It’s not an industry secret that Twitch is being viewed less and less favorably by both its streamers and audience following multiple years of more strict ad and streaming requirements. This has led multiple entrepreneurs to try and launch their own platforms to try and sweep in and take advantage of the unrest in the streaming market, with Kick being the most notable in the last year.
The burgeoning platform has been sweeping up talent from Twitch like it was going out of style, signing streamers like xQc for $100 million in recent days. Following that announcement, Amouranth also announced she’d be joining the platform. This means two of Twitch’s top streamers have ditched their allegiance in less than two days, dealing a decent blow to the platform.
With such a huge price tag, streamers would be ill-advised, to say the least, to turn down an offer of such magnitude. Even though it’s an exclusivity agreement and they get half the viewers they would on Twitch, that’s more than enough money to ensure they can continue to stream and do literally anything else they want for a good amount of time.
Amouranth’s deal hasn’t been confirmed to be $100 million or even close, but it would likely have to be a sizeable amount to get her to ditch Twitch. There are also rumors that more streamers could be incoming, with Ludwig creating a verified account that was noticed by streaming reporter HUN2R on Twitter. The point is, Kick seems to be willing to spend a lot of money on talent if it means stealing it from Twitch.
We don’t even have to speculate on this when the site’s owner, Edward Craven, stated as much when quoted in a recent New York Times article saying “Kick is prepared to operate at a loss.” Kraven stated that he’s prepared for this as his company is still a start-up and will likely lose a lot of money. But even still, $100 million is a lot of money.
This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a competitor shell out millions of dollars to nab talent, with the now-defunct Microsoft Mixer platform giving anywhere from $20 to 50 million dollars to get Ninja to sign an exclusivity agreement that lasted for around a year before Microsoft decided to shutter the program due to the lack of users and the competition that a constant and long-running company like Twitch offers.
Now, with Kick offering twice what Ninja got, at minimum, on top of what Adin Ross and Amouranth received for switching, one has to wonder where Kick’s money is coming from and how it will have anything left if it continues to make acquisitions like this. While they say to strike while the iron is hot, distrust in Twitch at the moment, you shouldn’t strike so hard that you break your business in the process.
Craven is a billionaire and the owner of Kick, as previously mentioned. He also half-owns the online crypto-gambling site Stake, which likely provided him with his fortune and the ability to bankroll these early acquisitions. One has to wonder if this will work out in his favor, paired with the streamer-friendly 95-5 revenue split if even Twitch couldn’t find a way to make it work long-term.
Mixer was able to make multiple high-value acquisitions of some of the hottest streamers at that time too, being owned by computer and gaming giant Microsoft. While Craven might be successful for his age and in the crypto scene, that’s not the same thing as running a streaming business. Furthermore, if companies with the profits of Amazon and Microsoft can’t make it work, what chance does Stake have?
Kick could rise to the top of the streaming wars and surprise a great deal of people, it’s far too soon to tell. However, it would be foolish to pretend we haven’t seen this exact type of showmanship and bragging before, only for it to crash and burn less than a year later. While this could be a sign of growing prosperity, it could also be a last-ditch attempt to bring in the number of viewers it needs.
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