Over the years that I've been on Twitch, I've seen two distinct eras. The first era I was part of was post-Amazon acquisition till roughly the end of 2018. This era took a Bleed Purple sentiment and supercharged it with Amazon dollars. It was an era of spending and growth with Twitch Prime, Affiliate Program, Esports Partnerships, IRL, Creative, Achievements, Overwatch League, and much more. After four years, that era came to an end - and we entered a time of Monetization in mid-2018. The spending spree slowed, and instead, a lot of focus turned toward monetization and retaining top creators. Ads, Hype Trains, Twitch Prime Loses Ad-Free, Ads Scheduler, Ads Incentive Program, Hype Chats. It was clear that Twitch was trying to figure out how to make streaming viable - but in doing so, they neglected the community, their feedback, and their needs. Four years after it started, in mid-2022, this era ended.
Since then, we have entered what I presume will be another four-year era - and it's becoming clear it will be marked by Cutbacks and Austerity. It started with a blog post about a 70/30 split, a small HR layoff in October 2022, then a large layoff in March 2023. Since then, a hiring freeze to allow attrition to reduce staff, an Executive Purge, a customer experience layoff, Korea shutting down, and last week, the biggest layoff in Twitch's history, impacting 500 people. My heart goes out to all those who lost their jobs last week. These scars won't heal.
And if the 4-year theory is correct, there are still 2.5 years to go. Let's get into the rest of the recap...
Twitch News
- Bloomberg broke the news that Twitch was laying off 35% of its workforce, or about 500 people. The next day, Dan Clancy confirmed the layoff. Brutal.
- Twitch is trying to downsize about 25% of the San Francisco HQ at 350 Bush.
- Amazon is laying off several hundred at Prime, MGM, and Audible. Internal messages seem to suggest that layoffs are more widespread.
- If you've noticed the most recent Twitch Payout had a 30% tax withholding, it's likely because your W-8 BEN tax form has expired. You'll need to submit a new form - but for any withholding, you'll need to wait till the end of the year to claim from the IRS.
- CommanderRoot has released a new tool to find out what channels a user is a moderator in.
- Independent of the layoffs, Twitch's VP of Data & Research, Drew Harry, has resigned.
- Nathan Grayson at Aftermath spoke with some staffers after the layoffs.
- For more information on last week's announcement of Enhanced Broadcasting, this video by EposVox explains a lot.
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