Twitch "isn't profitable" admits CEO, in wake of recent layoffs

ylai@lemmy.ml to Gaming@lemmy.ml – 217 points –
Twitch "isn't profitable" admits CEO, in wake of recent layoffs
eurogamer.net
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You know what that means: Gifting a sub with Prime is about to go away and so are all the loot drops with Prime. Also, more no opt out ads, longer preroll ads, and a larger list of partnered games getting headway.

So you know typical enshittification stuff.

This always makes me wonder how their operation can be so pricey.

It sounds more like their human resource cost is just absurd, not that their underlying technical operation is the problem. Plus assuming they did any calculation on the ads at all, their server usage should pay for itself as more load means more views means more ad impressions.

But what does Twitch need X-thousand people for if they still cannot do anything about curating content with those endless people? All I see of them is someone writing flip-flopping statements about whether nudity on stream is okay or not, always depends on which month it is it feels like.

Video encoding is an expensive operation and probably the second largest cost next to wages. And apparently they aren't even on an AWS SLA.

AN AMAZON SUBSIDIARY NOT ON AN SLA

Are they really a revenue sink to cover up taxable income?

Shouldn't the encoding happen locally, on the user's computer, before it's even sent to Twitch?

The user doesn't send several different resolutions of video, the streamer just sends the source, and once thay have enough viewers, twitch reduces the resolution on their side so the viewer can choose either quality.