Drawing from some inspiration, I have decided to become a part-time thinkboi. But more seriously, I started this newsletter to participate in "learning in public". I don't mind if nobody else finds this useful (I actually do) but the main goal is to enrich my learning by putting it into words, creating conversation, and having some form of accountability. There will be some semblance of structure to these posts, but the point will be to present some ideas and hopefully spark some interesting commentary.
I. Just Chatting
Twitch is THE place to stream gaming. Youtube, Facebook(lol), and Mixer (LMAOO) are all trying, or tried, to capture their share of the live stream market, to varying success. Breaking down the numbers: Twitch holds a firm grip on the majority of the market with over 67.6% of the Total Hours Watched on livestreams in Q2 of 2020. That's over 5 billion hours spent on the site. Youtube came at a distant second with 20% or 1.5 billion hours, Facebook with 800 million hours or 11%, and Mixer died.
Look at these numbers in a vacuum and you can come to the conclusion that Twitch is a strong incumbent in the space that even cash cows like FB and Alphabet cannot compete against. Being the aspiring PM that I am, I have decided to start throwing numbers around and coin the SAMUSH™ metric:
Streaming Accounts Made under Streaming Hours (SAMUSH™):
This metric? Probably useless. For many reasons including the fact that the top 1-2% of accounts hold a heavy majority of the hours watched and streamed, and for the fact that not every account is streaming. But I believe it is important to view this "metric" as a way to show that while the Youtube and Facebook ecosystems are smaller, there can be a greater "distribution of the wealth" as there is simply less streamers fighting for the viewers attention. Meanwhile, Twitch is saturated with creators and the top accounts hold much of that viewership market. I believe there is a ripe opportunity here to swoop up many creators and viewers if you approach it the right way.
"Just Chatting" holds the spot as the top category on Twitch. People just talking, podcasting, mukbanging with their chat for a few hours at a time. With 11% of the total hours watched in the past 30 days from the time of writing this, Just Chatting has more average concurrent viewers than Fortnite, League, and CSGO. Let Twitch keep their gamers and go after live chats and audio.
II. As a Product
As a product manager, I have a hefty 2 months of experience under my belt, but a lifetime of Ben Thompson material in my head, which equates me to being around a Senior PM. As such, I really think there is an opportunity here to become the next Twitch for social streaming.
Looking at users: We see a ~20 year old male from a western country ready to hop on Twitch to either watch a game or simp. I don't think there is any secret as to why Just Chatting gets so much of the viewership pie, take a look at the top 20 accounts live right now and a good chunk of them are thirst traps. There may be a large initial overlap in user base to get the platform started so the trick is knowing how to attract this user without giving them the wrong expectations of the platform. By that I mean, this is for social streaming, not gaming.
First intuition is to snatch up the creators like how Mixer and Youtube signed exclusive streaming deals with some of the biggest names in the industry. While that does hold some merit, I believe you need to position yourself in a way that avoids the gaming mob. They are a passionate and cult-like bunch that stick to their beliefs very strongly. Once Mixer became a meme within the gaming community, that was a wrap for them. #1 priority should be to create a space that is separate from gaming but borrows a lot of the features and user experience that has made Twitch so successful.
Second, let's take a look at the product. I got to talk to a good amount of my friends who use Twitch and the majority consensus can be boiled down to these 4 points:
The experience is flawless. Navigating the menus, finding content, following creators, chat, everything is intuitive and easy to use. Shoutout Twitch designers
Chat is a crucial part of the experience. Not only does it lower the friction of interaction between streamer and viewer, viewers have created their own sub-culture within Twitch chat, where their own memes and copy-pastas add to the viewing experience.
It's easy to be a creator. Almost as easy as jumping on IG live (shoutout Quarantine radio), streamers can get their stream up and running extremely fast with the help of a variety of third party software.
There's no reason to switch. Okay Ninja left, and? There are many other talented Fortnite streamers and unless you are a diehard, ride or die fan of Ninja, you just move on to Tfue. Trying to capture the huge gamers isn't the move. My reasoning behind that sentiment is that the streaming experience isn't all that unique to a particular streamer. Substack acquired some big names and exploded but Mixer acquired THE name in gaming (Ninja) and didn't. It is very hard to recreate what Nathan Baschez or Lenny Rachitsky are doing outside of Substack but it is very easy to find another talented Fortnite player streaming on another platform.
With that said, you could approach user acquisition in a similar manner to Substack. Since we are going for creators that aren't pure gamers, their content is unique to their stream. Mimicking the Substack viral growth loop, popular creators attract larger audiences who then in turn become smaller creators and continue to feed the loop.
Ok, just base it off that and we win?
I mentioned Clubhouse for the clicks obviously, but also because I believe it is around 40% of what I'm looking for in a product like this. It has that audio-first aspect that is important in Just Chatting, seamless UI when bouncing from room to room, and a great speaker/audience dynamic that allows the "creators" to lead the room but really interact with everyone in it. Taking it a different direction, I believe taking that foundation, adding some more functionality to the experience (chat, donations, subscribing), more functionality on the backend to creators(features to enhance their production and streaming experience), and possibly introducing a video element, would allow this app to rival twitch in the casual streamer space.
III. Conclusion & Roadblocks
Here's the kicker: I might not be correct in my approach, but I am confident there is a market to be served. Who knows, maybe there is something being worked on, a SubStack for livestreaming? In a way, Justin.TV was the "Just Chatting" version of streaming. My argument against why this will just turn into another Justin is that the ecosystem wasn't as robust as it is today, people did not make a living off streaming and the hours watched pale in comparison. Bringing an updated refresher on Justin.TV may just be what takes down Twitch.
Since this is the first edition of my newsletter, I will not torture you with the amazingly bad mockups I have created for this kind of app. If you want to see them or want to teach me design in Figma, please DM me on Twitter.
Please let me know what you think and continue the conversation! I'm here to learn :)
Cool to see non-gaming use cases emerging on Twitch.
What opportunities do you see beyond Just Chatting?
I've noticed a growing number of developers, designers, illustrators using Twitch as their own version of "working in public."
I wonder if we'll see more vertical or professional networks built on Twitch and other gaming networks.
Nice work Joel! Just subbed & look forward to more of your writing