HACKER Q&A
📣 nox101

Could Twitch pivot into a YouTube competitor?


Twitch seems like it's not doing well based on stats and layoffs but, it seems like one of the few platforms that's already setup to serve long form video. So, with a few relatively small tweaks, could they pivot and try to compete with YouTube?

If you were running Twitch would you consider trying to become more like YouTube? Why/Why Not?

  👤 not_your_vase Accepted Answer ✓
Youtube started to break even in 2010. It means it was burning cash for the prior 5 years. That's the biggest obstacle, when it comes to a new kid on the block: the entry price. You need a wallet that can't be emptied, at least for 5 years. Most probably for more, as you have to compete with an existing de-facto default service.

And sure, Amazon may have a bottomless wallet... but would you want to burn its content for a project, that very well could fail spectacularly, with a very high chance?