Strangely enough, I didn’t see anyone in the area talking about it. Or I missed the conversations. Anyway, I’m never invited to parties. However, it is something big that happened at 6 p.m. yesterday.
Twitch has decided to lower subscription prices in France (and around the world around the world) to bring it in line with the US $ 4.99. So in France we have 3; 99 against 4.99 passed. It’s good for consumers, will you tell me? Certainly yes. But that’s a different story for designers.
Yes, because the conversion for Creator hasn’t changed. As an affiliate, the proportion of sales is estimated at 50%. In reality, when a designer hits a submarine, he makes about $ 2.20, or the equivalent of $ 1.80. With this tariff upgrade, he receives less than 1.50. For small and medium-sized chains, it is therefore an even more pronounced precariousness. Very large streamers will be less affected by these changes, but Twitch permits should allow any streamer to have more subscribers … So ok. More subscribers. But also more income?
Independent Twitch, than the great prince he is
However, to be eligible for this RSA Twitch each month through July 2022, you must now run a quota of streaming hours. And of course, so as not to exceed the average of your income estimated by the Twitch bots. So from now on you no longer have the right to medical worries, necessary work breaks or just vacation. We are entering an era of performance (to those who don’t follow, it’s not surprising to know that Twitch is owned by Amazon). And what has changed? Well everything, exactly. And certainly also other drives, the outlines of which we can easily imagine today.
Especially since the stories of burnout or deterioration in health from the streams are not uncommon. From now on they will certainly be even more numerous.
The main problem with all of this is that we, as an affiliate or partner, enter into contracts with Twitch. Contract, the content of which can be changed by the platform at will and without our consent. All you can do is settle for these new rules and get used to them. And it’s serious. Because we rely on American law, which is much looser than ours on the right to work and the right to organize. In short, it’s crap. And it won’t work.
Who guarantees us that after this year of RSA Twitch, the platform will not impose payable quotas of streaming hours to maintain their affiliation or even partnership? Which guarantees us that we will not increase this quota of hours (currently an average of 85% of the streaming hours). Let’s be serious 2 min, if Twitch / Amazon had decided to help streamers, they could do so without setting up such devices. It is by no means that the company is one of the richest in the world.
In short, this decision didn’t seem like much to the consumer, but for the makers, it will only widen the gap between the already precarious streamers and the big streamers who are sure to perform much better. It just goes to show that relying on a 100% platform that has a monopoly is always dangerous.