1415T1g1 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/Reflection/9 Dec
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.
