine hit that comes from getting "likes" from other spotty-faced adolescents.

Twitch is another platform that I've never used and only ever watched twice in my life but apparently there are a huge number of folks for who it is their primary social media platform.

However, a mis-step on the part of Twitch means that could be about to change because yesterday they shot themselves in the foot, good and proper!

Twitch, for those who don't know, is primarily a live-streaming platform where "creators" engage with their audience in realtime.

It's not the only livestreaming platform of course, Youtube being another popular player in this market. However, Twitch has been the platform of choice for many gamers, due to its superior stream quality.

Just like YouTube, Twitch provides some financial incentive for its creators, in the form of a revenue-split on subscriptions. If you're a *big* Twitch streamer then you *might* also get a share of ad revenues but there's no guarantee apparently.

This means that most successful Twitch creators have relied on sponsorships and ad-segments that they arrange and are paid directly for by those being promoted. There's no way for most Twitch streamers to survive solely on the subscription split.

Yesterday Twitch issued a statement which basically said "we want your third-party ad money".

Yep, they added a whole bunch of terms, conditions and restrictions associated with the promotion of products and services outside of Twitch's own advertising system.

No longer can Twitch users run their own ads, nor can they have a sponsor's logo onscreen for extended periods of time. The company wants streamers to arrange all significant advertising via Twitch themselves, which means that in some cases that creator won't see a single cent of the revenues thus generated.

Sounds a bit greedy eh?

Well the creator community over at Twitch thinks so too and so there was a huge outcry, with many of the top-tier creators boycotting or abandoning the platform in response.

This was both great to see and worrying at the same time.

It was great because companies need to realise that when they skew the balance of the value-exchange on which such relationships are built there will be adverse repercussions.

It was worrying because if Twitch were to fold that would really give YouTube an effective monopoly in this market and that would be good for nobody -- least of all those who would be at the mercy of Google's beancounters and their quest for ever-higher profits.

In the last few hours, Twitch seems to have realised its horrible mistake and is backtracking madly, issuing a statement that said it may have been "overly broad" in the scope of its proposed changes.

ie: "We whucked up and it's bitten us on the arse so we'll pretend to be sorry".

Interestingly however, despite the statement, Twitch haven't yet rewritten the policy changes. Perhaps they're hoping that people will eventually give up moaning and accept their greedy money-grab.

And this is just one of the reasons why I keep my engagement with social media to a minimum. Too many sharks at the controls!

Carpe Diem folks!

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