Kick wants to beat \u2018out of touch\u2019 competitors by \u201ctreating creators like adults\u201d Kick\/Unsplash: @joshuakettleKick first made a splash when Trainwreck promoted it heavily in December 2022. Since then, it has proven a formidable competitor in the livestreaming space. Dexerto spoke to Kick, to learn more about the platform, and put some of the community\u2019s burning questions to them. Livestreaming, particularly of games, has been dominated by Amazon-owned Twitch for more than a decade. Other players have come (and gone), such as Microsoft\u2019s Mixer, and Facebook Gaming. Only YouTube, so far, has managed to put up a real fight, both for migrating viewership and streamers. But Kick, when it was launched, had ambitious aims. It was clear both from Trainwreck\u2019s promotion and its own social media, that Kick had Twitch firmly in the crosshairs. From increased revenue splits to Twitch\u2019s often-maligned ban policy, Kick came for the king \u2013 but did it miss? On Twitter, Kick posted a meme showing that they were defeating \u201cout of touch\u201d competitors. But are they? We spoke to a spokesperson for the company, who has opened up on Kick\u2019s vision, decision-making, and why it\u2019s not actually all too worried about Twitch. It\u2019s now been around 6 months since Kick was pushed by Trainwreck and started its rapid growth. What\u2019s been the biggest challenge in this 6 month period, and the biggest achievement? \u201cThe biggest challenge and achievement has turned out to be the same thing for Kick; reprogramming the mindset of an audience that a live-streaming platform needs half of everything a creator has worked for. Kick has now passed off the baton to its Creators who are realising their worth as they now post about their lives changing since joining Kick.\u201d Kick provided an example \u2013 and this is not the only creator to boast of increased earnings after making the switch. Former Twitch streamer Ac7ionMann said the switch had meant he earned \u201clife-changing\u201d money. But, the question for some creators is whether Kick will be a sustainable platform long-term, worth risking the audience they have built up elsewhere. What is the ultimate goal of Kick in the long term? Is it to directly compete with Twitch and YouTube\u2019s dominance of live streaming, or does Kick want to be something different that can co-exist with these rivals? \u201cKick will not kill off Twitch or YouTube any more than Spotify killed off MTV. Kick will just do live-streaming in a relevant way and reinvent the space,\u201d Kick explained. \u201cThe best unintended storyline that\u2019s come from the media is that a 6-month-old Kick looks a lot like a 16-year-old Twitch right now; we\u2019re not here to build Twitch 2.0 we\u2019re here to evolve past it like a StarFleet.\u201d This actually raises an issue that was highlighted when Kick first launched \u2013 its user interface looks remarkably similar to Twitch in its layout and presentation. Kick also uses Amazon\u2019s IVS livestreaming service to broadcast live content \u2013 which a former Amazon engineer said would be very costly. From the look of the site to its most publicized features, Twitch was clearly part of Kick\u2019s initial thought process, but is it still the case? It\u2019s clear, based on the messaging and marketing from Kick, particularly on social media, that you want to directly address many of the complaints that people have with Twitch \u2013 Namely with sub-revenue splits and moderation and bans. Is this a guiding principle of your decision-making? \u201cNo, listening to our creators and their communities is what drives our decision-making. Treating Creators like adults and being honest about revenue splits is just a byproduct of what your question is picking up on.\u201d Despite this, there has been some criticism too of the moderation on Kick. We\u2019ve covered a number of stories that include overt sexual content as well as anti-social behavior streamed on Kick. Some of these instances resulted in bans, but not all. \u201cWe agree with Dexerto\u2019s perception around moderation if this was 2-3 months ago,\u201d Kick admitted. \u201cToday, that narrative is being rewritten by the streamers who come and use the dozens of tools found on Kick\u2019s moderation dashboard. \u201cIn addition, we\u2019ve added AI software and additional staff to help flag bad actors.\u201d Some Twitch streamers who have been banned have made jokes that they will have to move to Kick to allow their content. We wanted to know if there could be a grain of truth to these jokes. What is Kick\u2019s philosophy on content moderation and enforcement of the guidelines? Are any of Kick\u2019s policies designed to run contrary to Twitch\u2019s moderation rules? \u201cWe can\u2019t comment on Twitch\u2019s rules other than what we see their streamers post about on social media but at Kick, we\u2019re reformative and work with the Creator to make better decisions. Banning most Creators for a week or more means they may miss rent or bills. We feel we can get the same message across with a reasonable ban found via dialogue. Not enough value is placed on \u201cIntent\u201d which is weird since live-streaming is such a personal medium.\u201d Regarding users too, there are also concerns that we\u2019ve seen around chat moderation. This has been a battle Twitch has struggled with for years as well, and continues to. Hateful conduct in chats can be hard to eradicate, but is it something that has been given much thought yet internally? \u201cOur latest moderation-dashboard launch gives creators and their mods the ability to self-police their community by banning words and allow-listing certain profiles,\u201d Kick explained. \u201cCreators may also age-gate their channel and Kick moderators are easy to contact via Discord, email and in many instances in real time via chat. So, yeh, you can say we\u2019ve given a lot of thought to this.\u201d Kick\u2019s ties to Stake and sustainability Kick\u2019s connection to Stake is both well-publicized but also unclear. What clarity can you provide on Stake\u2019s involvement with Kick? \u201cKick has co-founding members \/ investors who have ownership in Stake but Kick stands on its own as a live streaming platform,\u201d Kick stated. Kick\u2019s ties to Stake have been a point of contention in the community. For some, the timing of the platform\u2019s emergence after Twitch banned many forms of gambling, it appeared Kick was offering that content a safe haven. This also sparked theories that Kick could run at a loss with high sub-revenue splits, while providing advertisement for Stake. Kick explains this is an oversimplification. Is Kick\u2019s 95% sub-revenue split truly sustainable? Although this has been lauded in the community as a much better deal for creators, there have been concerns that the expenditure for the platform means it will run at a loss. Is this true or an oversimplification? \u201cIt\u2019s only an oversimplification because we\u2019ve been told for so long that platforms must take half of everything Creators earn in order to function. There are dozens of revenue streams to tap into that all platforms have access to. The real question is at what point does a platform\u2019s greed become satiated to allow creators to earn a living without blatantly lying to them.\u201d Do you think some streamers may be holding off on switching to Kick until the platform has existed for longer & proven its sustainability? \u201cLive-streaming is suffering from a Mixer hangover. Many Creators had the rug pulled out from under them when Mixer shut down. It\u2019s tough for a Creator to confidently look at their community and say we\u2019re making the move. \u201cThis is why we over-communicate with our audience and involve them in every move in Beta from our mobile app launch to gathering opinions about revamping our verification process. Creators need to be confident that Kick is doing it the right way.\u201d As Kick knows, for a platform to truly grow, it needs to make its own stars too. While Kick has signed and plans to continue to sign big names, Kick says the real focus is the \u201cmidsized streamer.\u201d \u201cSigning big names is fun and will continue \u2013 but the backbone of Kick is the midsized streamer. More importantly, the lifeblood of Kick is any streamer that has an entrepreneur\u2019s ambition and the insanity to believe that their streaming dream can become a reality. \u201cWe\u2019ve forgotten, fast, that every \u201cBig Name\u201d had to power up their PC and grind.\u201d From publicly available numbers, Kick\u2019s total visits have grown exponentially in the past few months, with the latest estimate at 80m visits in April. But, With Twitch at 1.1 billion visits, there\u2019s still a big gap \u2013 how do you plan to close it? \u201cThis is not Kick\u2019s focus; closing in on Twitch or even YouTube numbers takes our eye off the Creator. The most important number reported at the end of April 2023 that got little to no media coverage is the fact that Kick surpassed $10M in subscription\/gifted revenue in a little over 3 months. That\u2019s over $9.5M distributed to creators.\u201d Are there any Kick features in the works to make it stand out more from Twitch and other streaming services? \u201cWe\u2019re currently drafting our Creator Program that will blow the doors off anything we\u2019ve produced thus far.\u201d While no one knows what the future holds for Kick (nor Twitch for that matter), it\u2019s fair to say that the platform has already proven a more formidable competitor than some initially gave it credit for. Twitch, while it often faces the community\u2019s ire over bans and sub-splits, continues to be the go-to site for streaming, with average viewership still growing, albeit only slightly, in 2023. Kick meanwhile, is still in its growth spurt stage and should have rivals peeking over their shoulder. For streamers, both new and established, the platform is putting forward a tempting opportunity, but questions over its long-term viability may still temper some of that excitement. We hope to check in with Kick again in the future, to see how the platform has progressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kick wants to beat \u2018out of touch\u2019 competitors by \u201ctreating creators like adults\u201d Kick\/Unsplash: @joshuakettleKick first made a splash when Trainwreck promoted it heavily in December 2022. Since then, it has proven a formidable competitor in the livestreaming space. Dexerto spoke to Kick, to learn more about the platform, and put some of the community\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}