Twitch CEO clarifies if Kick actually makes them money by using Amazon’s services

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has opened up in an interview, discussing claims that new rival platform Kick indirectly “makes Twitch money”.

Gaming and live streaming platform Kick is only increasing in popularity, with many content creators making the switch from Twitch. Big names who have already made the move include the likes of ‘xQc’ and ‘Amouranth’, with many others seemingly not too far behind.

Boasting the most generous sub-revenue split amongst streaming platforms, Kick offers 95% of earnings directly to streamers, compared to Twitch’s 50% cut. However, there has been a lot of discussion surrounding whether the rival platform is actually making Twitch money by using Amazon’s services.

Now, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has seemingly cleared things up in a new interview with Jake Lucky.

In a live stream on Clancy’s Twitch account, ‘DJClancy’, Lucky asked the CEO directly on whether “Kick makes Twitch money.”

He was referring to Kick using Amazon-owned web services (AWS) — Amazon being the same company that acquired Twitch in 2014. A former Amazon engineer previously claimed that Kick was “subsidizing” Twitch by paying Amazon for their streaming service, sparking debate on the topic.

But Clancy didn’t agree with these claims. “The simple answer is it doesn’t make Twitch money,” Clancy responded to Lucky’s question. He went on to explain, “AWS is not part of Twitch… IVS is a service of AWS, it was built off of Twitch and Kick is using them right now.”

“Ultimately that is the best way to compete and that’s how AWS works in all lines of business,” Clancy concluded.

It seems, for now, the debate can be put to rest, with Kick streamers able to rest assured that their revenue isn’t directly supporting any rival platforms.

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