What is to come of the streaming industry and it's platforms?
While writing this, I'm basing everything I claim merely on personal experience -- no stats involved, no numbers, no nada!
For a long time, and very obviously, Twitch has been the 'go-to' platform for streaming one's gameplay to those willing and/or wanting to watch. You could fact-check me on this, but I do believe at one point, they were the ONLY platform to support such an activity (of course the adult entertainment industry followed right behind. I think? heh heh.)
New streaming platforms both emerged and crumbled, bringing competition to the industry and throwing the whole thing for a bit of a whirl. Let me explain...
While I was streaming on Twitch, there were certain lines you couldn't cross and you had to be very careful not to get suspended, or even worse - banned. On your stream, you could not have anything in any manner that was 'sexually suggestive' as they put it, but these days you can send live notifications that include words like 'tight pussy' and claiming your titty-cup-size (Kyootbot), and completely get away with it. Of course, they've surely changed their terms of service to allow this, but why? Where is the dignity? And where did it all start?
I don't mean to put all the blame on one person, nor may I be right in doing so, but I do believe it all started with none other than, Amouranth. While other girls were getting suspended or banned for wearing a "revealing" top, Amouranth was being a genius by hosting her famous hot tub/pool party streams, which allowed wearing just a bikini, for obvious reasons, with no repercussion.
Now, now, I don't believe the TOS was changed solely because of this one person, and I'm skeptical whether or not it had anything to do with competition, because I don't think you can find such activities on YouTube. This may be due to the fact that live streaming on YouTube is usually just for gaming, like what Twitch used to be. It could just be a business move, of course, to bring in more revenue and I understand that. I just don't accept it.
Enough of Twitch, let's talk about YouTube and my current experience. Ol' Harris Heller claimed that in order to become successful on Twitch, you need to gain a following on other social media platforms and bring them over to Twitch. I know I said enough about them, but this brings me to one of the many reasons why I decide to switch to YouTube.
While Harris Heller's stream growth tactic makes sense, it also made more sense to me that if you're creating content and already gaining subscribers by doing so, then why not use that to your advantage and stream to your already gained subscribers? I mean, the potential is there.
I will say this, though. One thing that could make or break your choice of switching to YouTube is the fact that in order to monetize your channel, you'll need to gain 1,000 subscribers and have over 4,000 watch time hours. While these may seem like a huge hurdle, it immediately brought me in, because compared to Twitch's miniscule requirements to become an affiliate and pumping you full of a feeling of accomplishment, YouTube ensures that you put in the time and effort instead of just 'going live'.
Although I haven't reached monetization yet, I'm learning a lot of new things on the way. While starting up a stream is very similar on both platforms, I've learned to be a bit more disciplined with planning a stream, by having to provide a new thumbnail with each new stream - it's not that easy. Another key point that has recently got me super excited, is that handles have been rolled out, allowing you to have a 'youtube.com/@yourhandle' URL, as opposed to a randomly generated URL that you're given until you reach partner and can set a custom URL, such as 'youtube.com/yourname'. One more thing and maybe the most important - I definitely feel like YouTube has a lot more discoverability than Twitch has. I could stream on Twitch for hours with no one stopping by at all, where YouTube gives me hundreds of views at times which equals to potential new subscribers and reoccurring viewers.
At this point, I feel like I'm just pushing YouTube, but that's not the case, trust me! My friend, PostBios and I have tried streaming on TikTok Live and he's gained much more traction in the few weeks he's been doing it, compared to the years he's put in on Twitch! Immediately I noticed, once going live is that TikTok pushes huge viewers to your stream to see if they like it and if the viewers fall off, no need to worry. If you're able to have your viewers share the stream, traction is once again gained and you can reach THOUSANDS of viewers. What's great too is that viewers can send multiple likes, hundreds at a time and they can also send you gifts, thus beginning your monetization immediately! One downfall for TikTok that I will share with you, is that you may be required to stream from TikTok's 'Live Studio App', unless you have been sponsored and provided a stream key. But, there's also an issue with using the stream key. I cannot elaborate on it enough, but I've heard issues with it from Posty, something about having to update his stream key every new stream or game change.
With all of this being said, where I stand is that I no longer have respect for Twitch, YouTube is cool and I'm going to stick with it, but I also recommend trying TikTok and I think it could be a big player in the streaming industry once it works out the kinks. I can't speak on behalf of other platforms that exist - they're not even in the conversation for me, but I'm not going to knock what I don't know. Anywho!
Thanks for reading!
Gnoobin out.
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