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Kick (Streaming Platform)

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Updated Apr 18, 2023 at 11:29AM EDT by Don.

Added Dec 06, 2022 at 02:23PM EST by Phillip Hamilton.

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About

Kick is an online streaming platform similar to Twitch that allows users to stream gaming, IRL, just chatting and gambling content. The platform gained viral attention in December 2022 after gambling streamer Trainwreckstv announced that he'd become a non-owner advisor and non-exclusive broadcaster on the site. Shortly after the announcement, information surfaced that suggests Kick is a Stake.com project, a crypto gambling website that was banned from Twitch when Twitch banned gambling from the site in September 2022.

History

Kick.com, also available at kick.live, was opened sometime around October 2022 and started to gain a following in November of that year. For example, on November 19th, 2022, Twitter[1] user and Stake co-founder @StakeEddie shared a link to the site, advertising a $50,000 Stake giveaway. On November 30th, the /r/KickStreaming[2] subreddit was created, gaining over 110 members in a week. On December 3rd, the official Kick Twitter[8] account, @KickStreaming, posted a graphic teasing their move into beta testing (shown below).


KICK Kick.com @KickStreaming Soon... 1:52 AM - Dec 3, 2022 KICK

Trainwreckstv Announces Partnership With Kick

On December 5th, 2022, gambling streamer Trainwreckstv, one of the most prominent streamers on the site, posted a Twitlonger link to Twitter[3] announcing that he would be working with Kick as a "non-owner advisor and non-exclusive broadcaster." In the Twitlonger,[4] he claims that he was inspired to work with them after Twtich's purportedly repeated history of cutting streamers' pay. He wrote:

Twitch takes the highest percentage split of any platform in the livestreaming world. At 50%, every streamer on Twitch will only receive $2.50 of each subscription, and less if they’re not in a first world country. I don’t believe it’s right to take such a high percentage of the work that a streamer does. Twitch does nearly no marketing for streamers, no discovery, and limited help in building their business. Those streamers only succeed from the blood, sweat, and time they put in themselves. Twitch’s only role is as a website host. Given their contribution, it is absurd that they take 50% of our income.

He goes on to list a number of features Kick is rolling out in the near future, including 100 percent of all tips on the site going to streamers, no ambiguous bans, rules governing ethical gambling and "a steady income based on hours watched and total viewers you stream to" (full Twitlonger shown below). The tweet gained over 13,000 likes and 1,000 retweets in a day.


Trainwreck @Trainwreckstv 5th Dec 2022 from TwitLonger PLATFORM UPDATE Twitch has deemed most of us, irrelevant. y Tweet 9 Like As a top 5 twitch creator in the world for 16.5 months straight, and currently a top 10 twitch creator in the world, I have a good understanding of twitch, its foundations, whether they be underground or mainstream, and the way everything works. Twitch pads the pockets of a handful of creators, and they are the only ones that won't admit twitch's negligence toward the majority of its streamers. I've always believed in Twitch and want to stream there, but they are going in the wrong direction. Twitch has built an empire off of our backs and has the audacity to spit in all of our faces by not only giving us no financial security, with its inconsistent policies, but by also cutting our pay in places that they have no right to cut. Twitch claims to be in one of the strongest positions ever, citing the highest viewership, sponsorship, and profitability in the history of the platform; despite their claims, streamers continuously get pay cut after pay cut. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Twitch says they need to cut our pay because it costs too much to run a stream, but then they tell Amazon and the media that they are profitable and have more viewership and advertisers than ever. Whichever it is, it's obvious no benefits are being passed onto their creators who are the lifeblood of what made them successful in the first place. Twitch takes the highest percentage split of any platform in the livestreaming world. At 50%, every streamer on Twitch will only receive $2.50 of each subscription, and less if they're not in a first world country. I don't believe it's right to take such a high percentage of the work that a streamer does. Twitch does nearly no marketing for streamers, no discovery, and limited help in building their business. Those streamers only succeed from the blood, sweat, and time they put in themselves. Twitch's only role is as a website host. Given their contribution, it is absurd that they take 50% of our income. A few months ago Twitch announced that the 70/30 splits streamers were hoping for are not coming. They said it's too expensive to run their website and that those costs have to pass onto the creators. Yet platforms like Youtube maintain a 70/30 split on subscriptions without issue. But I think 70/30 is still not enough - and that we can do even better. As most of you know, I've been working on a couple projects to make the live streaming world better. Today I want to announce one of those projects. I'm joining https://www.kick.com/ as a non-owner advisor and non-exclusive broadcaster. I will work with their team to help creators succeed where Twitch has failed them - starting with a 95% split of all subscriber income to creators. I choose to work with Kick because their investors are willing to listen to creator input to make their platform better. Kick understands that a successful platform starts with a successful streamer. I've worked with their team already to create these benefits that no other platform has. These features will roll out in the near future: - Everyone gets a sub button. 95%-5% subscriber split with 95% of all subscriber income going to the streamer. - 100% of all tips made on Kick, called "kicks", will go to the streamer. Same day withdrawal. -An innovative new exclusive creator program that will pay our partners for their stream's success. This program works like no partner program before. You won't have to rely on your subscriber count alone every month. You'll get a steady income based on hours watched and total viewers you stream to with an option to be paid out on the same day. - Plus many more features I will share on my next update via Twitter. -A TOS designed to be fair to streamers with clear rules on what's okay and not okay. No ambiguous bans. Kick's current TOS will be completely updated. The new TOS will include rules governing ethical gambling. Fill balances must be disclosed. No wager locked giveaways, no code locked giveaways, and no lying to audiences regarding the reality of gambling's losing nature. You will wonder how these splits are possible. Twitch has led people to believe that subscriptions are a big revenue driver for their company. That's why they tell creators they can't give them a 70/30 split. But subscriptions are a tiny amount of revenue for livestreaming websites. What drives revenue is ads. Kick will partner with the world's leading advertisers to generate cash flow. I believe that creating the best incentives for creators will lead the best creators to Kick, and the best creators will bring the best advertisers. Kick will stand out because of how it takes care of its creators. The platform is the beginning of a completely different approach to livestreaming. The platform is still in the building stages. Kick will roll out these features in the near future under my direction. I'm in constant communication with the ownership and developer team and I'm confident in their mission. Be patient with Kick and give it time to develop. There will be bugs and issues, and this isn't a complete launch. I'll be running test streams alongside my Twitch streams starting today. It takes time to make a good platform and to be clear, this isn't a hard launch. Kick will add features and fix problems as they come up. If you're a streamer reading this, give Kick at least a year to develop. Watch Kick's development and decide if it's the right platform for you. For that reason the Kick team and I are making Kick a baseline non-exclusive platform. We're putting the power into the streamers hands to decide if you want exclusivity or not. If you want to pursue exclusivity, we will offer additional paid options through our creator program. Somewhere along the line, Twitch lost its grasp on reality. Twitch used to feel like a place made for us, by us. But Twitch built their empire off our backs and then forgot about us. They lost the reason Twitch became #1 in the first place. Kick's team and I have a vision to make a livestreaming platform that's actually built first for creators. Not just for Twitch's huge creators with paid contracts, but for the small and mid-sized creators who are the foundation and backbone of all livestreaming platforms. We'll bring livestreaming back to what it was before Twitch lost its way. An authentic experience between viewers and streamers. Reply A Report Post

Trainwreckstv's announcement was reported on by sites including Dot Esports[5] and esports.gg[6] that day. It was also reported by Twitter[7] user and media personality @JakeSucky, garnering over 13,000 likes in a day.

Online Presence

Connection With Stake.com

On December 5th, 2022, the day Trainwreckstv announced his move to the platform, Twitter[9] user @Coco_VLR posted screenshots offering evidence that Kick was created by the team behind Stake.com, a crypto gambling website. The prevalence of Stake and similar crypto casinos on Twitch played a large part in the site banning most forms of gambling. Stake was notably the site that Trainwreckstv played on. The post gained over 160 likes in a day.

On December 6th, Dexerto[10] published an article examining claims that Kick is a project by the Stake team. In the article, they share the tweet by Stake's cofounder, a now-deleted post to /r/KickStreaming[11] sharing evidence that mods named "CalebKick" and "CalebStake" started the sub, an archive[12] proving this and an archived[13] job listing on Easygo looking to hire people to work on Kick that states, "Kick.com is a new venture created by the founders of Easygo and Stake.com."

Reactions / Criticism

Following Tranwreckstv's partnership announcement and claims that Kick is a venture of Stake, the platform and Trainwreckstv gained some criticism due to Stake's reputation among many as being a scam. On December 5th, 2022, Twitter[14] user @Gappy_V shared doubts that a streamer on the platform had over 150,000 concurrent viewers, garnering over 120 likes in a day. On December 6th, YouTuber Coffeezilla made a post on Twitter[15] suggesting Trainwreckstv is moving there because of the Stake connection, garnering over 10,000 likes in under a day (shown below).


Coffeezilla @coffeebreak_YT Trainwreck's new platform is owned by- wait for it.... STAKE. That's why Kick is paying insane creator splits, they're owned by an offshore casino Imao. And it's the reason train is moving, to continue the Stake cash cow. I wonder why Train didn't tell people that Trainwreck @Trainwreckstv - 21h PLATFORM UPDATE Read: twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss6lub 10:31 AM - Dec 6, 2022

The site was also reacted to and criticized by numerous Twitch streamers following Trainwreckstv's announcement on December 5th, including Cr1tIkal, xQc and Hasan Piker (examples shown below).



Search Interest

External References

[1] Twitter – StakeEddie

[2] Reddit – KickStreaming

[3] Twitter – Trainwreckstv

[4] Twitlonger – Trainwrecks

[5] Dot Esports – Olivia Richman

[6] Esports.gg – DSHAE

[7] Twitter – JakeSucky

[8] Twitter – kickstreaming

[9] Twitter – Coco_VLR

[10] Dexerto – Calum Patterson

[11] Reddit – KickStreaming

[12] Archive.ph – moderators of r/KickStreaming

[13] Webcache – Game Art Lead

[14] Twitter – Gappy_V

[15] Twitter – coffeebreak_YT

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