Twitch.tv Continues To Struggle With Competition and Unending Losses

Published on January 11th, 2024 2:42 pm EST

Earlier this week, Twitch.tv, the online streaming platform that is owned by Amazon.com, announced that they were cutting 35% of their staff, or around 500 jobs.

Twitch.tv, which has become a very important marketing platform for online poker sites, has been struggling with losses since its inception.

Twitch.tv's most recent layoffs come on the heels of two rounds of layoffs in 2023.

In addition, a couple of important executives, including the site's chief product officer, chief content officer and chief revenue officer, have departed the site in recent months.

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Twitch.tv has been dealing with a number of issues.

The site has been relying more on advertisements in order to help pay the bills, and this has angered many of the top streamers on the platform.

In addition, competition continues to lure away some of Twitch.tv's biggest names, as Youtube and the newly formed Kick.com have managed to sign top Twitch.tv talent to contracts.

Despite being owned by Amazon, Twitch.tv is still unprofitable.

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Online poker sites such as Pokerstars and GGPoker use the Twitch.tv streaming platform in order to draw new users to their sites.

Both sites have dozens of sponsored players that made names for themselves on the Twitch.tv platform, and it remains an important cog in the marketing machines for these sites.

With that being said, Twitch.tv seems like they are in a tough spot right now, as they continue to chop employees and rely more heavily on unpopular revenue streams, such as advertising.

This will likely result in more people leaving the platform, which will hurt the viewer numbers for the online poker players that stream on the platform.

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There is obviously still a healthy appetite for online poker streaming, though the main platform for online poker players to stream, Twitch.tv, continues to suffer.

Don't be surprised if you see a continued migration from Twitch.tv to other platforms such as Youtube and Kick.com in the near-future.

Source: Bloomberg.com - Amazon's Twitch to Cut 500 Employees, About 35% of Staff

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Filed Under: Other Poker News