[Beta-7]

Twitch has had a few alternatives pop up from time to time (most famous would be Microsoft's Mixer) only for the site to be laughed at by Twitch's users and not given a chance. After a while the new site shuts down because it hasn't picked up momentum.

The problem is the viewers not giving the new sites a chance.... only for then complain about twitch having the streaming monopoly.

[nonbirithm]

This should really be mentioned more often more often when discussing monopolies: you have to convince users that your platform is better than the massive ubiquitous one, or they won't leave.

If Discord was advertising itself as a hot new startup trying to disrupt the instant messaging space at a time when the ubiquitous option was Skype, someone like me might have welcomed them with open arms. Now we're stuck with Discord, but only because it won over almost everyone with the quality of its UX and the ensuing network effects over every alternative.

This is what makes me think that being pushed towards a selection of functionally competent and siloed, monopolistic platforms is simply the new reality. I have a hard time believing that you can convince tens of millions of people that their platform is a bad choice if they never see any problems, no matter what we might think of their opinions.

[tinco]

They laughed at Mixer exactly because it would shut down within a year. Companies like Google and Microsoft don't have enough staying power. Why would users switch to a platform that's going to shutdown within a year anyway?

One year. Mixer was online for one year and they shut it down. They say it's because it didn't grow fast enough. But the truth is that they just were never serious about it. Everyone could feel it. Mixer was a bluff and it was just not very believable.

[flutas]

>One year. Mixer was online for one year and they shut it down.

Uhhh...?

> The service officially launched on January 5, 2016, as Beam. (...) The service was acquired by Microsoft in August 2016, after which it was renamed Mixer in 2017 and integrated into Microsoft's Xbox division (including top-level integration on Xbox One). (...) Citing an inability to scale its operations, Microsoft announced on June 22, 2020, that Mixer would be shut down by the end of July 22. [0]

Sure doesn't sound like one year...

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixer_(service)

[wink]

I think if you only count it from "even casual stream watchers have heard about it" it was about a year until shutdown. I mean, I knew what twitch was and was even watching people from time to time, and I have friends who stream and I don't remember anyone except one person ever mentioning mixer. It simply didn't seem like a viable alternative until just before the ninja thing.

[dna_polymerase]

It's the classic chicken egg problem for any platform play. In order to be attractive you need people using it, however if nobody uses it why would I go there in the first place.

Mixer tried to lure people by signing Ninja, but as it turned out that Microsoft tried to do the same thing Google did with YouTube users (forcing a stupid Microsoft account on them, with opaque sign up and what not).

[ecf]

> The problem is the viewers not giving the new sites a chance… only for then to complain about twitch having the streaming monopoly.

The overwhelming majority of users on Twitch are tweens, just like YouTube’s audience and they don’t even know what a tech monopoly is.

We’re the ones complainh about it, but guess what. Twitch doesn’t care about our viewership.