Kick Streaming is A Modern Day Snake Oil Salesman

In George Orwell’s haunting fable Animal Farm, a community of farm animals band together to oust the cruel and corrupt Farmer Jones, and take control of the farm themselves. The farm is to be run by the animals, for the animals, under their decree, “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Over time, the pigs of the farm quietly assume full control, allocating the vast majority of the farm’s resources to themselves, built on the backs of the rest of the animals that toil away day in and day out. At the story’s end, the pigs now stand on two legs, consorting with the humans they once called corrupt, and to the rest of the animals, “it was impossible to say which was which.”

Every day, Kick starts to look more and more like Animal Farm to me. 

If you’re new to the “Streaming Wars” saga taking place between the established Twitch and relative newcomer Kick, you aren’t alone. In recent weeks, the rivalry has intensified to such an extent that even the streamers themselves are coming to blows depending on which side they’ve taken. 

And it’s not without reason. Twitch, owned by Amazon, has come increasingly under fire for its tone deaf policy shifts, unfair payout splits, and a complete lack of transparency when it comes to their decision making process. At the beginning of June, Twitch was blasted for changing their policy surrounding third-party sponsorships without warning, essentially restricting how and when streamers could collaborate with potential sponsors to generate revenue outside of the platform. The outrage prompted a quick return to heel by Twitch, which reversed the policy change within 24 hours, citing in a tweet that the policy was “bad for you and bad for Twitch.” 

And when it comes to revenue, Twitch has been under fire for years. In 2021 they rolled back the 70/30 split for Partnered streamers that had been grandfathered into the old model, and have continued to remain mum on the demand for a fairer split for creators. Following over a week of bad press from the recent sponsorship policy snafu, Twitch rolled out an update stating that the top 0.1% of streamers on the platform would have a chance to earn 70/30 on all subscription revenue for a 3 month period, up to $100,000. Streamers, rightfully, blasted the move as tone deaf considering the heat they were under, and the rapidity at which Kick was capitalizing on Twitch’s shortcomings and poaching some of their biggest streamers. Within the span of 72 hours, Kick announced non-exclusive streaming deals with both xQc and Amouranth. Though the terms of Amouranth’s deal have not been disclosed, it was clearly enough to pull her away from Twitch where she has well north of 6 million followers. xQc on the other hand, landed a $100 million deal; he’s making more than LeBron James. 

Which leads us to the origins of the new kid in town sporting the lime green.

Kick is a streaming platform co-founded by Ed Craven, the owner of crypto gambling site Stake.com. Kick markets itself as being created “by streamers, for streamers,” and boasts a slew of features that seemingly prove this to be true. Kick offers its streamers a 95/5 revenue split on every subscription a streamer earns, far more than Twitch’s meager and controversial 50/50 cut. Kick also boasts same-day payouts, which is certainly a game changer for content creators trying to earn a living full time. Most importantly however, Kick offers more lax rules than Twitch. Gambling, which Twitch banned from its own platform, is one of Kick’s top categories. In fact, streamer Trainwreck, an unofficial spokesman for Kick, left Twitch following the gambling ban and has been a staple on Kick ever since. 

Higher payout, lax rules, and an ownership that claims to be “for the streamer,” sounds like a dream come true for anyone looking to make a name for themselves in content creation. Surely then, what could be bad about this? What could possibly be bad about streamers being in control of their own income, through their own work? Even the animals of Animal Farm enjoyed the fruits of their labors following their rebellion: 

“The animals were happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master.” (Orwell)

Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s my experience being duped before when I was desperate, maybe it’s just knowing my own level of naivete, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that if it sounds too good to be true, I assure you, it most certainly is. And it doesn’t take x-ray vision to look closely at Kick and see it for what it is: lipstick on a pig. 

The first glimpse under the veil can be found right on Kick’s front page. The “Slots and Casino” category is routinely in the top 3 categories being streamed at any given time. At the time of this writing, it has 20k viewers more than the next most viewed category, “Just Chatting.” In general, online gambling has generated a decent level of controversy, since it increases the likelihood of exposure to younger audiences. In fact, when clicking into one of the gambling streams, there was no disclaimer, no pop up, no warning whatsoever about the nature of the content I was about to view or take part in. That was the case for many other streams I clicked through in multiple categories, whether it was Call of Duty or “Pools, Hot Tubs, and Bikinis.” Conversely, on Twitch, streamers can both individually flag their channel as 18+, and more recently, Twitch has implemented a slew of new categories that will automatically pop up when a viewer clicks in, requesting that they acknowledge that the content they’re about to view is for adult audiences. 

While the new category policy is recent for Twitch, there were still policies in place to protect younger viewers and the streamers themselves, referenced above. This seems like a pretty substantial oversight on Kick, and gambling is the least of the reasons why. There have been several reported instances of creators streaming pornography on the platform, and even some that have actively been having sex on stream. Most notably, controversial streamer Adin Ross showed adult videos during a livestream, and when asked about it after the fact, noted that he did it simply “to flex that I could do it, to show that I could do it.” He was not banned and received no penalties for it.

While Kick claims to be enforcing policies against this level of content, it does beg the question why the policy doesn’t seem to apply to its larger streamers. Within days of Kick’s blockbuster signing of xQc to a $100 million non exclusive deal to stream on the platform, the streamer was broadcasting episodes of Breaking Bad as well as full length movies, such as The Dark Knight. xQc received little more than an in-stream warning, and a temporary “shadow ban” in that his content was not featured on Kick’s front page, but otherwise has been widely unscathed. Similarly, no punishments have come to Adin Ross, or Heelmike (aside from a 24 hour ban), nothing more than a warning or a slap on the wrist. I can only surmise that in an effort to remain trending and keep up the high publicity, which in turn lures in more streamers, Kick’s ownership simply looks the other way. Why bring down their fist if they don’t have to? What’s good for me and what’s good for thee, are not always the same. 

The pigs of Animal Farm began to take greater rations of apples and milk that the other animals had worked so hard to produce. Why were they above the law that the animals of the farm had fought so hard to build upon?

“Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink the milk and eat those apples.” (Orwell)

At its core, Kick is a platform that lacks an ethical foundation. Beyond a straightforward TOS which CEO Craven claimed is merely, “no pornography, no hate speech,” enforcement seems nonexistent. Perhaps it stems from a lack of identity, or perhaps that is ultimately the identity Kick has chosen for itself; the “wild west” of livestreams, a “new world” where you can stake your claim, lawless as it may be. Perhaps in presenting itself as a nearly identical copy of Twitch with the same UI, all in lime green, it can provide a sense of familiarity to creators hesitating to make the switch. Perhaps, despite having just a fraction of Twitch’s viewership, but suspiciously high view counts believed to be paid bots, Kick can convince the masses that the grass is, quite literally, greener on the other side. 

To be transparent: I’m a streamer myself, and I’ve been streaming on Twitch since 2020. I’ve made a lot of friends, established a small, vibrant community, and experienced my share of frustration with the platform. Twitch is by no means the golden goose in this situation; they’ve shot themselves in the foot time and time again, and consistently prove how little they understand the streamer mindset and desire for sustainable growth and income. That, or they just don’t care. But Twitch, for all its flaws, is the devil you know. The devil with clear content moderation, expectations, enforcement, and protections. I’m not saying Twitch is the only option for streamers, or that it should be. What I am saying, is that whatever platform you do stream from, you are an indirect representative. Make sure that it reflects your values, whatever that may be. 

Ultimately, in my mind, Kick is not sustainable. Though Craven insists that the 95/5 revenue model will never change, the platform as it stands, will never be profitable. With the likes of Ross, xQc, and Heelmike dancing to the beat of their own drum, it’s hard to imagine any brands having an interest in running ads on Kick. If Kick wants to be profitable, it must market itself and become appealing to brands like Progressive, Disney, and Taco Bell. Until Kick is willing to bring the hammer down and moderate its content with intent, and demand a standard of conduct from its top streamers, it’s hard to envision seeing a “Cheesy Gordita Crunch” ad the next time I pass through a Kick stream. And with advertising being the chief source of revenue for most online social media platforms, Kick will continue to operate at a loss. And with the amount of spending they’re doing to bring in top talent, that loss margin only widens. Even Twitch, with its massively higher level of daily users and consistent ad revenue, has conceded that they’ve been operating at a loss for years. I don’t see Kick flipping the script on that anytime soon, circumstances being what they are. 

If I’m wrong about any of this down the line, then I’m wrong. I’m a big kid, I can take my lashes when I need to. But I don’t think I’m wrong. 

My advice to streamers considering the switch, is this: consider the reasons you want to switch. Consider what you may inadvertently represent, regardless of which platform you stream on. Consider if it’s about the money (if it is, you shouldn’t be streaming anyway). Consider how you want to grow in the future, and what that means for you and your brand. Ask yourself the hard questions, and be confident in the answers, because Twitch won’t answer them for you, and Kick isn’t even sure what the questions are.  They’re too busy trying to sell you a product that was never meant to work for you. 

“Besides, in those days [before the rebellion] they had been slaves and now they were free, and that made all the difference, as Squealer [the propagandist] did not fail to point out.” (Orwell)