Could Twitter be the next company to take on Twitch in streaming?

The world of streaming is change quite rapidly, and just yesterday Microsoft announced the closure of its streaming platform Mixer.

Microsoft announced that it was partnering with Facebook Gaming to transit its community over to Facebook's streaming service. This has left big name streamers such as Shroud and Ninja as free agents that have complete rain of choice for what streaming platform they want to start streaming on. The closure of Mixer may not affect the already established badly (as most already have monetary contracts signed), but it certainly will impact the streamers that have been slowly climbing the ranks of the streaming world.

So what do these streamers do? A moderately large Mixer streamer might have a hard time transitioning their audience over to a new platform. The transition could come at a cost of many streamers audience members leaving, essentially, throughout the transition period viewers are lost. Mixer streamers will have to make a decision of what platform they are going to begin streaming on soon, as Mixer will be officially killed off on July 22nd.

At the moment there are three main platforms of choice, Facebook Gaming, YouTube, and Twitch. All of these platforms come with their respective downsides, whether that be lack of streaming infrastructure, discoverability, UI issues, or engagement flaws. But what if a new streaming platform was opened up? What company would be best suited to do so?

In my opinion I believe Twitter has what it takes to combat Twitch's massive grasp on the world of streaming. Let me be clear here, my opinion isn't backed by any credible source, and is more so my years watching and reporting on the streaming community. Here's why I think Twitter could be the company to make a dent in Twitch's viewership numbers.

Firstly, many streamers from all different platforms are already heavily using Twitter to engage with their audiences. Many streamers also have large followings on Twitter that they use to pull people to their respective streaming platforms. Discoverability on Twitter is not that bad when you compare it to a platform such as Twitch, or Facebook Gaming, which is famously terrible for native audience development (unless you throw promotional dollars at your stream - Facebook Gaming).

Twitter would essentially be cutting out the middle man with its own streaming platform, and not only would streamers that have already heavily entwined their brand into Twitter have a one-stop-shop for streaming/posting content, but Twitter would gain more traffic that was diluted out on other streaming platforms. Of course, this type of pivot by Twitter cannot happen overnight, and launching a whole new streaming service is by no means easy. But with what Twitter already has (streamer audiences), they certainly have the foundations already laid out for a streamer building to be constructed.

Remember, competition is good for the consumer, it drives market and innovation. Consumers should want a company to rise up and compete with Twitch, which will result in only benefits for the consumers/streamers. Twitter might have different ideas about the world of streaming, and they have every right to do so, but if Twitter announced a streaming platform was magically coming within the next month, and I were Twitch, I'd have my eyebrows raised in concern at the sheer potential the platform has.