📢 | Twitch Business Manager, TikTok Live Fest, Netflix Voting + PlaqueBoyMax Grammy

Hello! Welcome to February, and this week's newsletter recap. I've made a slight change to the first section to better capture both smaller streaming services and social platforms. It's part of a few changes planned this year that will continue to increase the newsletter's value! As always, if you have any suggestions, ideas, or things you'd like to see, please reach out!

Let's keep things short and sweet and jump right into the news!

🟪 TWITCH

• Twitch is adding a Business Manager role that grants that person access to your Analytics, Revenue, and Sponsorship dashboards.
• You'll soon be able to sign up/sign in with Google, Amazon, or Apple.
• Turbo Revenue is shifting to a pro-rated daily amount instead of the full amount upfront. This is incredibly confusing and brings up so many questions about how they actually pay creators for Turbo views!
• You can once again only have five monetized accounts (excluding Partner accounts).
• New Badge: Kodama ($)
• Twitch is running a Roblox event called Bloxfest from February 5 to 27, featuring emotes, paid chat badges, in-game rewards, and a competition.
• Is your Twitch username color unique?
• Creators are calling out Guest Star/Stream Together for being one of the worst features Twitch has ever implemented.

🟥 YOUTUBE

• Is YouTube paywalling playback speed? YouTube says this is not the case, but some users may have been confused by 2x+ speeds, prompting a Premium subscription.
• YouTube purged 4.7B views of AI-slop content.

⬛ TIKTOK

• TikTok USA experienced a major data center outage in its first week, resulting in slow load times, buggy videos, and zero engagement.
• TikTok uninstalls grew by 130% over the previous 30 days following the US takeover of the app.
• TikTok Live Fest Europe took place on January 31 in Italy.
• TikTok Live Fest Global will take place on February 12 in the USA.

🟦 OTHER STREAMERS

• SOOP Global is merging with SOOP Korea, so if you've ever streamed on the Global site, you should merge your accounts ASAP.
• Trovo is no longer accepting new users to stream on the platform.
• Trovo is discontinuing monetary programs in North America, Europe, and LATAM.
• Kick was spotted testing Google AdSense banner ads.
• Kick has added PayPal as a payment option for Subs.
• Netflix has done its first real test of live-stream voting.

🟧 SOCIAL PLATFORMS

• Discord is testing a new paid server icon pack with a very Spring-like vibe.
• Pinterest is laying off 15% of its staff to invest more in AI.
• Meta is testing a Premium subscription for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
• Twitter is testing images in polls.
• Bluesky is teasing a 2026 roadmap that could include improved discovery, real-time features, drafts, and a stronger focus on live streaming.