After the million-dollar signings of Kick, the platform owned by Stake, a crypto casino that competes directly with Twitch in live broadcasts, it seems that its content has remained somewhat stagnant, mainly in betting and content not appropriate for the work environment, or NSFW.
Big technology companies know that diversifying their business is necessary if they want to maintain their significant power. This is how Amazon saw it in 2014, when it acquired Twitch Interactive, Inc., a 3-year-old platform that at that time was causing a sensation in video game streaming.
It’s been almost 10 years since the e-commerce giant paid approximately $970 million for all of Twitch’s outstanding shares, and the deal appears unrivaled.
Every day, Amazon’s purple platform has more than 35 million daily visitors on average and 7 million monthly direct visitors in 35 different languages, worldwide.
Figures that not even YouTube, owned by Google, can reach in this niche.
Now, in recent months a new platform, Kick – still in beta – has been making quite a lot of noise, which seems to be able to stand up to Twitch, due to the juicy 95/5 revenue distribution in favor of streamers and million-dollar contracts.
This streaming service, practically identical in its interface to Twitch -except for its corporate green color-, has managed to cross the threshold of 100 million hours watched during August 2023, with a 13% growth in average viewers, from 139,542.
Could Kick be Twitch’s big competitor?
A crypto casino against a trading giant
In June of this same year, Kick announced one of its star signings, xQc, the most viewed in the entire history of Twitch for $100 million over 2 years. From here, he began casting different creators, such as Amouranth.
Precisely, according to the latest data, the most viewed content from female streamers is that related to the acronym NSFW, that is, it is not appropriate to watch at work and is usually aimed at adult content, with the aforementioned Amouranth leading the podium..
The American streamer decided to change Twitch for Kick to make exactly the same content, categorized under “Pools, beaches and jacuzzis.”
On the other hand, male streamers dedicate most of their live streams to a category that has a special relationship with the platform, “Casinos and slots”, which has had a growth of 57% between July and August.
At this point, it is worth noting that Kick has a less strict policy than Twitch on online betting, largely due to the fact that the company that owns the platform is Stake, a crypto casino that was born as a fintech in Australia.
Almost since its birth, this crypto casino saw a golden opportunity in Twitch live streams, and many streamers decided to bet on the company for their online bets on the purple platform, something that has caused the latter a lot of displeasure.
xQc himself had to leave Twitch for a while due to his recognized “gambling addiction”, a bad example for his teenage followers; In Kick, after the ban of unlicensed betting sites on Twitch, xQc continues to spend his money on gambling.
To the complaints about its relationship with a betting house, which in Spain does not have a license as you can see in the notice on its website, are added those of lack of transparency, since its headquarters are located in Curaçao, one of the 15 largest tax havens of the world.
That said, and far from the criticism leveled at Kick, many streamers have considered this platform as an alternative, like ElXokas, due to the revenue sharing. But is it strong enough to break Twitch’s dominance?
Kick is not in danger of disappearing
Marcelo Vázquez – S4vitar on his different social networks – has more than 300,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, as of the date of this article, and experience on Twitch, which he has had to leave due to certain commitments.
He explains that platforms like Twitch or Kick allow “cultivating a more intimate community due to direct contact with viewers.” In contrast, YouTube is more of a “broadcasting tool”.
“What YouTube offers is the opportunity to reach a broader audience and attract new followers, as long as your content is relevant and attractive,” highlights S4vitar. “I like the fact that the elaborate videos and live streams are differentiated on separate platforms.
In this way, YouTube is positioned as the platform to upload more careful and higher quality content, while on Twitch or Kick the audience is more important. Furthermore, he believes that Kick is not at risk of disappearing .
“In fact, he is at his best,” he notes. “Its competition with Twitch is positive, as it encourages users to explore both platforms.”
However, at the moment this race seems to favor Twitch, because it brings together larger audiences and streamers who not only dedicate their live streams to betting or NSFW content. But not without complaints from the creators .
“I think that Twitch gives more importance to the opinions of the streamers who generate the most income, it is the type of profiles that interests them and it is totally understandable,” reflects S4vitar.
He gives as an example a store with 2 salespeople, one who achieves 10 sales and another who achieves 100; Most likely, you will end up devoting more resources and attention to the one with the most sales. On Twitch, it works similarly with big streamers, according to S4vitar.
“It’s simple business logic, those who contribute more to the overall profit tend to receive more attention,” he concludes.
