Twitch is one of the biggest, if not the biggest (live) streaming platforms out right now. Many gamers use it to expand their brands, and we’ve even seen concerts done on Twitch. Although when I first heard Twitch, it went by a different name: Justin.tv.
Justin.tv was a live-streaming platform, the first one of it’s kind. I remember there used to be new movies playing, with a chatroom attached to it. Justin.tv started with the founder Justin Kan. In March of 2007, he live-streamed his whole life 24/7 using a webcam. This project birthed the name Justin.tv. He began to make relationships and bring more people on his platform to live-stream with the goal of creating a network of dedicated streamers.
After initial success, Justin.tv opened the door to everyone. Now, anyone was able to live-stream on the platform. This was the best business move he could’ve done, it boosted the traffic phenomenally. Just under a year, the company would have 1 million registered users. Justin Kan and the rest of the team were liking the growth, but unsure about how to monetize their website.
The most popular section of the Justin.tv website was video game streams. The team had a meeting, and decided to rebrand the website fully targeting video gamers. This decision was the one to take the brand further than they could’ve imagined. This was the start of Twitch.tv.
