What Twitch and esports can teach us about building successful media companies

From a 2011 spinoff of Justin.tv to a $1 billion acquisition by Amazon in 2014, Twitch has taken over esports viewing and led the growth of the broader live streaming market. At the time of the acquisition, many people outside of gaming and media had never heard of Twitch and were surprised that Amazon would pay $1 billion for it.

Nevertheless, esports and live-streaming have been growing into big businesses. Media companies such as ESPN, TBS, and YouTube, Yahoo are announcing esports coverage both online and on TV, and social media companies like Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter are making investments in live-streaming and coverage of live events.