Kick has been making some serious wave in the world of livestreaming lately. From signing popular content creators like xQc, FouseyTube, Corinna Kopf, and YourRage, to its generous revenue split of 95/5 (95% to creators, 5% to the platform), Kick has quickly become a major competitor for livestreaming giants like Twitch and Youtube in the past few months. Now, Kick is taking it up a notch with its Creator Incentive Program, which promises its enrolled content creators that they will be receiving a salary, accompanied by their existing revenue, to continuously livestream on the platform. This is the first time that not just a live-streaming platform, but a social media platform, has implemented a program that directly pays creators through a salary, and many are praising Kick for this innovative way at retaining and supporting its creators who are looking to generate revenue by streaming.
What is Kick?
Kick first started gaining attention at the tail-end of 2022 due several Tweets made by popular streaming personality, Trainwreckstv, mentioning a platform in the works meant to rival Twitch, the current largest live-streaming platform. On December 5, 2022, Trainwrecks posted a platform update Twitlonger, which revealed that the platform name was Kick and that the platform would give its live-streamers a 95/5 revenue split in favor of creators, and give creators 100% of all the tips that they receive. The post also said that there would be a program at Kick that would pay out its creators a guaranteed, steady income based on the total hours watched and total viewers on their channel.
Kick then launched the beta version of the platform in January of 2023, with a mobile app version for Apple and Android following shortly after in March. Since then, Kick has made some impressive progress, and a lot of that is due to its major pickups with content creators as well as its continuous support, both financially and morally, of its content creators. With a generous split, several other streamer incentive programs, and attentive staff, many seem to think that Kick is the ultimate rival for Twitch. Many platforms, like Mixer, have come and gone, attempting to take the crown from Twitch in the livestreaming industry, but Kick seems to be one of its actual top contenders, along with Youtube and now possibly Rumble.
As of July 2023, Kick now has over 12 million active monthly users. The platform is co-founded by live-streamer Trainwreckstv, who is the public face, as well as Ed Craven, who is a co-founder of the crypto casino and sports betting website, Stake.
Kick’s Genius Influencer Deals
Although Kick’s innovative features are one of its main selling points, the company has also been extremely strategic with its business deals with influencers. For the past few months, Kick has been adamant on establishing a strong streamer base, signing multiple big name streamers from its competitor Twitch through highly lucrative deals. The platform has spent millions of dollars to bring on some of gaming and livestreaming’s biggest names, one of which is xQc.
Welcome to the Kick Family @xQc 💚 pic.twitter.com/dDuHSVneVx
— Kick.com (@KickStreaming) June 16, 2023
On June 16, 2023, Kick announced that it had signed Twitch’s most popular live-streamer, xQc, with a two-year, $100 million contract. xQc, who is arguably the biggest video game live-streamer in the world, consistently holds an average viewership of 50K+ viewers and has over 11.9M followers on Twitch. In just under 24 hours after that announcement went live, over a million new users had joined the platform.
That’s just one of the many influencer deals that Kick has done recently. Some other major content creators that Kick has signed include FouseyTube, Corinna Kopf from David Dobrik’s Vlog Squad, YourRage, Adin Ross, BruceDropEmOff, Dr. Disrespect, Destiny, and Amouranth. With all of these content creators already having such established fanbases, Kick has been able to convert the viewership over from Twitch and other platforms to spike the number of active users.
Is Twitch Falling Behind?
Twitch is currently the most used video live-streaming platform within the content creation space, with over 140 million active monthly users and 7.58 million active streamers. Originally meant as a video game live-streaming platform, Twitch has transformed into a go-to hub for live entertainment of all genres, with some popular, non-gaming categories on their site being Just Chatting, Music, Slots, and Travel & Outdoors.
Despite its esteemed reputation in the social media world, the platform has been under fire for months regarding their changes in policies and new features that were not resonating well with content creators. Another one of the main critiques that viewers and streamers alike had with the platform was the site’s lack of creator monetization and discoverability. Twitch’s current revenue split is at 50/50 for a majority of its streamers, with streamers being subject to fees on any revenue made from paid subscriptions, gifted subscriptions, bit donations, and advertisements.
However, it’s clear that Twitch has felt the heat. In June of 2023, Twitch announced that it will be launching a Partner Plus Program on October 1st of the same year, which is meant to better monetization for its creators by bumping up the revenue split of subscriptions from 50/50 to 70/30. Although some praised Twitch for finally listening to user complaints, many were quick to realize that there were some major catches. The first was that to qualify for the Partner Plus Program, live-streamers must have at least 350 paid subscriptions on their channel for three consecutive months, which is a criteria that only 2.5%, or around 1000, streamers meet. The second catch was that the program would only pay out creators once they reach $100K, which many streamers have openly criticized.
Many live-streamers have moved away from Twitch to competitors like Youtube, Kick, and Rumble, which all house better revenue splits for their content creators. With influencer revenues fluctuating from month-to-month, it’s not a surprise that many of them want to move to platforms that provide a bit more money security. That’s where Kick has really revolutionized the game.
Kick’s Creator Incentive Program
Kick has long since promised creators job security through the implementation of creator monetization methods. Like Trainwrecks mentioned in his initial Twitter post, Kick has been working on a program that pays out its streamers a steady salary in exchange for their content creation. On August 14, 2023, it was finally launched with an announcement welcoming its First Class of creators to the program.
“The greatest days of live streaming are still to come.
The greatest live content is still to be produced.
The greatest streamers are still yet to do their first stream.” – EddieThis is The First Class of the Kick Creator Incentive Program. pic.twitter.com/FGz9vAUBJH
— KickCommunity (@KickCommunity) August 14, 2023
The Creator Incentive Program is an effort by the Kick team to ensure that its content creators, no matter big or small, are able to earn a steady income while pursuing their dreams of full-time content creation. The Creator Program provides each enrolled influencer a steady income so that they can focus on bettering their streams without having to worry about making a living wage. This is to encourage streamers to focus on creating fresh content for their viewers and building up their own communities.
This program is the first of its kind in not just live-streaming, but in all of social media and the creator economy. With content creators now promised a living wage, they are able to focus their efforts on bettering their content for their communities. The requirements to enroll in the program are not yet released, but it seems as though a high viewer count or follower count is not required, as many of the streamers are relatively smaller content creators. The Creator Incentive Program is still a work in progress over at Kick with criteria still subject to change, likely after the first group of creators have completed their run.
The Future of Content Monetization
The demand is only going to keep rising for content monetization as more content creators transition into being full-time influencers. With influencer marketing evolving rapidly and becoming increasingly important to the marketing strategy of businesses, content creators need to ensure that they are being properly paid for their work. At Glewee, influencers are able to take control of their content monetization by having an all-in-one platform where they can set their rates, find brand deals, and negotiate with brands for paid collaborations. Learning how to monetize your content creation is crucial, and Glewee has all the tools, resources, and support you need to help you do it effectively. Download Glewee today and start monetizing your influence!
