Did anyone watch the big stream last night? No, not Taylor Swift's boyfriend's silly little game. I mean the four seconds that Beyonce was a Twitch streamer in a Verizon ad! The account is, in fact, real, partnered, and now has over 31,000 followers. It'll be intriguing to see if anything more comes from it, and I'm sure Twitch ad sales/marketing will try to make something happen. But it's pretty cool, regardless! And because I'm on vacation in Costa Rica, let's get into the news!
Twitch News
- Twitch's animated emote maker has added five new animations: Arrive, Giggle, Zoom, Rain, and Dance.
- Jeff Rossi, Senior Director of Agency Development at Twitch, has left to join Yahoo.
Streaming Industry News
- TikTok is testing a new Sub Space to allow creators to engage more directly with their paid Live subscribers.
- *Fourthwall launched two new features this week. First, for the Americans, you can now integrate your Fourthwall store into TikTok Shop. Second, for everyone else, memberships got an upgrade with Paid DMs! If you haven't already, check out Fourthwall (get $15 in sample credit) and start building the business around your content!*
- YouTube has now added previews of live streams in the Shorts feed for everyone. They also posted a video explaining its vertical live-streaming capabilities.
- YouTube's CEO, Neal Mohan, posted a blog sharing their big bets on 2024. Here's my summary:
- YouTube believes AI will help creators make better content, especially smaller ones.
- Over $70B has been paid to creators in the last three years to 3M channels in the Partner Program.
- Shorts remain crucial - 50% growth in channels posting, 70B views daily.
- People watch Shorts on TV, and watch time on TV grew by 400% in 3 years.
- YouTube is expanding its Content Takeover advertising to allow brands to buy entire ad offerings on creator channels, custom lineups, playlists, and specific videos.
- Digiday hosted a Twitter Spaces with Slasher and Jacob Wolf (among others), discussing the gaming and esports space and whether any of this is sustainable. You can listen to the 70-minute recording here.
- Tencent denied rumors that Douyu and Huya, both owned by Tencent, were attempting to merge (after a failed attempt in 2020.)
- Snapchat is laying off ~10% of its staff.
- Disney is investing $1.5B into Epic Games.
*This is a sponsored ad! Fourthwall is legimitately great for creators!
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