Twitch takes tokens now.

[Shaun__]

It is just a matter of time until the hardcore porn shows up. Link

 

[AmberCutie]

It doesn't say anywhere in the article (does it?) that the streamers actually get a % of the bits (tokens). Also apparently this is only available to partnered Twitch streamers, whom already have a means of collecting subscription $ from viewers, and it seems people would prefer it be available to all streamers. I mean, I get why it is only available to partners as they have already verified their IDs/provided info to be 1099'd and paid.

I think it's funny how similar the replies to the post are to replies about new MFC features that mostly benefit the higher earning models, though. And there are already people comparing it to Chaturbate, even though there is no mention of the streamers actually getting a cut of the bits.

 

[Shaun__]

It doesn't say anywhere in the article (does it?) that the streamers actually get a % of the bits (tokens). Also apparently this is only available to partnered Twitch streamers, whom already have a means of collecting subscription $ from viewers, and it seems people would prefer it be available to all streamers. I mean, I get why it is only available to partners as they have already verified their IDs/provided info to be 1099'd and paid.

I think it's funny how similar the replies to the post are to replies about new MFC features that mostly benefit the higher earning models, though. And there are already people comparing it to Chaturbate, even though there is no mention of the streamers actually getting a cut of the bits.

The stream whose channel I am in says he is not allowed to say how much they get from the valueless bits, but that it does support him.

 

[weirdbr]

though there is no mention of the streamers actually getting a cut of the bits.

Joystiq claims it's a 70/30 split - https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/27/twitch-cheering-beta-bits-currency-tips

 

[AmberCutie]

Joystiq claims it's a 70/30 split - https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/27/twitch-cheering-beta-bits-currency-tips

That's for subscriptions, they're still speculating on what the cut of bits/cheering will be.

It's not obvious how much of the money will go to streamers, and how much Twitch will take as a cut. Twitch never discusses such revenue details publicly, but top-tier streamers have previously said (under anonymity due to non-disclosure agreements) that subscription revenue shares are pegged at 70% for streamers, 30% for Twitch. Given all the beta testers for Cheering represent similarly popular channels, it seems likely that a similar figure is in play here.

 

[FayePotato]

I wonder if this means Twitch streamers will be asking for cheers...

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.

 

[Shaun__]

For the streamer to get $15 it takes you spending $15.74 on paypal, but bits would cost you $19.95. This was said by a streamer.

 

[mutantdonut]

Part of me initially thought the idea was borrowed from token packages on camsites. Most of me believes this their slick way of cutting into the "just because" donations that are usually given through paypal.

 

[Bimbombastic]

It is just a matter of time until the hardcore porn shows up. Link

I've seen some celebrity cosplayers there doing thugs that camgirls do and never getting the boot. While small fish get the ban hammer real quick.

Weird that they have a rule for no cleavage or skimpy clothes but it only work for small fish.

 

[Magnolia]

This is absolutely amazing. One of the big issues with making money on twitch is that a lot of people don't like the process of making a donation. Or making multiple small donations in a short time (if you use paypal sometimes your donations won't even show up after the first one). The multi-step process that donators have to go through to donate every time can be annoying and take away from the stream!

I think this is a great step in the right direction. Hopefully it'll be for all partnered twitch streamers soon. I never see it becoming available for non-partnered streamers.

 

[mynameisbob84]

I don't think I'll ever truly understand the appeal of watching strangers play computer games that I could be playing myself instead...




And stay off my lawn

 

[AmberCutie]

One of the big issues with making money on twitch is that a lot of people don't like the process of making a donation.

I would have already spent a bit of $ on donations except I don't have/won't make a PayPal account. So yes, this would encourage me to actually support my favorite streamers more, being able to use a CC to buy the bits directly from Twitch.

 

[Shaun__]

It makes me less likely to donate if I have to buy into yet another money system. They need to just let people send money using Amazon payments and take the percentage they already take off the top if they want to cut into Paypal's area.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

I don't think I'll ever truly understand the appeal of watching strangers play computer games that I could be playing myself instead...

It's not just playing games now. Have you given the music section a try? Some of the musicians there are amazingly talented. I haven't caught @Magnolia's twitch stream yet, but I suspect she does music there as well. There's one couple, "a_couple_streams" who both went to school for music, met up and got married. Now they do around three shows a week, each approximately 3 hours. You can put them on and have an entire nights entertainment, and i have, several times. And their prior sessions are recorded to watch any time in case you miss the live session.

This is their latest full session.

www.twitch.tv/a_couple_streams/v/74894988

 

[mynameisbob84]

It's not just playing games now. Have you given the music section a try? Some of the musicians there are amazingly talented. I haven't caught Magnolia's Twitch stream yet, but I suspect she does music there as well. There's one couple, "a_couple_streams" who both went to school for music, met up and got married. Now they do around three shows a week, each approximately 3 hours. You can put them on and have an entire nights entertainment, and i have, several times. And their prior sessions are recorded to watch any time in case you miss the live session.

This is their latest full session.

www.twitch.tv/a_couple_streams/v/74894988

That's pretty cool. Streaming live musical performances makes a lot more sense to me than just games.

 

[Brewhammer]

I don't think I'll ever truly understand the appeal of watching strangers play computer games that I could be playing myself instead...

I have the Twitch channel on Roku and routinely watch people play Overwatch while I am playing Overwatch.

 

[Sevrin]

I've seen some celebrity cosplayers there doing thugs that camgirls do and never getting the boot. While small fish get the ban hammer real quick.

Weird that they have a rule for no cleavage or skimpy clothes but it only work for small fish.

LegendaryLea was a pretty big fish.

 

[Magnolia]

That's pretty cool. Streaming live musical performances makes a lot more sense to me than just games.

It's pretty awesome. The whole music section is a really fun and supportive environment too! I love playing music on twitch.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

It's pretty awesome. The whole music section is a really fun and supportive environment too! I love playing music on twitch.

One nice thing I think is rather cool that twitch has built into their system, after the couple I mentioned above are done they raid other rooms. Basically they pick someone else who is streaming, then broadcast that room in their stream. So after they're done and they have several hundred people in their room, all of them get exposed to a different rooms music without having to actually do anything. Kind of a nice feature to build up the whole music community part.

Can you imagine if on mfc @AmberCutie got done for the night and decided to start broadcasting @JoleneBrody's room for a while? It would definitely be an interesting game changer for mfc.

 

[AmberCutie]

Totalbiscuit tweeted this a few minutes ago:

"Interesting update on Twitch cheering, it seems Twitch takes their cut upfront as part of the purchase price. 1 bit = 1 cent to streamers. If you do the math on that it confirms a 71/29 split, however this split increases in favour of the streamer the more bits are bought at once. The best available split appears to be 81/19 in the streamers favour, when the largest pack of bits is bought (that pack is also $300 but... that aside). This is a fairly interesting situation. When we talked about the concerns streamers had that Twitch donations would be worth less than a regular donation on Paypal (at least if that donation was higher than about a dollar, Paypal fees make it worse if its smaller), that was assuming that every bit donation would THEN have Twitch take a cut of it. Now if one were to assume that every single dollar spent on bits would have otherwise gone in full to a streamer, then its still a worse deal for the streamer, but that's a big assumption and does not factor in the different spending behavior that a microdonation currency encourages. What I think it going to happen with this is that we will see the pool of donation money spread across a wider number of channels, rather than concentrated in a small number, due to the ease of giving a microdonation multiple times across multiple channels rather than a lump sum donation to one. In theory this would make the Twitch ecosystem healthier and more sustainable for smaller channels, while it may potentially dent larger ones. As a larger channel however, I can safely say, we're doing just fine, whereas many smaller channels are struggling to make it full time. If the system ends up benefiting those channels, I think it's a good thing overall. I also still maintain the opinion that we will not see anywhere close to a 100% cannibalisation rate with this system. Many people are going to stick to using regular paypal donations to support their favourite streamers. What we may see is an increase in the size of the market as people who were otherwise not willing to donate, decide to do so with bits instead, due to it's gamified nature and the ability to donate lots of times in small amounts. You can argue that this is manipulative of Twitch, which has some merit. That said, one can't handle consumers with kid-gloves, it's ultimately their decision as to whether or not to give money to a streamer. They're certainly being encouraged to by seeing others do so and earning these "prestige badges" for it, but it's still their decision to do it and we can't take that agency away from people, it's insulting to their intelligence.


It's also worth noting that an additional benefit of this system is that it appears much less vulnerable to fraud and chargebacks, which have been an increasing problem for streamers as of late. Twitch can take more direct action against such things as a result of having more direct control of the flow of donations, rather than relying on a third party that they have no influence over."

So it seems the fluctuating percentage is just like MFC and their token system, where if a user buys a larger package of bits/tokens, that translates to a higher % cut to the broadcaster, where the actual value of a bit/token remains the same regardless.

Also the bolded section is pretty much what I intended to say in my previous posts. I think anything that increases the chances of the broadcaster getting donations, whether it be in the form of a PayPal donate or "Cheering" is a good thing.

 

[mutantdonut]

Totalbiscuit tweeted this a few minutes ago:

"Interesting update on Twitch cheering, it seems Twitch takes their cut upfront as part of the purchase price. 1 bit = 1 cent to streamers. If you do the math on that it confirms a 71/29 split, however this split increases in favour of the streamer the more bits are bought at once. The best available split appears to be 81/19 in the streamers favour, when the largest pack of bits is bought (that pack is also $300 but... that aside). This is a fairly interesting situation. When we talked about the concerns streamers had that Twitch donations would be worth less than a regular donation on Paypal (at least if that donation was higher than about a dollar, Paypal fees make it worse if its smaller), that was assuming that every bit donation would THEN have Twitch take a cut of it. Now if one were to assume that every single dollar spent on bits would have otherwise gone in full to a streamer, then its still a worse deal for the streamer, but that's a big assumption and does not factor in the different spending behavior that a microdonation currency encourages. What I think it going to happen with this is that we will see the pool of donation money spread across a wider number of channels, rather than concentrated in a small number, due to the ease of giving a microdonation multiple times across multiple channels rather than a lump sum donation to one. In theory this would make the Twitch ecosystem healthier and more sustainable for smaller channels, while it may potentially dent larger ones. As a larger channel however, I can safely say, we're doing just fine, whereas many smaller channels are struggling to make it full time. If the system ends up benefiting those channels, I think it's a good thing overall. I also still maintain the opinion that we will not see anywhere close to a 100% cannibalisation rate with this system. Many people are going to stick to using regular paypal donations to support their favourite streamers. What we may see is an increase in the size of the market as people who were otherwise not willing to donate, decide to do so with bits instead, due to it's gamified nature and the ability to donate lots of times in small amounts. You can argue that this is manipulative of Twitch, which has some merit. That said, one can't handle consumers with kid-gloves, it's ultimately their decision as to whether or not to give money to a streamer. They're certainly being encouraged to by seeing others do so and earning these "prestige badges" for it, but it's still their decision to do it and we can't take that agency away from people, it's insulting to their intelligence.


It's also worth noting that an additional benefit of this system is that it appears much less vulnerable to fraud and chargebacks, which have been an increasing problem for streamers as of late. Twitch can take more direct action against such things as a result of having more direct control of the flow of donations, rather than relying on a third party that they have no influence over."

So it seems the fluctuating percentage is just like MFC and their token system, where if a user buys a larger package of bits/tokens, that translates to a higher % cut to the broadcaster, where the actual value of a bit/token remains the same regardless.

Also the bolded section is pretty much what I intended to say in my previous posts. I think anything that increases the chances of the broadcaster getting donations, whether it be in the form of a PayPal donate or "Cheering" is a good thing.

I was led to believe bits/cheers were only for partnered streamers and not so much for everyone. Or was i misinformed?

Btw... word on the street is that a couple accounts were already banned due to hacking into the bit system.

 

[AmberCutie]

I was led to believe bits/cheers were only for partnered streamers and not so much for everyone.

I think that is still the case, I don't believe it stated differently in his post or maybe I missed it.

 

[mutantdonut]

I think that is still the case, I don't believe it stated differently in his post or maybe I missed it.

It's TotalB's wording right here that throws me off...

In theory this would make the Twitch ecosystem healthier and more sustainable for smaller channels, while it may potentially dent larger ones. As a larger channel however, I can safely say, we're doing just fine, whereas many smaller channels are struggling to make it full time. If the system ends up benefiting those channels, I think it's a good thing overall.

In my mind, i took the phrase "smaller channels" as nonpartnered since many partnered channels tend to have pretty high audience numbers, although not all of them. But when he says "Twitch ecosystem," doesn't that entail every streamer on Twitch?

 

[AmberCutie]

It's TotalB's wording right here that throws me off...

In theory this would make the Twitch ecosystem healthier and more sustainable for smaller channels, while it may potentially dent larger ones. As a larger channel however, I can safely say, we're doing just fine, whereas many smaller channels are struggling to make it full time. If the system ends up benefiting those channels, I think it's a good thing overall.

In my mind, i took the phrase "smaller channels" as nonpartnered since many partnered channels tend to have pretty high audience numbers, although not all of them. But when he says "Twitch ecosystem," doesn't that entail every streamer on Twitch?

Oh I see what you mean. I assumed he meant the partnered Twitchers that just have a smaller following. I watch a handful of partners who generally don't seem to have many/any subs or donations per hour unlike the big dawgs who get a ton over the course of their daily broadcasts.

 

[mutantdonut]

Oh I see what you mean. I assumed he meant the partnered Twitchers that just have a smaller following. I watch a handful of partners who generally don't seem to have many/any subs or donations per hour unlike the big dawgs who get a ton over the course of their daily broadcasts.

I was ready to laud this cheer/bit system a helluva lot more if it turns out to be for every streamer, big or small, partnered or not. But i predominantly stick with the smaller folks, 99% of them non-partnered. So this cheering is irrelevant for myself and the people i watch, unless many of them gain partnership. In the end, it feels like the rich will only get richer.

 

[AmberCutie]

I was ready to laud this cheer/bit system a helluva lot more if it turns out to be for every streamer, big or small, partnered or not. But i predominantly stick with the smaller folks, 99% of them non-partnered. So this cheering is irrelevant for myself and the people i watch, unless many of them gain partnership. In the end, it feels like the rich will only get richer.

I imaginel that the ultimate goal is to financially support (better) the people who do this as a living. It's my assumption that people who do this for their main source of income would likely be partnered.

I know what you're saying, though. I would imagine many people would love it to be extended beyond the partners, but can see why Twitch wouldn't offer that, at least off the bat, for practical reasons.

 

[Magnolia]

I just want to say as well: It is quite difficult to get partnered. You can't just jump into it, it's a process and you have to put quite a bit of work and hours into it beforehand. I've been on twitch for a while, and my old twitch channel was over a year old with many, many more followers than my current one. Neither of them are partnered nor do I feel I'd be ready for that. It's like taking on a full-time job on the streamer's end.

So if people are looking at this as a way to make vanilla-site money right off the bat, it's not. Twitch is a beast and it's difficult to gain traction there. Even more so than a camsite, I feel.

 

[Shaun__]

I imaginel that the ultimate goal is to financially support (better) the people who do this as a living.

I think the ultimate goal is to increase the revenue Amazon makes off of its Twitch acquisition. Just the fact that Twitch takes 50% of the sub money off of the small time streamers seems to suggest they are not that worried about their well being.

 

[mutantdonut]

Weird that they have a rule for no cleavage or skimpy clothes but it only work for small fish.

Although Twitch states in their TOS to not broadcast anything obscene, pornographic, indecent, lewd, suggestive... the cleavage or skimpy clothing thing isn't specifically stated in their terms. Many people play decency patrol in attempt to make a fuss over it to no avail. Thus so-called "titty streams" still exist. Whatever decency or lewd imagery is defined by some people, doesn't exactly fall in line with what Twitch perceives it as.

I just want to say as well: It is quite difficult to get partnered. You can't just jump into it, it's a process and you have to put quite a bit of work and hours into it beforehand. I've been on twitch for a while, and my old twitch channel was over a year old with many, many more followers than my current one. Neither of them are partnered nor do I feel I'd be ready for that. It's like taking on a full-time job on the streamer's end.

So if people are looking at this as a way to make vanilla-site money right off the bat, it's not. Twitch is a beast and it's difficult to gain traction there. Even more so than a camsite, I feel.

Seeing as how a few of my fave streamers are going on nearly 3 years without reaching partnership - one of which seemingly has the required stats to earn partnership only to be rejected - what you're saying is pretty damn accurate. So many are trying to gain that elusive partnership and make it their "dream job," and it's not like they're casually going about it either. That's why the more i think about the cheer/bits thing as only for partners, the more i'm like 'meh.'

 

[mutantdonut]

Since i've been out of work, i'm all over the damn place