What it does: Twitch is where millions of people come together live every day to chat, interact, and make their own entertainment together.
Mission: The primary focus on Twitch is video games. Users can watch other people playing games, interact with other viewers, or live stream their own gameplay to the world.
Size and presence: Twitch made an estimated $2.6 billion revenue in 2021, mostly from advertising. Also, Twitch had an average of 2.78 million concurrent viewers in 2021, a 31% increase on 2020. Average concurrent viewers increased by 68% the year prior.
Best known for: Twitch.tv is primarily known for its role as a video-game broadcasting and viewing platform on which viewers can donate to their favorite streamers. Twitch.tv, often referred to as simply Twitch, was acquired by Amazon in 2014. Video game players broadcast themselves playing the game, usually with an audio commentary.
The Twitch we know today isn’t actually what it was years ago, back when it first started. The original website of Twitch launched back in 2007, and it was called Justin.tv. While Twitch focuses on video game streaming, Justin.tv was a project created by four friends in which the titular channel owner and one of the founders, Justin Kan, livestreamed IRL activities 24/7. With a webcam attached to his baseball cap, Justin streamed his entire life except for going to the bathroom and bathing.
This simple but interesting premise captured the audience. From being a single-channel website focusing on Justin, they soon decided to turn it into a live-streaming platform the public could enjoy.
Twitch is a live streaming service that originally catered to gaming but has now expanded into other categories, including music and entertainment. The website’s name was taken from the term “twitch gaming,” which means playing fast paced-games that challenge a player’s reaction time.
In 2007, Justin Kan and Emmett Shear (currently the CEO of Twitch) created the live-streaming platform Justin.tv. Though the site had many categories for content, the gaming section grew exceptionally fast.
They soon realize that video game streamers have the most audience on the platform. So, in 2011, Justin.tv split the content, renaming the gaming portion of the site Twitch.tv. Since then, Twitch has dominated the industry as far as esports broadcasting is concerned.
The site began to take off in February 2014 when a stream called “Twitch Plays Pokemon” went viral. Gamers from around the world logged on to Pokemon Red using commands together. The channel was viewed more than 6.5 million times, with an average of 60-70k concurrent viewers.
In the same month, Twitch got 1.8% of peak internet traffic in the US alone.
Seeing the platform’s success, the company executives decided to rebrand the parent company from Justin.tv, Inc. to Twitch Interactive and making Twitch their flagship brand.
Soon, Twitch attracted the attention of tech giants, particularly Google and Amazon.
The two behemoths probably realized its potential by seeing how Twitch functions uniquely from most live streaming and video-sharing websites. In 2014, rumors began spreading around the interwebs that Google plans to acquire Twitch and possibly make it a subsidiary.
However, the deal eventually fell through before the year ended, allegedly owing to potential antitrust issues as the company also owns YouTube, one of its major competitors.
If the deal pushed through, it was reported that Google would have to pay a whopping $1 billion to acquire Twitch Interactive.
On August of the same year, the company decided to shut down Justin.tv and focus on Twitch instead. Then, just a few weeks after the original website was closed for good, another large company had the opportunity to buy Twitch Interactive.
Twitch.tv was purchased by Amazon on August 25, 2014, for $970 million. It is now a subsidiary of Amazon, which already owns two other video game services: Reflexive Entertainment and Double Helix Games. Emmett Shear remained as CEO.
Many thought that the buyout was considerably expensive at the time, as it seemed that Amazon was making a huge gamble in acquiring a platform that’s primarily known for streaming video games. And yet, the acquisition proved to be an excellent move for Amazon, seeing how Twitch became extremely popular and stayed profitable over time.
In 2021 alone, Twitch made a revenue of $2.6 billion, and the user base is just growing year after year. In the same year, annual concurrent viewers grew to 2.78 million, a far cry from the 530,000 Twitch users watching gaming streams in 2015.
Even though viewers can watch Twitch streams without an account on the platform, many decided to sign up when they saw the benefits of having one. Later on, more and more Twitch users started streaming themselves because of how easy it is to set up a live broadcast on different devices, including PC, gaming consoles, and mobile. This and the ever-expanding gaming community have turned Twitch into a behemoth in the gaming industry itself.
In 2016, Twitch created the “cheering” method, allowing users to purchase Bits (click here to learn how to get them for free) and donate them to their favorite streamer. Later that year, they released Prime Gaming, which gives Amazon Prime members exclusive Twitch benefits such as additional emotes and the ability to subscribe to one streamer per month.
Success that comes at the expense of another person or team is treated as a loss. We offer and crave constructive input; we reject negativity and backbiting. Everyone is counting on us to deliver, no matter what part of Twitch we're responsible for. We come through on time and with quality.
We have values for all employees that guide us on our quest. These values are a consistent part of our company culture, plus knowing and demonstrating them can earn you bonus points during the interview process.
It doesn’t matter if you were referred, recruited, or applied through our Jobs page — almost every candidate’s journey begins with a 15-30 minute recruiter call.
This is our chance to get to know you beyond your resume, and just as importantly, it’s your chance to get to know us. Whether you’re a Twitch expert, or so new to Twitch that you’ve never spoken the word “Kappa,” this is a great opportunity to make sure we’re a good career fit.
Then comes the part where our team gets together and decides which candidate is the best fit for the role and team.
We know waiting to hear back can be the hardest part, but our rigor in this process is part of why our employee culture is second to none. As we mentioned before, the typical time from application to decision ranges from 2-8 weeks, but each role is different. Reach out to your recruiter if you have any questions. And if anything changes for you during this time — for example, you get an offer elsewhere — let us know!
If the team offers you the role, congrats and welcome to our squad!! We already know you’ll look great in purple. Our amazing on-boarding team will help you get set up and ready for your next adventure. If you don’t get the role you love, don’t lose heart. With so many talented applicants per job, you might be highly qualified and still not get the decision you wanted. Many of our team members have applied multiple times, so reapply for another role you’re qualified for or keep your eye on our Jobs page, and use your experiences to come back even stronger.
We’re building the future of live entertainment, and we’d do it even better with you. Twitch doesn’t just serve communities, we work as one too. We’re building a strong and diverse team, where everyone has a voice. We’re growing fast and always tackling the next big challenge.
Twitch has lost some of its top streamers in recent months to rival platforms, as creators complain that death threats, sexual harassment, and child predation continue to plague the platform, and these issues have dominated the conversation surrounding Twitch and TwitchCon in recent weeks.