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75-591: Margaret Lillian Adams (born August 9, 1986), also known as MRirian and Magibon ( マギボン ) , is an American former YouTuber based in Japan. In 2006, Adams began posting videos on YouTube of herself silently looking at the camera, which became popular in Japan and led her channel to rank no. 1 overall in the country in 2008. Margaret Lillian Adams was born in Florida , but she had lived in Pennsylvania since 2008. She became
150-444: A referral link to purchase the game—receiving a 5% commission. Users also received a "Twitch Crate" on every purchase, which included Bits and a collection of random chat emotes. In August 2017, Twitch announced it had acquired video indexing platform ClipMine. On August 20, 2018, Twitch announced that it will no longer offer advertising-free access to the entire service to Amazon Prime subscribers, with this privilege requiring
225-614: A "Discovery Feed" feature in its mobile apps, populated by "featured" clips from followed users. In October 2023, Twitch began to implement stories . At TwitchCon 2023, Twitch announced upcoming updates to its Guest Star feature (concurrently renamed "Stream Together") to allow for merged chat rooms, and that streamers under an affiliation or partnership agreement with the service (unless contractually required) would be allowed to simulcast their streams on competing platforms such as YouTube, as opposed to only mobile-centric video platforms. On December 6, 2023, Twitch announced that it would exit
300-546: A 2% stake at the time of the acquisition, made a windfall of $ 22 million. Under Amazon, Shear continued as chief executive officer of Twitch Interactive, with Sara Clemens added to the executive team as chief operating officer in January 2018. Shear touted the Amazon Web Services platform as an "attractive" aspect of the deal, and that Amazon had "built relationships with the big players in media", which could be used to
375-538: A Safety Advisory Council in May 2020, made up from streamers, academics, and think tanks , with a goal to develop guidelines for moderation, work-life balance, and safeguarding the interests of marginalized communities for the platform. The announcement attracted controversy, and CEO Emmett Shear later clarified that the role of the council was purely advisory. On June 22, 2020, Twitch Interactive sold CurseForge to Overwolf for an undisclosed sum. In August 2020, Twitch Prime
450-450: A comfortable margin overall in December [2019]. While the category has been on the rise for the last couple of months, this was the first time that it's actually achieved No. 1 overall for a tracked period on the platform". In 2020, Thrillist described Twitch as "talk radio for the extremely online ". Michael Espinosa, for Business Insider in 2021, highlighted that "Twitch dominates
525-568: A copyright fingerprinting system that would mute audio in archived clips if it detected a copyrighted song in the stream. On August 25, 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch Interactive for US$ 970 million in an all-cash deal . Sources reported that the rumoured Google deal had fallen through and allowed Amazon to make the bid, with Forbes reporting that Google had backed out of the deal due to potential antitrust concerns surrounding it and its existing ownership of YouTube. The acquisition closed on September 25, 2014. Take-Two Interactive , which owned
600-528: A fan of Japanese pop culture in high school. Prior to her YouTube fame, she worked as a clerk at a pharmacy. Adams went by the username "MRirian" online. A fan of the Japanese girl group Morning Musume , she later went by the nickname "Magibon", inspired by former member Ai Kago 's nickname, Aibon. Adams joined YouTube under the username "MRirian" and initially used the website to watch music videos of Japanese musicians. In July 2006, she decided to record and post
675-636: A live performance from a nightclub in Ibiza . In January 2015, Twitch introduced an official category for music streams, such as radio shows and music production activities, and in March 2015, announced that it would become the new official live-streaming partner of the Ultra Music Festival , an electronic music festival in Miami . On October 28, 2015, Twitch launched a second non-gaming category, "Creative", which
750-466: A minute, and have someone just smile at them." Her later videos had her speak some Japanese to connect with her Japanese fans and practice speaking Japanese, as well as a few skits with "dry metahumor", such as drinking from a soy sauce bottle and eating pizza. At the end of her videos, she would put a graphic to thank her viewers for watching. By 2008, Adams' channel ranked no. 1 on YouTube in Japan and attracted 4.15 million viewers. In February 2008, Adams
825-580: A new Video Manager interface for managing past broadcasts and compiling "highlights" from broadcasts that can also be exported to YouTube . Due to technological limitations and resource requirements, the new system contained several regressions; the option to archive complete broadcasts on an indefinite basis ("save forever") was removed, meaning that they can only be retained for a maximum of 14 days, or 60 for partners and Turbo subscribers. While compiled highlights can be archived indefinitely, they were limited to two hours in length. In addition, Twitch introduced
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#1732854777378900-741: A new YouTube channel to promote tourism in Yamaga, Kumamoto . Sports Hochi compared Adams to Leah Dizon and referred to her as a " net idol ." Mark Schilling from Japan Times compared her appeal to an idol due to her youthful appearance and interest in Japan. On the other hand, Adams' channel was received less favorably in the United States, with many comments responding in confusion over her content. Negative comparisons to camgirls were made, in addition to criticisms of her Japanese language skills and accusations of her "wanting to be Japanese." In 2015, Adams revealed on her Instagram account that she
975-521: A participatory experience, the broadcaster has created an entertainment hybrid custom made for the Twitch community. This is a wonderful proof of concept that we hope to see more of in the future." Beginning with its 2014 edition , Twitch was made the official live-streaming platform of the Electronic Entertainment Expo . On May 18, 2014, Variety first reported that Google had reached
1050-432: A preliminary deal to acquire Twitch through its YouTube subsidiary for approximately US$ 1 billion . On August 5, 2014, the original Justin.tv site suddenly ceased operations, citing a need to focus resources entirely on Twitch. On August 6, 2014, Twitch introduced an updated archive system, with multi-platform access to highlights from past broadcasts by a channel, higher quality video, increased server backups, and
1125-488: A semi-automated chat moderation tool ( AutoMod ), which uses natural language processing and machine learning to set aside potentially unwanted content for human review. In February 2017, Twitch announced the Twitch Game Store, a digital distribution platform that would expose digital purchases of games within the site's browsing interface. When streaming games available on the store, partnered channels could display
1200-497: A server misconfiguration used by a "malicious third party". While Twitch found no indication of login credentials or credit card information to have been taken in the breach, the company reset all stream keys as a precaution. On August 23, 2022, Twitch announced that it would no longer enforce its exclusivity agreement, allowing Twitch streamers to livestream on other streaming platforms. The announcement noted that simulcasting on Twitch and other "Twitch-like" streaming platforms
1275-468: A service which provides premium features that are exclusive to users who have an active Amazon Prime subscription. This included advertising-free streaming, monthly offers of free add-on content ("Game Loot"), and game discounts. Games included with the game loot rewards were Apex Legends , Legends of Runeterra , FIFA Ultimate Team , Teamfight Tactics , Mobile Legends: Bang Bang , Doom Eternal , and more. In December 2016, Twitch announced
1350-970: A show starring Ryan Kaji, the then-seven-year-old host of the toy review and vlog channel Ryan's World , began airing on the Nick Jr. Channel ; later that year, NBC debuted A Little Late with Lilly Singh in its 1:35 am ET time slot. Singh's digital prominence was cited as a reason for her selection as host by then-NBC Entertainment co-chairman George Cheeks. In 2024, Canadian YouTuber Jasmeet Singh Raina , otherwise known as JusReign, released his half-hour comedy series titled Late Bloomer . In addition to expanding into other forms of media, several YouTubers have used their influence to raise money for charity or speak out on social issues . Notable examples include James Stephen "MrBeast" Donaldson and Mark Rober , who helped raise over $ 20 million with their Team Trees campaign, and Felipe Neto , who publicly criticized Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for his response to
1425-523: A test video of herself waving at her webcam , which was titled "Me doing nothing." Her video was posted onto 2channel and went viral in Japan. Adams' subsequent videos showed her at home, saying little to nothing, or staring at the camera. Adams stated to The Japan Times that she was initially silent in her earlier videos out of being nervous. Adams stated to PingMag that she believed her non-speaking videos were popular because her viewers found them "meaningful" in that they would "make everything stop for
1500-682: A two-year deal in June 2017 to make Twitch be the exclusive streaming broadcaster of select Blizzard esports championship events, with viewers under Twitch Prime earning special rewards in various Blizzard games. Twitch also reached a deal in 2018 to be the streaming partner of the Overwatch League , with the site also offering an "All-Access Pass" with exclusive content, emotes, and in-game items for Overwatch . Blizzard switched to rival platform YouTube in 2020. Fortnite Battle Royale competitions have aired on Twitch since its launch in 2017, including
1575-966: Is ZEvent , a French project created by Adrien Nougaret and Alexandre Dachary, with more than US$ 10 million raised for Action Contre la Faim in October 2021. ESL tournaments have aired on Justin.tv and later Twitch.tv since 2009. The platform has also been a longtime broadcaster of the Evolution Championship Series . Twitch has been the official broadcaster of the League of Legends World Championship since 2012, as well as other League of Legends tournaments organized by Riot Games . Dota 2 's premier tournament The International has been livestreamed on Twitch since 2013. The platform airs Rocket League tournaments organized by Psyonix since 2016. The ELeague also broadcasts events on Twitch since 2016. Twitch and Blizzard Entertainment signed
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#17328547773781650-404: Is designed for content within Twitch guidelines that does not fall within any of the other established categories on the site (such as lifelogs ). GeekWire reported that "while gameplay still makes up the vast majority of the content broadcast via Twitch, the 'Just Chatting' category—a catch-all term that encompasses anything from candid conversation to reality programming—took the top spot by
1725-508: Is intended for streams showcasing the creation of artistic and creative works. To promote the launch, the service also streamed an eight-day marathon of Bob Ross ' The Joy of Painting . In July 2016, Twitch launched "Social eating" as a beta; it was inspired by the Korean phenomenon of mukbang and Korean players having engaged in the practice as intermissions on their gaming streams. In March 2017, Twitch added an "IRL" category, which
1800-537: Is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon . It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv . Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand . The games shown on Twitch's current homepage are listed according to audience preference and include genres such as real-time strategy games (RTS), fighting games, racing games, and first-person shooters. The popularity of Twitch eclipsed that of its general-interest counterpart. In October 2013,
1875-427: Is widely conceived as a bottom-up social media video platform, microcelebrities do not appear to be involved with the established and commercial system of celebrity culture; rather, they appear self-governed and independent. This appearance, in turn, leads to YouTubers being seen as more relatable and authentic, also fostered by the direct connection between artist and viewer using the medium of YouTube. In 2014,
1950-721: The COVID-19 pandemic . In 2020, Time named Neto and fellow YouTuber JoJo Siwa to its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people. Due to this level of influence, in 2013, University of Michigan associate professor Robert Hovden argued for the creation of a new index similar to the g-index and h-index to evaluate a person's output and impact on YouTube. YouTubers can earn revenue from Google AdSense . Additionally, they can supplement their income through affiliate links , merchandising , and 3rd party memberships using platforms such as Patreon . Popular channels have garnered corporate sponsors, who pay to be included in
2025-509: The E3 2018 Fortnite Pro-Am and the 2019 Fortnite World Cup . The NBA 2K League has been livestreamed on Twitch since its inception in 2018. As the COVID-19 pandemic suspended motorsports competitions around the world, several series launched sim racing competitions with real-life professional drivers. Some series had official broadcasts on Twitch, such as Formula One and IMSA . Many drivers also had their personal live streams on Twitch, as
2100-708: The University of Southern California surveyed 13–18-year-olds in the United States on whether ten YouTube celebrities or ten traditional celebrities were more influential; YouTube personalities took the first five spots of the ranking, with the YouTube duo Smosh ranking as most influential. The survey was repeated in 2015, and found six YouTubers on the first ranks, with KSI ranked as most influential. Several YouTubers and their influence were subjects for scientific studies, such as Zoella , and PewDiePie . Numerous studies in
2175-412: The tech and digital media sectors. In October 2024, Twitch's longtime head of music Cindy Charles died. Twitch is designed to be a platform for content, including esports tournaments, personal streams of individual players, and gaming-related talk shows. A number of channels do live speedrunning . The Twitch homepage currently displays games based on viewership. As of June 2018, some of
2250-463: The April 14, 2008 issue of Weekly Playboy and the radio program Stream [ ja ] on TBS Radio . A fan event was scheduled for April 12, 2008 by Usen, the parent company of GyaO!, but this was canceled due to security concerns following the receipt of a number of threatening emails. Adams continued to make appearances in Japanese media as she traveled back-and-forth from the United States. She
2325-675: The Game Store service, citing that it did not generate as much additional revenue for partners as they hoped, and new revenue opportunities such as Amazon Blacksmith. Users retain access to their purchased games. On December 12, 2018, Fandom, Inc. had reached an agreement to acquire Curse Media , a spin-off of Curse, from Twitch Interactive for an undisclosed amount. Curse was dissolved and its assets were moved under Twitch Interactive. Twitch's new headquarters at 350 Bush Street opened in August 2019. To comply with historic preservation requirements,
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2400-543: The Partner Program, which allows channels that meet certain metrics (currently 1000 subscribers and 4000 public watch hours in the past year) to run ads on their videos and earn money doing so. The Partner Program allowed for the first time YouTube personalities to make a living from the platform. During the 2010s, the ability for YouTubers to achieve wealth and fame due to success on the platform increased dramatically. In December 2010, Business Insider estimated that
2475-641: The South Korea market effective February 27, 2024, citing the prohibitive costs of offering the service in the country. Due to demands from internet service providers that Twitch pay network access fees, Twitch restricted streams to 720p quality in September 2022, and blocked access to video-on-demand (VOD) content (including archived broadcasts and clips) in February 2023. Users in South Korea will no longer be allowed to monetize their streams, and will be offboarded from
2550-569: The affiliate and partnership programs. In February 2024, Twitch was additionally fined ₩ 435 million ($ 327,067) by the Korea Telecommunications Commission, deeming Twitch's degradation of service in the country to be unjustified and undermining the interests of users. In January 2024, Twitch announced another mass layoff , affecting 500 employees or 35% of total staff, after previous layoffs in early 2023. The announcement came amid ongoing struggles and ensuing layoffs across
2625-549: The announcement. After the announcement, many high-profile streamers who were limited by exclusivity, such as Ninja and Pokimane, started streaming on other platforms. On September 21, 2022, Twitch announced it would be reducing the subscription revenue earned by large streamers. Though most streamers get a 50% of revenue from subscriptions, some larger streamers have premium subscription terms, which give them 70% of subscription revenue. The new change, set to take effect on June 1, 2023, would mean premium streamers would keep 70% of
2700-411: The channel reached over 6.5 million total views and averaged concurrent viewership between 60 and 70,000 viewers with at least 10% participating. Vice President of Marketing Matthew DiPietro praised the stream as "one more example of how video games have become a platform for entertainment and creativity that extends WAY beyond the original intent of the game creator. By merging a video game, live video and
2775-595: The company. On June 6, 2023, Twitch announced restrictions on third-party sponsor placements in streams, including restricting the size of sponsor logos, and prohibiting "burned-in" audio, video, or display advertising. The changes were met with criticism from major streamers such as Asmongold (who threatened to leave the service), Cr1TiKaL , and Zentreya due to their broad wording, concerns that it would impact streamers' existing relationships with advertisers, and their impact on charity and esports events that rely extensively on sponsorship. The service quickly retracted
2850-444: The database service to improve its own internal search features and help users find games they are interested in. On September 26, 2019, Twitch unveiled a new logo and updated site design. The design is accompanied by a new advertising campaign, "You're already one of us", which will seek to promote the platform's community members. Twitch began signing exclusivity deals with high-profile streamers in December 2019. Twitch introduced
2925-425: The decrease in buffering . On February 10, 2014, Twitch's parent company (Justin.tv, Inc.) was renamed Twitch Interactive, reflecting the increased prominence of the service over Justin.tv as the company's main business. That same month, a stream known as Twitch Plays Pokémon , a crowdsourced attempt to play Pokémon Red using a system translating chat commands into game controls, went viral. By February 17,
3000-602: The developer kept the front facade of the San Francisco Curb Exchange , but tore down everything behind the facade, and built a reconstruction of the old trading hall through which visitors must walk to reach the modern high-rise office tower behind it. Twitch acquired the Internet Games Database (IGDb), a user-driven website similar in functionality to Internet Movie Database (IMDb) to catalog details of video games in September 2019. Twitch plans to use
3075-557: The entire platform at once. When the ads were introduced in August 2006, YouTube CEO Chad Hurley rejected the idea of expanding into areas of advertising seen as less user-friendly at the time, saying, "We think there are better ways for people to engage with brands than forcing them to watch a commercial before seeing content. You could ask anyone on the net if they enjoy that experience and they'd probably say no." However, YouTube began running in-video ads in August 2007, with preroll ads introduced in 2008. In December 2007, YouTube launched
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3150-427: The first $ 100,000 earned from subscriptions, after which their cut would be lowered to 50%. The announcement came after Twitch declined a popular request for all streamers to have 70% subscription revenue, which many noted is the same revenue already offered by YouTube. Twitch President Dan Clancy justified the change in a statement issued on Twitch's blog, stating it was done to cover Twitch's operating costs, noting
3225-452: The highest earner on YouTube during the previous year was Dane Boedigheimer , creator of the web series Annoying Orange , with an income of around $ 257,000. Five years later, Forbes released its first list of the highest-earning YouTube personalities, estimating top earner PewDiePie 's income during the previous fiscal year at $ 12 million, more than some popular actors such as Cameron Diaz or Gwyneth Paltrow . Forbes estimated that
3300-419: The influx of venture funding, it was believed in 2013 that the company had become profitable. Especially since the shutdown of its direct competitor Own3d.tv in early 2013, Twitch has become the most popular e-sports streaming service by a large margin, leading some to conclude that the website has a "near monopoly on the market". Competing video services, such as YouTube and Dailymotion , began to increase
3375-533: The instructor in real time. Twitch is also used for software development learning, with communities of users streaming programming projects and talking through their work. Broadcasters on Twitch often host streams promoting and raising money towards charity. By 2013, the website has hosted events which, in total, raised over US$ 8 million in donations for charitable causes, such as Extra Life 2013. As of 2017, Twitch has raised over US$ 75 million in donations for charitable causes. The biggest charity event of Twitch
3450-631: The introduction of synergies with the company's subscription service Amazon Prime . By 2015, Twitch had more than 100 million viewers per month. In 2017, Twitch remained the leading live-streaming video service for video games in the US, and had an advantage over YouTube Gaming , which shut down its standalone app in May 2019. As of February 2020, it had three million broadcasters monthly and 15 million active users daily, with 1.4 million average concurrent users . As of May 2018, Twitch had over 27,000 partner channels. As of October 2023, Twitch
3525-503: The late 2010s found that YouTuber was the most desired career by children. YouTubers' influence has also extended beyond the platform. Some have ventured into mainstream forms of media, such as Liza Koshy , who, among other pursuits, hosted the revival of the Nickelodeon show Double Dare and starred in the Netflix dance-comedy film Work It . In 2019, Ryan's Mystery Playdate ,
3600-411: The leak, which includes source code from almost 6,000 internal Git repositories , is also "part one" of a larger release. The leak also included details of plans for a digital storefront under the codename of "Vapor" meant to be a competitor to Steam along with details on payment received by streamers for their work on Twitch. Twitch verified they had suffered a data leak which they attributed to
3675-435: The live content space, with 17 billion hours watched last year (per StreamElements), compared to YouTube Gaming Live's 10 billion (per the company). But the vast majority of gaming content is still consumed on-demand, where YouTube is the clear leader with over 100 billion hours watched last year". Twitch is often used for video game tutorials; the nature of Twitch allows mass numbers of learners to interact with each other and
3750-565: The most popular games streamed on Twitch are Fortnite , Grand Theft Auto V , League of Legends , Dota 2 , PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds , Hearthstone , Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a combined total of over 356 million hours watched. Twitch has also made expansions into non-gaming content; such as in July 2013, the site streamed a performance of 'Fester's Feast' from San Diego Comic-Con , and on July 30, 2014, electronic dance music act Steve Aoki broadcast
3825-445: The new branded content policy and announced that it would be clarified, stating that it was intended to "clarify our existing ads policy that was intended to prohibit third party ad networks from selling burned in video and display ads on Twitch, which is consistent with other services", and that Twitch "[does] not intend to limit streamers' ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors." In August 2023, Twitch began to trial
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#17328547773783900-469: The opportunity to view exclusive content by clicking on the ad. The first such ad was for the Fox show Prison Break and solely appeared above videos on Paris Hilton's channel. At the time, the channel was operated by Warner Bros. Records and was cited as the first brand channel on the platform. Participatory video ads were designed to link specific promotions to specific channels rather than advertising on
3975-405: The premium 70% split stopped being offered to new streamers over a year prior, and pointing to alternate streamer revenue sources that would not be affected by the subscription revenue reductions, such as Prime Subs or advertisement breaks. Though Clancy claimed 90% of streamers would not be affected by the revenue reduction, the change drew criticism from many streamers, who viewed it as harmful to
4050-668: The prominence of their gaming content to compete, but have had a much smaller impact so far. As of mid-2013, there were over 43 million viewers on Twitch monthly, with the average viewer watching an hour and a half a day. By February 2014, Twitch was the fourth largest source of Internet traffic during peak times in the United States, behind Netflix , Google , and Apple . Twitch made up 1.8% of total US Internet traffic during peak periods. In late 2013, particularly due to increasing viewership, Twitch had issues with lag and low frame rates in Europe. Twitch has subsequently added new servers in
4125-408: The region. Also in order to address these problems, Twitch implemented a new video system shown to be more efficient than the previous system. Initially, the new video system was criticized by users because it caused a significant stream delay, interfering with broadcaster–viewer interaction. Twitch staff said that the increased delay was likely temporary and at the time, was an acceptable tradeoff for
4200-477: The security of streaming careers and more beneficial to Twitch and its advertisers than their users, with several streamers expressing doubt at Clancy's claims of Twitch's high operating costs, and noting that Twitch already has alternative revenue sources that make reducing streamer revenue unnecessary. The announcement led to some streamers considering leaving Twitch or organizing boycotts. In December 2022, Amazon Senior Vice President Jeff Blackburn retired and
4275-417: The separate "Twitch Turbo" subscription or an individual channel subscription. This privilege ended for new customers effective September 14, 2018, and for existing customers October 2018. In October 2018, Twitch announced Amazon Blacksmith, a new extension allowing broadcasters to configure displays of products associated with their streams with Amazon affiliate links. On November 27, 2018, Twitch discontinued
4350-469: The service reported that someone had gained "unauthorised access" to the user information of some Twitch users. In June 2016, Twitch added a new feature known as "Cheering", a special form of emoticon purchased as a microtransaction using an in-site currency known as "Bits". Bits are bought using Amazon Payments , and cheers act as donations to the channel. Users also earn badges within a channel based on how much they have cheered. On August 1, 2016, it
4425-539: The service's advantage—particularly in the realm of content licensing. The purchase of Twitch marked the third recent video gaming–oriented acquisition by Amazon, which had previously acquired the developers Reflexive Entertainment and Double Helix Games . On December 9, 2014, Twitch announced it had acquired GoodGame Agency, an organisation that owns the esports teams Evil Geniuses and Alliance . In March 2015, Twitch reset all user passwords and disabled all connections to external Twitter and YouTube accounts after
4500-503: The site was divided into several content categories. The gaming category grew especially fast, and became the most popular content on the site. In June 2011, the company decided to spin off the gaming content as TwitchTV, inspired by the term twitch gameplay . It launched officially in public beta on June 6, 2011. Since then, Twitch has attracted more than 35 million unique visitors a month. Twitch had about 80 employees in June 2013, which increased to 100 by December 2013. The company
4575-424: The tenth-highest earner that year was Rosanna Pansino at $ 2.5 million. That year, NME stated that " vlogging has become big business." The rapid influx of wealth within the YouTube community has led some to criticize YouTubers for focusing on earnings more than the creativity and connection with their fanbase that some claim was at the heart of the platform before expanded monetization. In August 2021, it
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#17328547773784650-472: The video game accessibility charities AbleGamers and SpecialEffect , and the LGBT organizations GLAAD and The Trevor Project . On October 6, 2021, an anonymous hacker reportedly leaked "the entirety" of Twitch, including its source code of the Twitch client and APIs, and details of the payouts made to almost 2.4 million streamers since August 2019. The user posted a 128GB torrent link to 4chan and said that
4725-437: The videos. In 2018, Walmart , Nordstrom , and others sought YouTube stars as influencers . In the early days of YouTube, there was no way to monetize videos on the platform. Much of the site's content was homemade and produced by hobbyists with no plans for making money on the site. The first targeted advertising on the site came in the form of participatory video ads, which were videos in their own right that offered users
4800-422: The website had 45 million unique viewers, and by February 2014, it was considered the fourth-largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. At the same time, Justin.tv's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the shift in focus when Justin.tv was getting shut down in August 2014. The same month, the service was acquired by Amazon for US$ 970 million, which later led to
4875-487: Was featured again in the May 12–19, 2008 issue of Weekly Playboy . Adams was cast as the voice of a young French boy in the film Blue Symphony after a staff member working on the film heard her recite a French poem on one of her YouTube videos. She appeared at the world premiere of Blue Symphony at the 21st Tokyo International Film Festival in Roppongi on October 22, 2008. In November 2008, Adams returned to Japan and
4950-643: Was featured again in the November 10, 2008 issue of Weekly Playboy . On November 23, 2008, she appeared at YouTube Live Tokyo at Studio Coast alongside other YouTube personalities and musicians, such as BoA and Kreva . In December 2008, Adams stated to PingMag that she planned on becoming a singer in Japan and eventually becoming an actress. In 2009, Adams was featured in a promotional campaign for Wi2 300 [ ja ] . Adams later stopped posting on YouTube, with her last video uploaded in 2014. In 2021, Adams began streaming on Twitch . In 2022, Adams created
5025-485: Was headquartered in San Francisco's Financial District . Twitch has been supported by significant investments of venture capital , with US$ 15 million in 2012 (on top of US$ 7 million originally raised for Justin.tv), and US$ 20 million in 2013. Investors during three rounds of fund raising leading up to the end of 2013 included Draper Associates , Bessemer Venture Partners and Thrive Capital . In addition to
5100-652: Was living in Kumamoto Prefecture , Japan. YouTuber A YouTuber is a type of content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube , typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006, and subsequently appeared in the 2006 Time Person of the Year issue. Influential YouTubers are frequently described as microcelebrities . Since YouTube
5175-638: Was profiled and interviewed on a serialized weekly segment titled "Let's Look for the Mysterious Idol, Magibon!" on Maru Maru Ai Kora! Nama Yaguchi [ ja ] , the Thursday segment of the Japanese variety show Midtown TV [ ja ] , that was broadcast the Japanese streaming service GyaO! She was also featured in the February 25, 2008 issue of the Japanese magazine Weekly Playboy . In April 2008, Adams made her first appearance in Japan through Maru Maru Ai Kora! Nama Yaguchi , as well as
5250-523: Was renamed Prime Gaming, aligning it closer with the Amazon Prime family of services. In 2020, Twitch sold Union For Gamers to Magic Find. In May 2021, Twitch announced that it would introduce over 350 new tags to categorize streams, including finer tags for gender identity , sexual identity , and disabilities , as well as tags for other types of themes (such as virtual streamers ). The disability and LGBT-oriented tags were developed in consultation with
5325-521: Was replaced by Steve Boom as Vice President of Audio, Twitch, and Games. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy reports directly to Boom. In March 2023, Clancy became CEO of Twitch, after previous CEO and Justin.tv co-founder Emmett Shear announced he would step down after 16 years at the company. Both Shear and Clancy have been described as "more product-focused than creator-focused". On March 20, Clancy announced that Twitch would be laying off 400 employees, as part of Amazon-wide layoffs affecting 9,000 workers across
5400-653: Was reported Kevin Paffrath made $ 5 million in just the first 3 months of 2021 and his YouTube analytics showed he made "several million" in ad revenue within the prior 12 months. By 2021, YouTuber earnings had expanded even more, with Forbes estimating that the highest earner that year was MrBeast at $ 51 million. Twitch (service) Twitch is an American video live-streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming , including broadcasts of esports competitions, in addition to offering music broadcasts, creative content, and "in real life " streams. Twitch
5475-527: Was reported that Twitch had signed a lease for 185,000 square feet (17,187 m ) in a new office tower to be constructed at 350 Bush Street in San Francisco. On August 16, 2016, Twitch acquired Curse LLC , an operator of online video gaming communities and gaming-oriented VoIP software. In December 2016, GoodGame Agency was divested by Amazon to their respective members due to conflict of interest concerns. On September 30, 2016, Twitch announced Twitch Prime,
5550-403: Was still prohibited; however, an exemption to the simulcasting restriction was applied to short-form streaming platforms such as Instagram and TikTok . Despite the specific mention of restrictions on simulcasting, former Twitch employees noted that Twitch would likely not enforce the restriction, as doing so would be very difficult, and they had not been enforcing it for several months prior to
5625-467: Was the 37th-most-visited website in the world with 20.26% of its traffic coming from the United States, followed by Germany with 7.08% and South Korea with 5.49%. In late 2023, Twitch announced that they would stop operating in South Korea in 2024 because of its network fee policy , citing prohibitive costs. When Justin.tv was launched in 2007 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear , two recent Yale graduates,
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