3 things we learned at TwitchCon 2017

• Monetisation and community

  

  Twitch’s commitment to offering effective monetisation tools has led to a vast increase in the amount paid to individual Partners in 2017, with 71% more money generated on average.

  The platform also expanded monetisation with the Twitch Affiliates Program, in order to support smaller, non-partnered streamers. Since April this year, over 110,000 creators have joined the program.

  The platform has also made a number of changes to its user interface. Video delay has been reduced by an average of 60%, meaning the delay between streamers and fans will be a matter of seconds.

  Twitch also acknowledged and praised a number of community-driven features that have increased in popularity this year. This included:

  Raids - When a creator ends their stream, it’s courtesy to link your community to another streamer if they are also streaming at that time. The new Raid feature allows streamers to seamlessly link fans to other creators and limit who can raid their own channels.

  Rituals - The Ritual feature lets streamers know when a viewer is new to their channel, and allows them and their community to welcome new people.

  Rooms - Creators can now create rooms to segregate their viewer base; to create smaller, manageable chat groups. Creators can make rooms based on things like shared interests, status or subscription tiers.

  
  

• Developers now have more resources on Twitch than ever

  

  Twitch has also revealed an array of tools for developers, to create customised interactive experiences for individual channels. 

  Twitch Extensions - A new set of tools that enable developers to create customisable gadgets, for themselves and other streamers. In the six weeks since launch, over 1,000 developers have registered to create an Extension, allowing more creator personalisation on Twitch than ever before.

  Twitch has archived the panels regarding updates to their developer ecosystem in a series of vods. 

  Twitch Commerce - The dev day held a talk on using Twitch Commerce and how game developers can use the service to sell games and items on Twitch.

  Watch Diving into Twitch Commerce to sell your game and item from twitchdev on www.twitch.tv

  Developers are being encouraged to use the service, to effortlessly sell their games to the creators that want them. Creators also receive perks for purchasing on Twitch, such as custom emotes and in-game items.
  
  Twitch API - The platform has made signifcant changes to it's API technology. The panel explained how the Gateway technology works, and how developers can engage with it. Twitch has also archived a series of vods on the changes to the API Gateway.

  
  

• Twitch is now the most popular (and profitable) streaming platform on the planet

  

  It was reported that Twitch's combined audience now surpasses the likes of HBO and Netflix.

  According to recent study by SuperData, Twitch has an estimated 212 million viewers. While that only makes up 16% of the audience watching online gaming content, it still towers over Netflix's estimated 108 million subscribers. 

  Livestreaming is now more profitable than ever, and TwitchCon provided attendees with an insightful look into the business end of the platform, at a time when streaming and eSports are becoming more profitable than ever before.

  TwitchCon held a panel featuring various creators, including Trihex, a streamer popular for his gaming speedruns, and Andrey 'Reynad' Yanyuk, owner of eSports group Tempo Storm.

  Watch TwitchCon LIVE from the CoolCat Theater - EVENT SCHEDULE: twitchcon.com/schedule/ | ALL LIVE FEEDS: twitch.tv/twitchcon from CoolCat Theater on www.twitch.tv

  There's consistant speculation around how much a certain influencer is worth and how businesses can approach them.

  Reynad and his panelists cover a number of details surrounding the business end of professional streaming. Reynad also makes a pertinent point about the importance of separating profit from intrinsic good.