I'm somewhat surprised that their lunch hasn't been entirely eaten by YouTube, Discord, or even OnlyFans yet.
The community is really what's keeping the service successful at this point. I think they've correctly identified that as the thing about their platform that's hardest to replicate. But what can they do with it? Not much. You don't really own a community and they're very easy to destroy. If that's the one thing keeping your platform relevant you really have to walk on eggshells.
Twitch reminds me of Tumblr, in many ways, but I think Amazon are more capable stewards than Yahoo! ever could've been.
Oh my god the balloon guy. Every time I hear his name, no matter how long it’s been, I’m immediately earwormed by Michael M’s infectious, extremely online garage-rock banger “Everyone Hates The Balloon Guy”: https://youtu.be/YVo1shGMu5A?si=7eJTdBuxzwxPRXvN
The album it’s from, Glasgow Moths, is full of similarly excellent, extremely targetted-for-the-garbage-day audience efforts too and I highly recommend it. It is musically very good beyond its novelties.
Also the new Discord app is still better than the new Patreon app lol
(Moving DMs to the bottom bar feels weird but is fine. Mainly I appreciate the new OLED—i.e. actually black—dark theme. I haven’t noticed any other major differences, yet.)
The irony of tiktok in-app purchases making so much money is that platforms like YouTube and Twitch got many of their in-app monetization strategies from Chinese apps that were innovating (eg. Twitch bits which were inspired by Chinese live streaming tips) in the space.
For over a decade western companies have been trying to replicate the astonishing success of Chinese mobile monetization models with middling success at best.
Then ironically the most successful implementation for a western audience is...the first Chinese social app to break through in the west 😊
Twitch is in such an awkward position.
I'm somewhat surprised that their lunch hasn't been entirely eaten by YouTube, Discord, or even OnlyFans yet.
The community is really what's keeping the service successful at this point. I think they've correctly identified that as the thing about their platform that's hardest to replicate. But what can they do with it? Not much. You don't really own a community and they're very easy to destroy. If that's the one thing keeping your platform relevant you really have to walk on eggshells.
Twitch reminds me of Tumblr, in many ways, but I think Amazon are more capable stewards than Yahoo! ever could've been.
Balloon man...up up and away!
Oh my god the balloon guy. Every time I hear his name, no matter how long it’s been, I’m immediately earwormed by Michael M’s infectious, extremely online garage-rock banger “Everyone Hates The Balloon Guy”: https://youtu.be/YVo1shGMu5A?si=7eJTdBuxzwxPRXvN
The album it’s from, Glasgow Moths, is full of similarly excellent, extremely targetted-for-the-garbage-day audience efforts too and I highly recommend it. It is musically very good beyond its novelties.
Also the new Discord app is still better than the new Patreon app lol
(Moving DMs to the bottom bar feels weird but is fine. Mainly I appreciate the new OLED—i.e. actually black—dark theme. I haven’t noticed any other major differences, yet.)
It’s funny that the balloon guy’s entire problem is kind of that he’s a plagiarist, too.
The irony of tiktok in-app purchases making so much money is that platforms like YouTube and Twitch got many of their in-app monetization strategies from Chinese apps that were innovating (eg. Twitch bits which were inspired by Chinese live streaming tips) in the space.
For over a decade western companies have been trying to replicate the astonishing success of Chinese mobile monetization models with middling success at best.
Then ironically the most successful implementation for a western audience is...the first Chinese social app to break through in the west 😊