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Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said Thursday he doesn’t worry about competitors like YouTube and TikTok that are vying to challenge the dominance of the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform.
It comes down to a sense of community, Clancy said at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC. Twitch measures engagement in hours, not seconds, he said, and isn’t always enticing its users to “go somewhere else” by swiping up or clicking on a related video.
Clancy said some competitors’ version of “community” is users sniping at each other in comments; while Twitch has trolls too, he said they are less likely to stick around for a long stream where viewers know and connect with each other.
“A lot of people talk about community in the online world, but I actually don’t think they use it right, because community is having a sense of belonging, and you get that by shared experiences,” Clancy said.
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Clancy said it’s important for Twitch to allow people from multiple perspectives to express themselves, such as controversial left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker, who has faced multiple temporary bans for violating rules on inflammatory speech.
Clancy said conservative users also have faced complaints on the platform.
“One of the things that kind of works well on Twitch is if you don’t like what someone’s saying, then don’t go and listen to them,” he said. “And then it’s not in your face at all.”