Emmett Shear, CEO of Amazon.com-owned Twitch, announced his resignation as CEO on Thursday after more than 16 years at the live video streaming network he co-founded.
President Dan Clancy, who has been with Twitch since 2019, will take over as CEO immediately, Shear said in a blog post, adding that he would continue to serve as an adviser.
Twitch, which has seen online celebrities like Tyler “Ninja” Johnson earn millions of dollars playing games and chatting with fans, has come under fire in recent months for reducing the amount of money its biggest streamers could earn from subscriptions, which earlier amounted to as much as 70 percent of revenue from fans’ subscriptions to their channels.
According to media sources, Constance Knight, the company’s head of global creative, also departed the corporation last year.
The strategy was subsequently changed in September, when the firm stated that its top creators would be able to keep their 70 percent revenue share for the first $100,000 (roughly Rs. 82 lakh) generated before splitting to the usual 50 percent share.
“We began working on live video for the internet in October 2006. Twitch was born from this. “I’m now a father and ready to move on in my life after more than 16 years,” Shear tweeted on Thursday.
Shear co-founded Justin.tv, which later became Twitch, in 2011 and immediately gained popularity in the gaming industry by allowing spectators to communicate with players and each other during live play.
Amazon bought it three years later for slightly under $1 billion. (nearly Rs. 8,300 crore).
Prior to joining Twitch, incoming CEO Clancy held leadership positions at NASA, Nextdoor, and Google.
