Twitch's new CEO defends job cuts, plans creator meeting

Twitch's new CEO, Dan Clancy, is a longtime leader at NASA and Google, and he wanted to look for life on Mars at one point in his career. His mission at Amazon.com Inc.'s livestreaming service is to nurture talent and reduce the losses suffered by the company by nurturing talent.

‍

The new CEO of Twitch, Clancy, spoke in his first interview with the media since taking over last month and had to eliminate 400 positions among his first actions as a result. He said the austerity measures were necessary to maintain Twitch's viability and sustain its creators.

‍

"I consider those to be the right moves for the long-term success of this business for creators," Clancy said Wednesday during a telephone interview from his home in Washington state, where he lives. "At the end of the day, we are here for our creators."

‍

With Clancy taking over such a large and culturally relevant platform, it is likely that it will grow even further. Twitch is no longer just a gaming niche site; according to analytics site TwitchTracker, Twitch hosts 2.4 million viewers watching nearly 96,000 streams at any given time. 

‍

With growth, however, comes the worry that comes along with it. In an interview with Trade Algo earlier this week, Twitch employees and creators expressed concerns about the direction the company is heading in. With the addition of hires from mainstream tech firms over the past few years, the company has quickly been able to add to its ranks of gamer employees.

‍

Since several high-profile departures, including in its content division, Twitch's top ranks have been dominated by product and engineering-focused executives, as opposed to individuals who worked directly with creators in the first place.

‍

The 59-year-old Clancy fits that profile perfectly. Since joining Twitch in 2019, he has been leading engineering and product efforts on Twitch. As a Silicon Valley veteran with more than four years of experience in the social network Nextdoor, he has had a similar role for more than four years. Previously, he spent nine years working at Alphabet Inc.'s Google, where he held a number of positions including that of senior director of research. Over the course of nearly five years at NASA, he held a variety of research and computer science positions.

‍

There has been little more than a month since he became the CEO of Twitch. After 16 years at Twitch, his predecessor, Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear, resigned from the company just days before the layoffs to pursue other career opportunities. The cuts are part of a larger round of layoffs that are being made at Twitch's parent company, Amazon, and are intended to reduce Twitch's losses.

‍

"Twitch was a tech startup at the time," Clancy said. "Nonetheless, I believe that we now have greater clarity as to what we are offering to our viewers and that is to say our creators. There is a reason why viewers come to Twitch. Twitch is all about creators, not the service itself." 

‍

Clancy isn't a gamer himself, but he mostly watches musicians or talk shows on Twitch instead. In particular, he enjoys the political commentary posted by left-wing commentator Hasan Piker, who has 2.5 million followers on the platform.

‍

"I like the fact that it is blunt and honest," Clancy said. "The fact that he is comfortable expressing his beliefs is a testament to his honesty.”

‍

It is Clancy's tenacity that he will not let his rise to CEO be the beginning of any changes at Twitch. Having studied both theater and computer science in college, he considers himself just as much an advocate for creators as he does for technology.

‍

“There's a whole other side to my life that's more creative than the rest of it,” he explained.

‍

In spite of this, he takes over Twitch at a time when the company's finances are being scrutinized more intensely than ever before. The company has cut the share of subscription revenue that goes to its top creators from 70% to 50% in 2022, causing a backlash from both creators and fans alike. Additionally, Twitch has been highlighting advertising more recently, which creators are complaining interrupts their livestreaming experience. 

‍

In an effort to support creators, some of whom make six- or seven-figure incomes through subscriptions and donations, Clancy's goal is to improve the sponsorship relationships they already have in place.

‍

After creators have built their communities' size and trust, Clancy wants to introduce products to help brands get more value from their use of the service and to increase revenues for creators. One such "focus area" is the improvement of the quality of advertising.

‍

“Growing the pie is what it's all about,” he explained.  

‍

Recently, Clancy has met with Twitch streamers in order to discuss the direction the platform should take. It is scheduled that he will meet with conservationist and Twitch creator Maya Higa at her exotic animal sanctuary in Austin, Texas, which she has funded with money from her livestream. 

‍

Trade Algo has reported that Twitch executives have admitted that it is expensive to operate an international livestreaming service. "It looks very good that our business will be a long-term sustainable business for years to come", Clancy stated in response to a question about whether Twitch would ever become profitable. 

‍

Although ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok and Google's YouTube are among the growing competition for Twitch when it comes to game livestreaming, Twitch remains dominant in the market. According to Clancy, the company's focus on community is a key factor in its success.

‍

"There is a lot more going on than simply leaving comments and logging off," according to him. "There is a live, synchronous interaction between them. As you can see, this is very different from a platform like TikTok."

‍

The more people are exposed to livestreaming, whether through TikTok, YouTube or Meta Platform Inc.'s Instagram platform, the more likely it is that they will eventually find their way to Twitch.

‍

“For each of our creators we provide them with a stage,” he said, “where it is their stage and they are engaging with their audience.”