Twitch: Maintaining Market Leadership While Managing Gamers’ Concerns

Abstract

The case is about Twitch Interactive Inc. (Twitch), an Amazon-owned platform that offers gamers the ability to broadcast, chat, and watch video games played in real time. In January 2021, Twitch was a market leader, hosting 91% of all video game streaming, while gamers faced privacy-related and other issues. With more than two million viewers, Twitch became the movie theater for Generation Z, with teenaged social media influencers playing games like Call of Duty or Fortnite. Approximately two-thirds of Twitch viewers were based in countries other than the United States. Emmett Shear (CEO) and Justin Kan were the co-founders of Twitch. As Twitch was the market leader, competition from other platforms such as YouTube increased, and YouTube even reported a better growth rate than Twitch in 2020. How can Twitch compete against YouTube? What can Twitch do to manage gamers’ privacy concerns?

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