If I was a PM at instagram, vine, twitter, youtube, etc I would be circulating this article / Revlo to every person in my org - you guys just hit the nail on the head.
Perfectly timed to capitalize on the brewing discontent of content creators who get LOW quality support for these kind of engagement tools @ platform level.
And nice balance of gamification & engagement for end-users that I can see working, leading into nice sponsorship revenue models, etc.
Some tough questions because I think you can handle them :)
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What happens if/when Twitch builds these tools into their app? (if possible, don't answer with "we hope they acquire us")
Per your website, it's "100% free" -- how do you make money? My hunch is that Twitch streamer viewership has a long-tail -- some tent-pole users (might pay for tools) and then tons of small <100 viewer amateurs (will never pay for tools).
What, if any, steps are you taking to ensure that the viewer engagement is real and not people idling in chatrooms for hours on end to 'farm' points? The value proposition to stream advertisers could be hurt if the numbers are inflated by 'zombie' users.
Hey Swanson! Thumb typing here so please excuse typos and etc.
re: Twitch,
Most of these streamers interact with their communities and build fan-bases through multiple platforms, Discord, Twitch, Twitter, Youtube, our goal is to link these communities together and encourage interaction in all of them.
Re: monetization,
We wouldn't ask the streamers or viewers to pay for the product. Our integration into content creates a lot of native ads opportunities that are a lot less disruptive to the audience. We have had good interest from brands and will be experimenting with them soon.
re: farming. It's honestly something that we haven't found a really good solution to yet. It's the same issue in television where you never know if someone is passively watching or just not there. We built in features like contests and bonus points system for things for trivia so that active viewers are rewarded with more points. Combined with quantity limits and periodic resets, this has been a solution on a couple of channels. We are looking into more ways to do it better with less effort from a streamers side, open to any suggestions you may have!
Super interesting and incredibly niche. The quality of twitch channels is vastly influenced by the tools employed in them. The production behind popular channels is extremely impressive, it makes sense that these tools are popping up. Watching streamers evolve over the last few years (especially with League of Legends streamers), the interactions users are expecting are getting more and more complex. Things like automated raffles, twitchbots with 'minigames' that earn users points, and donation messages make a huge impact on viewer engagement and thus a direct boon to the streamers bottom line.
> The quality of twitch channels is vastly influenced by the tools employed in them. The production behind popular channels is extremely impressive, it makes sense that these tools are popping up.
This is incredibly true: custom OBS plugins, custom graphics and animations, automatic triggers based on donations and subscriptions, game event integration, run timing, and especially tools that make it easy for streamers to engage without being distracted. Standing out on Twitch is about the streamer and their channel, not just the game they're playing; very few popular channels are just a game or game and facecam anymore.
Interesting product, and well done. My first thought with anything involving virtual currency, and gaming apps. Is the risk of botting, scamming, and straight up theft. Someone is always going to ruin it for everyone else, if/once this gets big enough.
Note to themacro editors: it was hard to find the link to the company (it's on the sidebar). I was expecting it to appear in the body content or the headline.
Perfectly timed to capitalize on the brewing discontent of content creators who get LOW quality support for these kind of engagement tools @ platform level.
And nice balance of gamification & engagement for end-users that I can see working, leading into nice sponsorship revenue models, etc.
I'm impressed.