[everforward]

I think donations are where the NASCAR analogy falls apart. Twitch keeps a percentage of donations made on the platform, which starts to look a lot like Twitch selling a platform (and access to users) where the pricing is a percentage of revenue.

I don't think Twitch paying the streamers really nullifies that, otherwise companies could escape an Exclusive Dealing conviction by just adding an "oh, and we pay you $3" clause to their contracts.

Twitch makes more sense as a company if they're a seller. There's a clear story there where streamers buy access in exchange for a percentage of their revenue on the platform. If they're a buyer, what are they buying from streamers?

Just to add on top, I think streamers only get money from ads if they're at some tier with Twitch (partner, I think?). There's a whole bunch of streamers that aren't getting paid anything directly by Twitch, and are only getting donations after Twitch has taken their cut.

[s1artibartfast]

I routinely watch streamers with double-digit viewers that run ads for the profit sharing so I don't think there's a cut off there.

As for what twitch is buying, they are buying the performance and or content, not dissimilar from Netflix or cable TV. If you follow the money, all the donations and all of their ad Revenue go to Twitch, which then cuts a check. The exception as I understand it is sponsored content ( playing a specific game) or extra in stream ads which is what twitch is trying to Crackdown on. Some streamers have sponsored banners on stream or play videos ads from advertisers that contracted directly with them and not twitch.

The situation is somewhat complicated because streamers have the option to select how many twitch ads they play on their Channel. If they are running their own ads that twitch doesn't get a cut of, then they won't want to run as many ads from twitch

[everforward]

> As for what twitch is buying, they are buying the performance and or content, not dissimilar from Netflix or cable TV.

Netflix or cable TV are buying broadcasting rights, or licenses to broadcast the content. Twitch can't be doing the same thing, because payment happens after the performance, not before.

> If you follow the money, all the donations and all of their ad Revenue go to Twitch, which then cuts a check.

That's just a passthrough to take a cut. It's no different than Apple's App Store or PayPal. I think it would be hard to argue that Apple is buying apps from developers, or that PayPal is buying from vendors.

Google would actually be a good example here. They both have an app store and can provide the ads for mobile apps. Would you say they're buying apps? Or are they selling a platform for apps?