Kick’s influence on the streaming world
The live streaming ecosphere has seen its share of ups and downs as changes and influences from other platforms that have caused massive or even small changes to a platform. Many people have viewed as the essential live streaming platform, which is known as Twitch. When Beam was acquired by Microsoft and was later named to Mixer, competition began between Twitch and Mixer started. We saw changes that Mixer had brought in. Most notably the channel point feature which is something we see now on Twitch. Channel points were a system that helped bring the viewer into the stream itself, with the ability to have sound effects played on stream or even change the lights within the streamers room. Bringing that immersion to life for the viewer while providing that bit of fun for both the streamer and viewer.
Similar to when YouTube began to take live streaming a little more seriously, Twitch was some what forced to innovate and keep its market share as a live streaming service. Streamers were being poached with contracts that had large sums of money attached. Unfortunately Twitch was being out spend in this regards but they were focusing on being the home of live streams.
It was just a few years later in which a new contender came up that would start to threaten Twitch’s hold within the live streaming space. Kick brings a service that is very similar in look and feel to Twitch as Kick utilizes Amazon IVS, A service that Amazon offers companies and organizations a way to stream conferences or any events that require high quality live streaming video. Kick can potentially bring viewers from Twitch into Kick without requiring viewers to learn a new system. With using the Amazon IVS system Kick has that upper hand over other services like Trovo or even YouTube Live. Viewers already are comfortable with Twitch’s layout and the chat experience.
There is a certain thing that a lot of people might not find comfortable with Kick. When you first come to kick, this feeling that it is almost like the wild west of live streaming. When you first come in, you’ll notice the gambling streams that are prominently displayed, along with several not safe for work streams. Which is not so much seen over on the front page of Twitch. I would refer to Kick as more of an adult oriented site, not one that is focused on the spicy side but more that is geared towards the adult viewer. This isn’t to say that Twitch is more kid friendly, which it is not, but it is for a more wider, general audience as far as content presented.
Another aspect that effects Twitch is the general feeling of the community is that Twitch is a gaming focused live streaming service. A place that you can find streamers that play games, offer gameplay tutorials or walkthroughs or anything of that nature. The basic core of Twitch has been always gaming. Yes, there is a live streaming capability with the just chatting category, IRL sections, cooking, art, science, and discovery. Those avenues are small compared to the overall feeling that you get from Twitch. I believe that Kick it can offer more than just gaming content. If utilized correctly, Kick can become the place where an adult can watch programing that is geared towards them. They wouldn’t have to worry about if content they watch is watered down to appease advertisers that look to be shown to a very wide, general audience. The issue is in what specifically do the people in charge of Kick want to provide their audiences through the content creators that are checking out the service. They must narrow down and get creators on the same page that can offer these adult content related activities too differentiate themselves from Twitch.
