Twitch CEO Dan Clancy recently wrote an open letter to the live-streaming platform’s community. In this letter, he outlined the company’s plans for 2024, and what we can expect from them going forward. Twitch made headlines for both good and bad throughout 2023, and the purple platform is trying to start 2024 off right with a detailed road map for the year.
In March of 2023, Dan Clancy was made CEO of Twitch before hundreds of employees were laid off. The company experimented with their product in the form of discovery feed and stories, opened the platform up to multi-streaming, and then suffered a mass layoff in early 2024. The biggest hit was Twitch announcing they would cease operations in South Korea by February of 2024: previously one of Twitch’s largest demographics.
Read also: Twitch's last day in South Korea — last flash mob and streamer migration to other platforms
Although Twitch has made many steps forward, things have looked shaky as the company went through a power shift and multiple restructurings. With the new clear road map for 2024, CEO Dan Clancy aims to get everyone on the same track regarding what Twitch is aiming for.
The changes Twitch are planning to bring this year can be divided into three subcategories; product updates for users and streamers, monetization, and community moderation. Firstly, let’s look at the product updates Twitch has in store.
Twitch’s 2024 Road Map: product updates
For streamers, Twitch is building off of their new simulcasting policy and working on their Clips integration and clip discovery. Twitch aims to develop Clips into the default short-form content for the platform, giving them a piece of the pie every major social media platform is utilising. Twitch is also adding more built-in functionality for users to directly upload content to other platforms from Twitch, and entirely edit clips on mobile.
Twitch is also looking into developing its Stream Together function, which encourages collaborative streaming and events. Twitch aims to make this function even easier and more intuitive, and to implement functions such as merged Chats across multiple broadcasts. The collaborative updates, discovery feed work, and options to upload directly to social media will benefit streamers trying to actively grow and expand their brand.
CEO Dan Clancy announced the discovery feed at last year's TwitchCon Paris
For Twitch users, Twitch will be revamping its mobile app and giving it its first major update in almost 5 years. The Discovery Feed, which Twitch is already working on improving, will be the new landing screen for the app as Twitch attempts to break into the short-form mobile social media business. Twitch is also planning to expand on the functionality of stories, allowing viewers to build a more direct communication line with their favourite streamer.
The Twitch mobile app is receiving updates around the board. The moderation from the mobile device will be greatly expanded, and the company is working on improving the implementation of monetization options (subscriptions, gifts, Bits) in the app. Overall, Twitch is shifting a big portion of its attention to its mobile app in 2024, as the company tries to compete with other established social media networks.
Twitch expanding their focus on short-form content is not entirely surprising. Since the launch of TikTok to global superstardom, most of the world’s top social media introduced similar short-form content options and they are quickly becoming one of the world’s leading forms of online media. Twitch’s decision to focus on this area proves they are looking for a plan that will benefit them in the long-term.
Twitch’s 2024 Road Map: monetization
Speaking of monetization, this is another key area of Twitch’s focus in 2024. Throughout the past year and even early this year, Twitch has been public about its financial pains. The company has undergone many downsizes in the past years, but in 2024 they are focusing on improving the monetization of the streamers that make their platform so great.
In 2023, Twitch worked on two monetization programs: the Ads Incentive Program and Plus Program (previously the Partner Plus program). Both of these options are designed to give streamers a wider and more flexible range of options for monetization, and Twitch wants to expand on these methods of streamer compensation this year.
Twitch will also be aiming to work with more brands in 2024 and offer more sponsorship opportunities to streamers on their platforms. For the users, Twitch will be creating new milestones for subscriptions, gifting, and cheering. Including improvements to the Hype Train function, Twitch will build on the success of SUBtember and try to hold special events which yield high monetization. Last year, the price of a Tier 1 subscription increased in some select regions, and Twitch predicts more price increases will come to more regions in 2024.
Throughout recent years, many of the streamers who have left Twitch to move to Kick, YouTube Live, or any other live-streamer platform, have cited monetization as a key factor. Some live-streaming platforms offer a far better revenue-split than Twitch, and Twitch is attempting to combat this issue and make the platform more profitable for all involved.
Twitch’s 2024 Road Map: community moderation
As Twitch streamers and the Twitch platform itself continue to grow in popularity, it only becomes more and more difficult for streamers to effectively moderate their Chat and community. Throughout 2023, Twitch combated this issue by improving its moderation tools and even expanding its terms of service to enforce punishments for serious off-service actions.
For 2024, Twitch will continue to develop these moderation tools and ensure they can mitigate any harassment which takes place on Twitch. Throughout 2023, Twitch collected user opinions on harassment on the platform, and this year Twitch will begin updating its Community Guidelines, and dishing out more severe punishments to rule-breakers. On top of this, Twitch is working on improving its harassment identification software so that this behaviour can be stomped out before it even arrives in Chat.
Finally, Twitch promised to explore its Community Guidelines for a complete overhaul. In summary, Twitch wants to analyse if its guidelines are fair, if they are fairly enforced, and if users and streamers have been banned without exhibiting malicious behaviour.