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!
