After Emmett Shear announced that he will be stepping down as the CEO of Twitch, his replacement Dan Clancy took over, immediately laying off 400 employees.
After 16 years of establishing Twitch as the biggest livestreaming platform, Co-founder Emmett Shear has stepped down as the CEO of Twitch. The person now in charge is Dan Clancy, Twitch's current president. His first point of action? Firing 400 employees.
Clancy is the same person that informed (and probably pushed for) Twitch's switch from a 70/30 creator split for subs to a 50/50 deal. This was met with a lot of frustration from streamers, as the platform is monetizing their content and taking half of their money.
Dan Clancy Starts As CEO Of Twitch By Firing Hundreds Of Employees
As Clancy describes it, the reason behind the lay-offs were miscalculations regarding the revenue growth of Twitch. They therefore have to reduce the costs and increase their income.
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Appointing Clancy as the new CEO of Twitch signals the desperate push to make the platform more profitable, which in return could lead to more creators leaving.
With Kick, there now is an actual competitor that advertises itself as creator friendly and offers a crazy 95/5 split to streamers.
Another big reason why streamers are cautious because of this change in leadership is because Dan Clancy, apparently, is an absolute boomer with no idea how to keep the community happy.
The popular IRL streamer Jakenbake voiced his concern with the former president of Twitch all the way back in October 2022, saying: “I don't feel confident as a streamer on the platform with someone who is that out of touch...”
After meeting with Twitch President Dan Clancy at TwitchCon, IRL streamer Jakenbake said, "I don't feel confident as a streamer on the platform with someone who is that out of touch...""I walked away feeling, like, depressed." pic.twitter.com/L4dsI1av8s
— Lowco (@LowcoTV) October 9, 2022
With him now cutting the workforce of Twitch by a solid 400 people, things are looking grim. Looking at Dan Clancy as the new head of Twitch, we might have to face the fact that there are going to be a lot more changes like the ad pre-rolls, 50/50 creator split etc.
This could drive creators and users away from the platform and signal the end of Twitch (definitely as we know it).
With one of Twitch's biggest creators leaving for Kick, others might follow if Twitch changes keep ruining the experience: