1415T1g1 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/Reflection/9 Dec
Twitch:
We went to Twitch, where Brandon saw a few of his Dota idols. The office was amazing, it was a gamer's dream come true. They had a TV wall at the entrance showing live feeds of people playing various games, and they had 2 rooms purely for employees to play games. What I saw at Twitch was a team of that was incredibly passionate about the work that they were doing. According to John, our host, everyone at Twitch is an avid gamer. They frequently play games with (or against) each other, and it was apparent to me that spending time with each other helped to bond the team together. It was inspiring to see how well people work when they get to combine their passion with their work. I could imagine that there is not one dull day for employees at Twitch. We also talked about the value that Twitch brought to the broadcasters and game developers. Popular broadcasters may sometimes be approached for advertisements for other companies, so broadcasting on Twitch is a way for them to make a side income from doing something they love. From what John said, popular broadcasters earn, on average, a six figure sum yearly. Some of them even earn that much in a month! For these people, Twitch is an excellent way of supplementing their income. It is also possible that some of them might be able to just broadcast their games for a living. Twitch helps game developers too, having streamers watch the broadcasters playing the games help the game developers to advertise their products. Streamers may find a game that they really like and end up buying the games. Twitch also helps game developers find flaws in their games, they do this by watching the professional players play on Twitch, to see if there were any bugs or other issues that they could fix before they became huge problems.
BitTorrent:
Twitch
So what is amazing about Twitch is that it the hub for video gamming streaming. It largest product would be TwitchTv which is no doubt a big name and everyone seems to have heard of it! Next, they have the twitch community Pokémon where they will receive thousands of instant messages for commands of the game. Twitch is no doubt the engine and driver for today's big gaming industry and in the valley. What was more impressive was that Twitch has the chance to meet with famous game development companies like Electronic Arts and SquareEnix! SquareEnix is definitely my dream company to visit and Twitch had the opportunity to work them made me so amazed. What was even more surprising was that I found out that Twitch is not just a community building way, it is also a way to do real life testing. Developers can gain much insight from this as they can see their relevant customers to play with their software and see if there's any problems that might surface. This will ignite more innovation as well because developers can see what can be change to better improve the gaming experience and develop more games that will suit the client better. This will meet the customers' demand and increase sales eventually. This new found knowledge is certainly very interesting yet relevant. It uncovers a new exploration for user testing, which is very similar in IDP back in school. I do think that the company visit to Twitch was an amazing experience and we also get to tour around the company! The company is awesome! With live recording room to gaming room and a very nice pantry with lots of food available! It was basically a haven for gamers! One doesn't even need to get out of the office at all with all the amazing snack available.
BitTorrent
BitTorrent has always been a very subtle company to me especially if I recalled, the last time I used it was in secondary school. I always had this perception of Bittorrent as a priacy downloading website for music and video. However, I was truly and utterly wrong about this company. It was nothing like what I always perceived. So, Kai was the host for us and he explained to us the idea of Bittorrent and how it revolutionised the idea of file sharing. Bittorrent has also a lot of interesting products like Bleep which ensure secure messaging. I believe that Bittorrent is set to revolutionise many things but whenever there's such a thing, file sharing can be made more illegal as well. Even with other product like Bleep, secured messaging is a double-edge sword. This is something I believe we should always be wary for. However, I am also very intrigued by the idea of a data scientist in Bittorrent, where analytics is so applicable. Likewise, Kai mentioned that Bittorrent faces the trouble like many software companies which is the problem of monetizing their product. This is very unsustainable as a whole and I do feel that it is very important to know the underlying problem of this and solve it as soon as possible. Technology can only go so far without money, the rest is maintaining it with monetary incentive like Google and Facebook. Bittorrent is not less of a great company and I believe if they do step up their games and pull up their socks, they will achieve big things.
Our visit to Twitch.Tv was totally AWESOME! It's the company that i wanted to visit the most and best of it all i get to host it!! We arrived at their new office right in the center of town and right when the elevator doors opened we were greeted by the familiar purple hue of Twitch that i've been seeing for the past 3 years ever since Twitch started. As we approach the main entrance, the visit could not have been any better!! lo and behold, standing right at the already awesome mega TV screens showcasing the live streams, was Cyborgmatt! (One of the Dota 2 content developer/reviewer), it was really awesome to see him and even better i got to take a picture with him! After meeting Cyborgmatt, we next met John Howell, the partnership director at Twitch, who brought us around the company. The entire layout of the company was extremely cool to an avid gamer like me, it was as if i've just entered Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory! Apart from the purple hue, the entire place was filled with famous video game related artifacts from the signature covered Half-Life 2 Gravity Gun to the Gears of War Live-size locust horde. John showed us around the entire compound featuring 2 gaming lounge rooms, the live studio where they film Twitch Weekly, the Cafeteria (where Bruno was! - A famous Dota2 Broadcaster) and the different departments(Engineering and partnership area). Next, we sat by the Cafeteria and we had a fruitful Q&A about Twitch and their business.
One thing I will remember and envy the most about Twitch was that, all/most of the employees were able combine both their job and their love for video games at Twitch. They're encouraged to go, play and learn about the video games while at the same time, while doing that they are also researching and looking at how to improve their business. The atmosphere and culture the company is something i believe most other companies around the valley would not have as i believe most employees there are working there because of their passion for video games and not just cause it makes money but rather because it makes them happy and enjoy their work! - One thing that struck me was when John said - He wants to empower the gamers, because it is not something we will grow out off as a true gamer , 10 - 20 years down the road i'd still be playing video games and i too believe in what he said. I think being at Twitch.Tv today, has gave me more impetus towards my goal of being in the video game industry in the future and if the opportunity comes that they offer me an opportunity i'd pounce at it!
- We've gotta have passion in what we do in our jobs in the future! Love what you do and you'll do well in it!
- Anything can become a business selling point/product - start many and one of them might strike gold! It might not even have to do with what're doing now like streaming!
After an exciting visit to Twitch.Tv i was pretty sure nothing could have topped that! But i was almost proven wrong as our BitTorrent visit was just as inspiring and intriguing as Twitch. Truth be told, before i visited BitTorrent today, the word "torrent" only registered as the illegal p2p data sharing protocol which people use to get their hands on the latest serial tv shows and other stuff on the internet, in my mind. However, my mind was blown today when we visited the BitTorrent Office.
Our host, Kai, a Data Scientist at BitTorrent, showed us around the company, shared with us about BitTorrent and also about his job as a data scientist. He showcased to us the projects and products that BitTorrent have such as uTorrent (a legit downloading application),BitTorrent Sync (BitTorrent's style of DropBox), BitTorrent Bundle(BitTorrent's Itunes) and BitTorrent Bleep (BitTorrent's WhatsApp). Each of these tools, though having similar function to their competitors, they each have a special and different aspect of either security or privacy which kinda tries to One-Up their counterparts. I believe that this really shows character and drive in their company. Especially with a company as huge as theirs and also taking into account that it built a protocol that has no parallel and could easily just sit on it's ranks and not worry about anyone toppling them over. This i believe is truly impressive about BitTorrent and therefore i can foresee that it just time before they will hit the right formula which will propel them to even higher heights than they've already reached.
Another interesting point i got out from our BitTorrent visit was the altruistic mindset and approach which their founder Bram Cohen took when he created the BitTorrent Protocol for everyone to use. Like what Kai mentioned, "Some Engineers Just Wanna Build Stuff For The World." & also about Net Neutrality. I too believe in this idea in which we should build things and share things that would help one another as a race rather than just keeping it to a group of people or always putting money into the context. We have to look at building things that are good and that make changes to people lives, whether it makes money or not should be the main focus. Besides if it's good people will pay for it naturally and that's how things should work!
- Keep improving ourselves and never sit on our past achievements! Keep trying to improve ourselves and keep up with our competitors like BitTorrent even if it's imitating them! Follow them and try to One-Up them!
- Don't just do it for the sake of the money, do it well and make it good naturally and organically - the money will come if it's good enough!
twitch.tv
Size of company: 150ish employees
Office Space: A whole floor with an open concept without designated cubicles
I love Twitch's office the best. The wall murals, art hanging on the walls, and the gamer chairs they had at some desks were some of my favourite things at Twitch. Oh and also because their company and brand colour is PURPLE!!!
John was really friendly and warm towards us as he engaged with us and brought us around the office. He explained to us about how Amazon has allowed Twitch to function the way it has been functioning after the acquisition and how everyone on the Twitch team play games, and some are really good at it and have their own channel and subscriptions on Twitch.tv as well.
He also went on to explain the way video content was streamed to users, using the HOS technique where for example, 8 seconds of video is watched by a viewer while the next 8 seconds of the video is buffering, thereby streaming chunks of video to viewers to allow for the video streaming to be smooth without much interruption.
He also talked about Content Creators. He highlighted the point that it did not matter so much on what games the streamer was playing, but it was more of how the streamer was playing the game and whether he/she is charismatic and was consistent with his/her streaming feed so their subscribers would be able to tune in to their channels at consistent times.
My main takeaway from Twitch.tv was that, the founder had one idea; to stream live games. But right now, Twitch.tv has become so much more than that. It is used by game developers to check for possible problems in their games by viewing streamers play the games after recent releases. Twitch.tv is also working with Sony and Microsoft to enable the sharing of live gameplay from the devices to Twitch.tv.
So what Ive learnt is that, you may have one brilliant idea and it may work really well. But it does not mean you have to stop right there. Understand how people are making use of your idea and expand your brilliant idea to generate a few more brilliant ones! And they always say, when you love what you are doing, it will never seem like a torture to work. Employees at Twitch.tv are a great exemplification of this!
BitTorrent
Size of company: 200ish employees
Office Space: A whole floor with an open concept without designated cubicles
Kai was really very inspiring and smart. So is the BitTorrent protocol. He used a great analogy to explain to us about the BitTorrent protocol, about photocopying pages of a library book. And how if all the users who had the book photocopied one page each, the transfer of files would be a lot more efficient and quicker. Cant believe this awesome protocol is free and I've been using it without knowing how cool it is.
Another cool thing I learnt is about Sync. Sync is something like DropBox, but the only difference is that it is serverless unlike DropBox, and the space you have if you used it is INFINITE. However, both machines you are trying to "Sync" with need to be switched on for the "Sync" of the files to work. But still, it is very cool!
One major aspect I feel that BitTorrent is lacking is making money out the BitTorrent protocol, Sync and its other initiatives. But Kai went on to elaborate more about the self-publishing platform BitTorrent is providing artists and writers with to publish their works. The artists and writers are able to get 90% of the earnings. But I do not think this is enough for BitTorrent to gain much from. Main takeaways from BitTorrent is that its great when you have such a powerful technological idea, but you must also think of creating a business model behind the idea so as to sustain your idea/start-up in the long run so you can build on your initial brilliant idea and come up with many more!
Kai also shared with us the difference between working in Singapore and the SV; amount of data to work with to generate new insights to build on your idea. In the SV, the data you can collect once you roll out your idea/initiative is immense. This allows for betterment of the product and the sheer amount of numbers to work with will allow you to generate new insights as compared to if your idea/initiative is rolled out to a smaller market (like Singapore).
And I was also amazed by Kai's usage of code to help him generate statistics which he then goes on to analyze the hands of all his opponents and eventually win his online game of Poker. Who would ever think of such things?! I guess other geniuses like him who work in the Silicon Valley, who love coding and can think of such ingenious ways to use code in their daily activities.
Twitch.tv - The Avid Gamer's Television
In my opinion, the visit to Twitch was one of the most exciting company visits so far. The moment we stepped into their office, we were greeted by nine TV screen panels of pure gaming awesomeness. Being the occasional gamer myself, the live streams being displayed instantly caught my eye and kept me fixed on the captivating screens. Shortly after, we had a quick tour around the office and I absolutely loved it. There was a recording studio, game rooms, cool gaming posters and toys hiding in plain sight and a very well designed mural at their eating area.
The atmosphere in the office was really fun as the staff were happy and friendly people. We learnt about how gaming continues to be both a driving force and a distraction for the staff as their job does revolve around gameplay quite a bit. Gaming acts as both a break and research material for them as it helps them understand the needs of their users better, but sometimes they do get overly engrossed in playing and that disrupts their work.
An interesting takeaway from Twitch was how creating the right content for streaming could help one make a lot of money and could potentially be a career path. Thus, aside from their mandatory management of the live streaming platform, some of the other work that Twitch currently does is to help their streamers create better content and get more subscribers. We learnt firsthand that the right way to go about doing this is to have a steady viewer base and to have regular and consistent streaming times. Twitch also helps game developers by providing advice after watching users stream their games. This is very much like how we would watch videos of our users using our applications in web experiments and learn from the user's interaction with the application. It helps to provide real data of their users and as we all know data triumphs intuition, so this helps the game developers to introduce the right improvements.
BitTorrent - More than meets the eye
Like most people, my original impression of BitTorrent was the peer-to-peer client which many people used in piracy. However, that was merely an incorrect understanding of BitTorrent as the BitTorrent protocol is actually a very outstanding piece of technology. BitTorrent uses some important concepts of parallelism and applications of MapReduce to break up files into chunks, making large files easier and faster to share.
One of the cool things that BitTorrent has come up with in the recent years include the ability to download and stream certain types of file at the same time - simply stated, it is like downloading a youtube video while watching it. BitTorrent also has some rather incredible products like BitTorrent Sync (a cloud-based storage), BitTorrent Bundle (helps artistes share their work and still get money) and BitTorrent Bleep (messaging service) which I never knew of until today. Another amazing technology they are coming up with is a BitTorrent browser (unnamed for now) that downloads a page that you have viewed and uses your machine to host that page (when you use BitTorrent browser) - effectively this means that users will be able to load their pages faster if someone near them has viewed that page before. This of course assumes that users are willing to share their machine's additional capabilities to help host the page and if it does catch on, using this new BitTorrent browser could basically mean the creation of a type of content delivery network using anyone instead of the traditional data centers around the world.
Unfortunately for BitTorrent, as a company that seeks to make profits, they are restricted in many ways in that aspect. For one, their technology does not use any cost them any money - thus this makes it difficult for them to monetise any of their technologies. However, what they do at BitTorrent is really noble work as they are more interested in helping the world become a better place rather than just making a lot of money. Even our host Kai mentioned that had he worked in the finance industry, the only people to benefit would have been his bosses, but working at BitTorrent as a data scientist allows him to bring more tangible benefits and help to the world. Indeed, BitTorrent is more than meets the eye as I couldn't have been more wrong about a company that I used to associate largely with piracy.
Twitch had one of the most interesting office space. At the reception area itself had 9 TVs joined together, showing live streaming games from all oner the world. All the walls were either painted with murals or had posters on them. there was even a gaming room that had old school gaming consoles as well as the latest gaming rigs. of course, along the corridors as well as the office desks were all sorts of gaming replicas and toys. We went to the cafeteria to talk with the host. It's amazing how just an idea of streaming videos to friends changed to one of the biggest site for game streaming. To think of how individuals were able to quit their day job and earning six figures just by streaming videos of themselves playing games. Of course, these people are working hard to keep viewership up, maintaining streaming schedules and interacting with their subscribers. It's definitely not child's play. Twitch showed how one's need to solve his daily problem could turn out into successful business. So, whenever you encounter any problems, try to think of ways you can solve it and who knows, you might be the next big thing.
BitTorrent. An infamous name to everyone. A large number of us sees BitTorrent as the client for piracy, downloading digital information illegally. However, BitTorrent is not that. It is a protocol that enables a faster downloading speed through separating the data and sharing it with peers who in turn share their part of that data with others. The reason BitTorrent is not doing any criminal activity is because they don't track what exactly is being transferred using their protocol. However, BitTorrent is more than just that. They are also trying to enter other markets. One interesting example is Sync. Sync is something like BitTorrent's version of dropbox. The only difference is that it really focuses on privacy. Hence, Sync utilises the BitTorrent Protocol to store information. Basically, there are no servers, not even on the cloud. Everything is stored in another computer somewhere else. So basically, for example, you have 3 computers connected to sync. Fragments of the data are being stored separately in the 3 computers. As a result, no one can steal data from Sync as there is no such thing as a cloud in Sync. The hose went from a business student to being a writer and finally being a data scientist. One interesting thing that I learned from being in BitTorrent and hearing the host speak was that it's never too late to change your career path, as long as you have the drive and passion to realise that path you want.
Many of us, mostly gamers, were very excited once we saw the Twitch office. The big screen at the gate of Twitch which randomly shows streamers on Twitch, the amazing wall paintings which include many well-known game characters, the various collections and toys that relate to most famous games, I think all these describe an office or company that we dream about. When the Director John talked to us, he sounded just like any one of us who loves game so much, and can feel excited about any game related stuff. Subconsciously, we were comparing him and ourselves, how wonderful it will be if we can do what we like as our career and achieve great success at the same time! Twitch really showed us the possibility of following your dream and the power of pursuing what you like. Thanks to Twitch, I am more certain with my journey towards my dream.
The office setting is definitely amazing and attractive to most gamers or technology guys. I also see it as a branding and recruiting strategy. Many companies we visited actually said that it is difficult to hire good technology talents nowadays, and from our people’s reaction, it is very obvious that Twitch’s working environment has a great advantage in getting good talents in the company. This reminds me of the important of company culture, and in technology companies where talents are the main resources, such investment and efforts in building attractive working environment can be considered as an investment with good return.
The BitTorrent in my mind is still the oldest version which only helps people download files with the great algorithm and achieve fast speed. However, what we saw today were many new products that BitTorrent is working on. One thing I noticed is BitTorrent’s business model, it is actually similar to some very successful companies, such as Google. Google generates its revenue based on his search engine, and it tries to develop many products around that or even unrelated new stuff to build branding, BitTorrent builds every product around initial BitTorrent Technology, and because of its experience and performance, there are almost no competitors in this area, so they can take their time to explore various possibilities. This shows how important a core technology and competency is. And this kind of business model can be replicated if I am going to work in a startup. If I am going to start a company or build a product, the first think that I will consider is the selling point or the competency that I can have, also how strong the barrier to entry is. By holding a strong competency with high barrier to entry will help build a company like BitTorrent or Google which can significantly increase the success rate.
We also talked to the host, Kai about his job. Data Scientist is a fairly new job and definitely an interesting one. It is enriching to know details about the job from a real person who is doing it. Many suggestions from him was really helpful, such as the technical skills that we should prepare ourselves, the possible opportunities that we can look for and others. Personally, I want to make sure the work done by me can have impact on the final products that the company is producing. If I am in a technology company, software engineer will be a good choice, but for most companies, Data Scientist is actually applicable to all of them since most companies are dealing with many business data and they need to make sense of the data and make good business decisions. I see the potential in this career path and hope to become one of them.
Twitch has probably the most attractive and coolest culture in the Valley. Its gaming culture was what makes the company fun to work for. As we were interacting with the host, I was surprised that there are a lot of hardcore gamers in the company and I believe this is what keeps the company going. I learnt that in order to retain good employees and drive them at work, I must know what makes them tick. This is especially true in the Valley where employee volatility is very high. Retaining employees are really important especially when the company is growing fast as we would want to minimize disruptions to the company plans as much as possible. Twitch has really excelled in this, which probably explains its fast expansion. Also, it seems that having a bunch of employees who would use the company product extensively will be the best kind of employees as they will know what to improve on. Now I know what to look out for if I have hiring plans.
Visiting Bit Torrent was an eye opener for me as I know more in depth about the company. The number of things its doing is really mind blowing. They went into creating browser (maelstrom), improving their peer to peer sharing with their protocol and even their ‘Sync’ function. It is really interesting to know that a company of such size has been doing so much since it started in 2001. They are always constantly innovating! Though I have learnt a lot about the company, our conversation with Kai was very insightful. Having spoken with him, I realized that he really believes in the company mission and vision which keeps him committed to the job. I really think that it is important for every company to convince their employees of their mission and vision in order to do really well. He also mentioned that the engineers in the company believe in building a product for the world over the monetary benefits they can receive. I learnt that though money can attract the best talents in the world, keeping them committed requires much more than that, the culture as well as convincing them about the mission and vision is key. I believe that having a committed employee is better than just having the best talents.
Twitch Tv was one of the companies that I was looking forward to visiting. Being a gamer myself, I have always been interested to learn more about the business of broadcasting games. Our host gave us a quick tour around their office before we came together for a discussion. Our host shared with us how some of the employees at twitch can be total game fanatics and how has that not affect their performance but instead drive their work rate. In our society, gaming is not viewed as a possible career option at least from a parents point of view. The main reason for Twitch TV's current success is how they have correctly identify the right content for people to stream. This has helped them not only to thrive but also experience hyper-growth. Twitch TV also helps to enhance the quality of games that they broadcast. Their crews work closely with the game developers each month to enhance the gaming experience by using the data collected from their streamers. It was a really interactive session where we get to learn how targeting the right industry and market can help us make money.
BiTorrent - The Apple Game
Twitch TV is a very interesting company bringing a very peculiar concept to the world of gaming by letting people watch gamers play their game and give commentary.
We only used to have video clips of players playing a game on YouTube. I would admit watching them to figure out how to succeed a particular level when I'm stuck. However with twitch you can see it in real time and get the players comment and discuss the game with the players.
The company itself was quite interesting. Made up of people passionate to it's core business model, gaming the staff of twilio are gamers and they also remember to game while working. Being passionate about their games here means that they will dedicate a lot of efforts into making twilio into a good product. I learn that to speak to gamers you have to be a gamer yourself your self fully understand the needs of gamers to fully deliver a product that they want.
At the same time however, we get to see the benefits it brings to other companies such as gaming companies. They get to view how well people enjoy their games and how they can further improve the games.
BitTorrent. BitTorrent is an interesting technology that I started using when I was 15 years old, about ten years ago. BitTorrent was popular after the closure of kazaa similar peer to peer file sharing. However, little is known that BitTorrent has also services that generate revenues.
The company sits on a very interesting technology that has no rivals. In a way it is sitting on a monopoly that has yet to seen a worth rival. I think that's one of the few things that make BitTorrent special.
As all companies, it aims to make money out of its products. For example, bundles. Bundles help artist skip the middle man and directly sell their works to the public. BitTorrent then takes a 10% cut. I think that this is a smart move by them as this way they know that by letting artist sell at a price and directly, many many people will get to purchase it. So the 10% earned from each sale will actually grow. While this move by BitTorrent is smart, as mentioned by Kai however is that the industry and market has yet to see a price point that everyone is willing to pay. BitTorrent has been successful enough to gather big stars into Bundle, they will need to worry about the price that people are willing to pay for songs off the internet. BitTorrent has to find a way to protect itself when the industry finds a price that can be very low. For instance, apple is now charging 99 cents for music, yet according to Kai it’s not a price that consumers are willing to pay.
Starting the day with a hot cup of coffee from Peet’s Coffee & Tea freshens the mind as we headed to our next visit, Twitch.
Twitch gave a different vibe as our host, John Howell, gave us a tour of the office down at 225 Bush Street. Although recently bought over by Amazon, passion and dedication are the words that seem fitting to describe the company as it still retains its goal and shine by remaining committed to its path to better serve the gaming community at large. Being a gamer myself, one can’t help but feel elated at being able to visit this fantastic company. With a giant screen broadcasting live stream from Twitch.tv greeting us right at the doorstep, an introduction to this fun visit was guaranteed.
It was this visit that showed me the real meaning of what it means to do what you truly enjoy, thus making work fun. It also taught me that you have to truly believe and immerse yourself in the product and its environment in order to truly get a firm grasp at what you are actually doing and how it is affecting the world at large.
BitTorrent was a last minute surprise and although I was looking forward to head down to Chinatown and Union Square at this point, I was glad this visit was realized. The interaction between Kai and us was very interactive as we liven up to his open personality and ability to handle our seemingly tough questions. From net neutrality, to BitTorrents products and his job scope, Kai shared his wealth of experience with us regarding his views and expertise on issues relating to his time here in the Valley.
More importantly, for me, it was only today I learnt of Sync, a product of BitTorrent that provides similar function to DropBox, however, the plus point of this product lies in the fact that it is server-less. Relying and building upon BitTorrent’s unique protocol made this possible to eliminate the use of servers, a middleman, and focus solely on the sender and the receiver. This is especially important as unlike DropBox which charges for space, Sync is free since the only space we are using are those of our own machine. This made me think of how important and essential it sometimes is to eliminate the middleman since charges incurred by those services can easily be made free.
I walked away from BitTorrent with a changed perception of what this company is trying to achieve, unlike my past view, thinking that this piece of technology is but a tool of piracy and other vice-related activities, all BitTorrent is trying to achieve is to find better ways to move information and provide better engagement between users. To this end, they have provided a wonderful suite of products and steered clear of knowing what information is sent across. As what our host said, it is not the technology that is evil, but the users and their intention when wielding it that determines it.
Twitch Twitch TV is like p0rn for gamers. Just look at Brandon (Hahaha). But Twitch is one of the startups that made my Singaporean self go, Like that also can ah?. But it seems to work that way that some ideas may seem too simple and seemingly not practical or not sustainable, actually shows growth. And they grow fast. Streaming videos of game plays live became a market by itself and they get to work with some of the bigger names in game development and gaming platforms. The tour in twitch’s office showed us the vibrancy of the working environment of Silicon Valley and or San Francisco.
BitTorrent
BitTorrent Inc, is an interesting company to visit. The BitTorrent protocol is the very foundation of the business and it has undoubtedly changed the world of computing. It harness the power of distributed computing to solve simple (such as file sharing) to some complex problems. For the same reason, it also has a bad reputation because of the protocol is being used for online piracy, for which, is it largely not responsible for. The BitTorrent protocol is open, so much so that the protocol and its client (uTorrent) is being utilised by other software makers to distribute their software or patches. I wouldn’t consider BitTorrent as a startup now, despite that it is once were, largely due to the size of the company now and the scale of the protocol and it’s client software outreach.
Kai Chan, an SMU Business-Finance Major Alumi, is a Data Scientist at BitTorrent and he hosted us at BitTorrent Inc. to give us an insight of BitTorrent’s timeline of events and its current plan. I am quite surprise to learn from him that BitTorrent financial model was very much dependent on the advertisement placed on the installers of the client software and even more surprise to learn from him that even though the likelihood of a person installing the client software following on a placed advertisement is low, the sheer volume of the software installations is more than adequate to keep the company running with a large number of employees. As a Data Scientist, I believe that Kai Chan plays an important role to help sustain the health of the company. However, Kai believe that there are more problems that BitTorrent has to face.
For example, the monetisation model of BitTorrent is not sustainable because of their dependency on ads on installers. If a competitor rises or that their downloads are being of blocked for some reason, their revenue will take a plunge. I am quite please that they decided to finally make good use of their own protocol to create competing softwares and services like Bundle, Sync, Bleep and just recently Maelstrom. I asked why BitTorrent doesn’t simply take full ownership of the protocol and license it out and gets to know that that process is likely to introduce competition protocols and it eventually harm BitTorrent. While BitTorrent is still touching the surface in figuring out on how they could truly gain revenue out of their newer software, as for now, I believe that they are on their right track to make more revenue for the company.Twitch.tv – Filling the market gap
Twitch is one of the novel tech companies. Their service is unparalleled by any other existing video/game streaming services. There was a market gap for video streaming and Justin.tv (former Twitch) was able to fulfill the demands of numerous gamers and game content creators. This clearly shows the reason for success of many tech startups. They identify a market gap and provide original and unique solutions for the users. This is akin to the success of other tech start-ups like PayPal, Facebook, etc. In addition, although twitch office has a culture of gaming the environment at the office seemed professional and serious.
BitTorrent – Lessons for technopreneurs
The company has availed itself from illegal profits and has proven itself as a reputable content distribution service provider on top of the BitTorrent protocol created by it’s founder.
“Engineers just build stuff for the world!” ~ Kai BitTorrent Analyst, SMU Alumni. This is very true. Many a time engineers and developers like scientists, but unlike inventors have the mindset of making the world a better place. Although monetary benefits is part of their agenda, their motive and intention is far greater. This is something that every aspiring technopreneurs should learn. The ultimate goal should be to provide a service to the people who use the technology. Financial goal should be secondary.
BitTorrent’s financial growth is mostly attributed to their mundane but working business model coupled with a strong user base. Although their business model is not a full-proof profit maximizing strategy, BitTorrent is still able to obtain a decant profit as a tech company. This is another valuable lesson for technopreneurs; Focus on the users first and think about monetization later. But, yes, it’ll still be great to have a plausible business model from the beginning.
Twitch
I couldn't contain my excitement when it comes to Twitch; it is a gamers heaven. An avid recreational gamer myself, it was very easy to relate to how interesting it would be to do something you like/love so much as a career. The common phrase that we hear is, "Yes you may have something that you like, but at the end of the day, you have to put food on the dining table". This mentality, even though it is the harsh truth, shouldn't be the barrier that stop us from pursing our passion and yet earning a decent living. Throughout the entire journey, our host kept emphasising on the word "Passion", which is a rare term to hear that associates employees with their companies. Everyone in the company plays games and the culture is very unique. On some days, they may even spend 70% of their time playing some form of games without much worry of their backs. This is the exact reason of why the company is so successful. What better way to test out your system then to use it yourself in the shoe of an actual customer? One of the most interesting aspect of the company is that they provide a platform for their clients (the gaming companies such as EA, Blizzard, etc) to gain immediate and 'real-life' feedback on their games by simply tuning in to the channels. With this, the companies are able to spot the flaws/mistakes and put out the fire before it even escalates. All this is done without having to actually conduct the analytics on the data and send them over to their clients, which makes the entire process much more efficient. At the end of the day, every time we talk past a employee, their eyes sparkle with passion when they talk about their work or company. They have a great sense of pride in what they do and are very eager to serve the entire gaming community all over the world, It was truly an extraordinary experience.
BitTorrent Torrent: a word that everyone loves but the governments/distributors hate. What really intrigued me is how the technology works. The founder actually broke out of the conventional way of simple FTP in order to provide a faster way of file transferring. By breaking the file into chunks and storing them with various downloaders' computer, they saved on the cost of holding servers and also the cost of maintaining a cloud database. One of their quote is "How can you data in the cloud go missing if there is no cloud?". With the rampant of questions targeting towards safe and secure file transferring, their solution of allowing anonymous file sharing (BitTorrent Sync) will be a great hit especially with those who are severely concerned about their privacy. Interestingly, our host is also from Singapore Management University (SMU) with a double major in Finance and Corporate Communications. However, he realised that what he does not benefit the greater good of a bigger population, and as a result he decided to be a data scientist instead and pick up the ropes as he moves along. It is very interesting to talk to him to find out more about how manage to conduct a career switch for different industries, and this is something we don't get from most Asians. Furthermore, the entire company is very open-minded and they encourage initiative and innovation to drive results. Good ideas will be sincerely considered by the Senior Executives and this encourages employees to take part more in the company and have a sense of purpose in their company.
Twitch
Twitch is an online game streaming company. It is amazing the amount of money a successful broadcaster can make, roughly 6 digits figure per year. According to the host, one of the reasons to become a successful broadcaster is to have a fixed schedule which will help to build up a base of subscribers. The subscribers will generate a one-time fixed profit for the broadcasters.
Twitch was started because there is a lack of specialised platform to stream and view live online games. Thus, the founder proceeded to create this specialised platform for people who have similar interest as him. Essentially, the founder was solving a problem that had no solution at the point of time and thus decided to come up with the solution with his team. “Solving a real problem” is the reason why many startups were founded.
Twitch earns its revenues by forming partnerships with gaming companies. This is a win-win situation for both Twitch and gaming companies. Twitch offers the gaming companies the exposure of its gameplay while the gaming companies offer a fee for Twitch for advertising and promoting its games. Twitch has a very fun and happy culture. People in the Twitch are passionate about online games and play the games with their colleagues during work. I believe one of the reasons why Twitch becomes successful is because everyone in the company has the same belief that viewing live online games is interesting and most people will never be tired of games.
Lastly, I will like to quote the host “People who play online games 3 days per week are not weird. People who go play outdoor sports 3 days per week are weird.” Essentially, Twitch is changing the norm of how the society views gamers and people who are interested in viewing live online games.
BitTorrent
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer sharing protocol that allows the distribution of the large files over the internet. The users are able to download the torrents from Pirate Bay with a BitTorrent client such as uTorrent. During the discussion with the host Kai, he talked about his own background, his role in BitTorrent, his working experience in BitTorrent, the technology behind the BitTorrent, the new products of BitTorrent, the monetisation policy of BitTorrent and the reason why BitTorrent was founded.
I am particularly amazed by Kai background. He studied business in SMU. When he graduated, he worked in a bank in Singapore for some time. He then did a master in fictional writing in US. He paid off his school fee by playing online poker with the aid of statistical tools. After graduation, he founded his fictional app startup before joining a tabloid and blog firm in US. He then self-learn MySQL , passed the BitTorrent job interview and got his BitTorrent data analysis job that he currently holds now.
Personally, I feel the reason he got the BitTorrent job is because he is an all-rounder. Also, he has strong statistical and forecasting skills due to his finance major in SMU and the online poker experience with the statistical tool. This in turn made it easier for him to learn and master MySQL which is an essential skill for his current data analysis job.
Next, he mentioned that BitTorrent was founded as the founder wants to make it easier for people to share large files over the internet. Essentially, the founder’s motive is to “contribute to the world”. This explains the BitTorrent poor monetisation policy that it currently has.
This culture is very different from Singapore as most people always put their monetary interest before other matters. As a result, Singaporeans do not really want to do a startup to solve a problem that the world has due to risk of losing money. This explains why there are few startups and even lesser successful startups.
As for the technology, he mentioned that BitTorrent makes use of the map-reduce algorithm to allow the sharing of files. Essentially, the data is divided into chunks which will be distributed to all the seeders. When the consumer downloads a file, he or she will retrieve the different chunks of data from the seeders. As such, the download speed is directly correlated with the number of seeders.
He also mentioned about the new products such as Sync. Unlike dropbox, the data is not stored in clouds. Thus, there will be no data lost in the cloud. Another new feature of BitTorrent is that uTorrent will allow downloading and streaming of torrents simultaneously. This will be useful for consumers who want to watch a movie as the torrent is being downloaded.
Lastly, he mentioned that despite the poor monetisation policy, BitTorrent continues to be successful and profitable due to its vast amount of users. BitTorrent mainly earns its revenues through advertisements and premium accounts.
I feel that BitTorrent will be around in the foreseeable future as there are more and more people who download ebooks, music and movies for their leisure purposes, be it legal or illegal.
