Stop Twitch from stealing from their creators!

Stop Twitch from stealing from their creators!

Started
February 8, 2022
Petition to
Signatures: 1,092Next Goal: 1,500
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Why this petition matters

Started by Bella Hue

Creators and streamers on Twitch love what they do and a lot of the streamers rely on their income from Twitch as their passive income to pay their bills. Our supporters donate subs and send bits and subscribe to support the creator and their content. It’s very hard to do well on Twitch when it comes to gaining an income because Twitch takes a whole 50% of Affiliates income and 30% of Partners! That’s absolutely crazy…. It shouldn’t be more than 30% of what OUR supporters are sending to the creator, also why do partners make more than affiliates, we're both putting in the work with the same end goal? Let’s fix this because it’s not okay.

"YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming both pay their contracted / monetized Creators 70%+ of the recurring subscription value that they generate. With Facebook Gaming specifically, Creators are paid 100% of the sub revenue generated (confirmed until 2023, but Zuck has formally stated the revenue split ratio will be favourable after 2023 too!):

"To help more creators make a living on our platforms, we're going to keep paid online events, fan subscriptions, badges, and our upcoming independent news products free for creators until 2023. And when we do introduce a revenue share, it will be less than the 30% that Apple and others take." - Mark Zuckerberg

Twitch does pay Partnered Creators 70% of sub revenue on the standard Partner contract (larger streamers can often negotiate custom contracts) but here's the kicker... AFFILIATE CREATORS GET JUST 50% OF SUB REVENUE ON TWITCH.

Every. Single. Affiliate.

Why is this? Is it fair?

What is fundamentally different about the work that a Twitch Partner does in comparison to a Twitch Affiliate?

___THE PROBLEM___

It is a well-known fact that since gifted subs were introduced in 2018 on Twitch, direct donation revenue to Creators on the platform dropped significantly (quotes and estimates as high as a 75-90% fewer direct donations). The introduction of subscriptions and gifted subs has benefitted communities greatly via more inclusiveness, convenience, added value, and a sense of positive community and culture. But is this enough to justify the drop in share of earnings for Creators?

There's another side to the story here; by virtue of a viewer being compelled to sub to a channel, Twitch directly benefits via growth, critical mass, increased ad revenue, and many other ways including Twitchcon revenue, and broadcasting rights etc. 

Twitch also gets the direct revenue of subscriptions .... 30% from most Partnered Creators and 50% from ALL Affiliated Creators. 

The ad revenue for most streamers, especially Affiliates, is pittance in comparison to other ad-centric platforms. Twitch pay a flat fee to their Creators which is **significantly** lower than other ad-share platforms, and allegedly represents revenue share more along the 9:1 or 20:1 ratio (not 50% or 70% like with subscriptions!).

Twitch are not forthcoming with their advertisement revenue model, or their ad revenue share model, and do not share detailed information with Affiliates besides a flat (not variable...) ad revenue fee.

This means, if Twitch sells adverts on your content for a higher value, only the platform benefits (not the Creator). Many other platforms have a variable rate that flexes with ad stock and ad demand. 

So along with reducing the volume of direct donations to Creators by taking control using subscriptions, Twitch has an unfavourable advertisement deal with Creators, and an unfair arrangement so far as subscriptions are concerned, particularly for Affiliates. 

You do not own your own broadcasting rights for the first 24 hours (Twitch have an Exclusivity period of 24 hours). 

Paying all Creators 70% seems like a reasonable and fair request. 

___THE RATIONALE___

An Affiliate works no less harder to earn a viewer sub commitment than a Partner does, or a YouTube Gaming / Facebook Gaming Creator. The economic inequality here, and commercial model, is insane; there are over 1 million *ACTIVE* Affiliates who have no real choice (on Twitch) but to give up that 50% of revenue until they reach Partner status (something which is also not guaranteed for a variety of reasons, including the Partner Team simply declining the application even if Partner prerequisites, shown here, are hit). 

Most Partners would back the cause to pay Creators equally. 

Affiliates on Twitch make up a massive portion of overall broadcaster content and outnumber Partners by more than **twentyfold** in terms of raw Affiliate numbers. Affiliates also represent value in terms of innovation, unique selling points (USP) and broadcast traffic on Twitch. They are the talent of tomorrow, and they are the seed communities that bind Twitch and it’s beautiful culture. 

Affiliates are also a big portion of the actual AUDIENCE on Twitch, whom also give generously to other Affiliates at a loss of 50% margin. 

Taking 50% of the revenue split is completely unjustifiable. It's greedy. It represents an injustice to those Creators who are working often just as hard as Partnered Creators or those on other platforms, on their content and in building loyalty with their audience. 

An Affiliate Creator should not be penalised just because a viewer choses to subscribe to their content, instead of a Partnered Creator. 

This *needs* to change. Twitch *needs* to ACT. 

__YOUR ACTION___

***Please sign this petition to support economic equality between Partners and Affiliates on Twitch.*** 

It doesn’t matter if you’re a Viewer, Affiliate, Partner, or even a Creator on another platform. The injustice here is plain to see and the vast Affiliate community on Twitch NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Please take a second to sign the petition! 

If you're feeling really strong about this, please also consider spreading the word by SHARING this post on your social media profiles - especially on Discord and Twitter. 

Twitch - listen to your USP, your bread and butter, the talent of tomorrow and your lifeblood - pay your Creators fairly. That’s a reasonable thing to do. Do the right thing." -MachineDaena

 

-UPDATE-

Partners still get hit with losing 50% of their income, you have to have a consistent 1,000+ unique (non-gifted) subs to even negotiate anything less! Thank you Cam for the updated information!

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Signatures: 1,092Next Goal: 1,500
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