[lchengify]

I am supremely curious about this myself.

My guess would be their ad spend is bad in comparison to the other networks (Google, Facebook, TikTok). Could be because their audience isn't worth as much, could be because the ad formats are bad, could be because they can't get advertisers. But unless they are serving ads from Google's network, my guess is they are 4th place at best.

As noted on other threads, their streaming infrastructure must be a burning dumpster fire of money. Live streaming is super hard since you can't edge cache it, and it requires actual hard computer engineering to make work. If a mere mortal company were to try to run a clone of Twitch on AWS, it would run out of money in days. It also likely uses the same hardware as other high-value products, such as AI.

[eklitzke]

I'm not an expert in this, but I don't think you'd be using similar hardware for video encoding and AI. Encoding uses a lot of compute, but it doesn't use much memory, whereas deep learning models (especially LLMs) use gobs of memory for both training and inference.

If I had to guess, I'd speculate they're doing encoding on their Graviton ARM CPUs: https://community.arm.com/arm-community-blogs/b/infrastructu...

[dathinab]

yes encoders are special purpose hardware mostly unrelated to AI

for consumers they tend to overlap because they way to get a good encode is to buy a good graphics card which might be more expensive due to AI and before that crypto

through on server center there are special purpose encode PCIe cards I think, through the ARM CPUs might also be an option

as a side note because people mix it up all the time Twitch is owned by Amazone but a distinct legal entity which has to pay Amazone for any AWS/Server stuff they use in the same way as other customer

[nathants]

kick.com is trying to run a clone of twitch on aws for a while now. too soon to tell.

[coffeebeqn]

Running on VC money? AWS sounds like a terrible place to host your live streaming infrastructure unless cost is irrelevant

[cavisne]

No they run on online casino money, the founders own Stake.com

[boneitis]

I'm finding it curious that everybody here seems to be overlooking this.

---

(I think the thread is too deep and preventing me from replying directly to child post)

I posted here[0] a link to a video with pretty good commentary, speculating on and critiquing their strategy.

To paraphrase it, they are not necessarily banking on operational costs being dwarfed by casino revenue in and of itself... but that Kick will yield exposure and drive more people to their gambling platform overall. He is also skeptical and fairly unconvinced that it'll be a slam dunk venture for them.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38935436

[cavisne]

Need to watch the video still but my assumption was since it’s illegal/frowned upon to advertise gambling, especially to minors. This is just an earth way to put ad… I mean streams of gambling in front of a large audience.

[boneitis]

For sure. That's most of what I meant to convey by linking the video; you get it :>)

[coffeebeqn]

Thanks for the context - that is a great revenue source if morally dubious