Could the streaming wars end with the upstart, gambling-backed Kick buying up the Amazon-owned Twitch? The founder of Kick thinks it could, with Bijan Tehrani weighing in just hours after Twitch announced a round of layoffs to start 2024.
Tehrani, who founded both Stake and Twitch, is pretty open about his predictions for the giant, at least according to a tweet he sent on Jan. 9. His comment comes shortly after a report revealed the Amazon-owned streaming site would let go of 500 staff in the near future.
Now, on an infinite timeline, anything is possible. Sure, it’s possible that Twitch will continue to contract and Kick could continue to grow. However, this is years and years into the future. The gap between the two in total viewers is substantial, and there’s still absolutely no way Kick is turning any kind of profit via its subscription split with creators. Additionally, the cuts Twitch is making, from an angle that’s completely calloused to the human cost of mass layoffs, will make them more cash-flow positive.
So, why are we discussing a one-sentence comment in the replies to a news aggregator? Because for the first time in what feels like forever, Twitch feels vulnerable. In total, Twitch has laid off nearly 1,000 employees in the past calendar year. That staggering amount of attrition is indicative of internal goals not being hit at all. To its credit, Kick hasn’t had any substantial layoffs—at least not publicly. This doesn’t mean that Twitch is immediately vulnerable, but in terms of content hosting websites, sometimes things just snowball.
Twitch’s chief executive Dan Clancy has put on a brave face and engaged the streamers who create the content that makes his website valuable. He’s been on a PR tour of sorts, attempting to endear himself to viewers and creators alike. He’s no doubt had to make some tough decisions over the past year.
However, he’ll need to stem the tide and start showing some growth in ways that aren’t laying workers off en masse if he wants to win back total confidence in Twitch, which at one point in time felt unassailable in the streaming world.
