Twitch’s open letter offers a roadmap for monetization for 2023

Twitch, the leading live streaming platform for gaming, has released a letter to lay out the roadmap for new monetization features in 2023. The open letter was written by Tom Verrilli, chief product officer at Twitch, and Mike Minton, Twitch’s chief monetization officer.

These platform-wide improvements are designed to help streamers monetize effectively, increase findability, reduce ad obtrusiveness, and build community on and off the platform.

To improve streamers’ earning potential, the Twitch team plans to both improve existing features and release new tools that make it easier to monetize and grow.

A major focus is to give streamers more options for making money on the platform. Twitch will release Sound Bites (first-party audio alerts) and update Cheering so viewers can further customize their interactions with streamers. These personalization features also help streamers recognize their best supporters. Twitch will also experiment with personalized discounts based on viewer behavior to encourage more interaction with highly engaged fans.

In addition, Twitch is testing a more meaningful sponsorship solution. The platform starts with channel skins and clickable brand images. Ads that interrupt live streams are particularly disruptive, so Twitch hopes this will provide an alternative and more attractive solution.

It is critical that many of these monetization features will also be available on mobile.

Twitch is also adding new features to help streamers promote their channels. The platform adds new tools to help streamers edit and export clips from streams for vertical short video formats. TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels are key streamer discovery tools — Twitch is recognizing this with these new tools. Twitch also works directly with Twitter to improve the display of clips and links.

On the platform itself, Twitch is introducing several features including pinned clips, post options, and more tags. Pinned clips give viewers a taste of the streamer without waiting for pre-roll ads. Twitch also allows streamers to send video and clip messages to followers or subscribers so they can stay in touch with fans offline.

Twitch is also continuing to invest in its Guest Star tools to enable more collaboration between streamers. Co-streaming has been a great asset to esports tournaments and events, so these features could have wider implications.

Findability on mobile will also be an important focus. Twitch plans to introduce a discovery page that will allow viewers to seamlessly browse a feed of recommended channels and clips – again, reminiscent of TikTok.

Ad placement improvements

Last year, Twitch debuted its Advertising incentive program (AIP). Streamers who have opted into the AIP are required to run a certain number of ads – typically three minutes per hour streamed – in exchange for prerolls being removed and increased payouts. While Twitch claims the results were positive, they are making improvements to the 2023 program.

Users now have more flexibility in choosing the number of ads per hour. In addition, they have more control over when these ads appear, so viewers don’t miss critical moments.

Twitch will also adjust pre-roll ads. Rather than forcing viewers to watch 90 seconds of ads to see a new streamer, Twitch is applying its Picture-by-Picture experience to make it less distracting. This will likely improve discoverability as viewers can spot streamers right away.

The road ahead

While Twitch is still the best streaming site, these changes send a signal that the platform wants to keep evolving. The platform takes cues from competitors such as TikTok and YouTube Gaming. Executing these functions properly is vital to maintain their grip on the market.

The full list of features and a summary of the company’s efforts in 2022 is available here.