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“Esports is being contorted right from birth” by Google and Amazon, says Azubu CEO
Livestreaming site Azubu still has a long way to go before it can challenge Twitch or YouTube for their domination of the game streaming market, but company CEO Ian Sharpe is not shy about criticizing the way the Amazon and Google owned platforms are shaping the industry. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Sharpe talked about Azubu’s current place in the market, and how it plans on shaking up the video game livestreaming model.
“The North American and European market is so heavily dominated by Twitch and YouTube, they’re easy stories,” Sharpe said. “Not many people champion the underdog, we have to punch above our weight and we have to do something particularly innovative and cool to get noticed.”
Rather than challenging Twitch or YouTube by going after the average streamer or Let’s Player, Azubu is specifically targeting the esports industry. Azubu is especially interested in offering a streaming platform that is custom-tailored for professional gamers.
“The essence of the strategy is that compared to Twitch where Kevin [Lin] stood up at an event recently and said there are 11,000 broadcasters with us who are making at least minimum wage, that’s not the full potential of this industry,” Sharpe said. “We want to enable streamers to have a range of revenue streams at their disposal so that they can sustain themselves as entertainers and players in addition to the tournaments that we can open up streaming to something a bit more deep than a stream with some chat.”
Sharpe called out the direction in which esports has currently been molded by the larger companies, saying that the industry is being manufactured to fit an agenda.
“Esports is being contorted right from birth,” he said. “When you’ve got Google (YouTube) and Amazon (Twitch) and Riot (League of Legends) and Valve (Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) – less Valve because they’re letting it grow organically – but when it’s being manufactured… There’s something unholy – unholy is too strong but you know what I mean – it’s not real. And it should be because these are people’s careers and livelihoods.”
photo credit: IMG_0331 via photopin (license)
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