Twitch.tv: description of the site and its functions

Twitch.tv is an American streaming site mostly regarding computer game and in a lesser degree – music events. The site offers both watching streams and requested videos which are placed in the archive of the site.

Besides, twitch.tv is the most popular streaming platform for tournaments and esports competitions.  Every day Twitch.tv is visited by millions of users who can upload their video material on the service. In case of video being popular and presence of a big number of views, a user gets a partner status which lets them get a part of money from the channel income. Nowadays the quantity of constants players using a channel for streaming their battles reaches approximately fifteen millions a month and is growing during the time. A number of constant users visiting the server reaches forty millions. At the moment the resource belongs to the American giant Amazon, alway getting improved and receiving more and more subscribers.

Availability

To watch a video on the site, you do not need to sign up. Registration is only necessary for posting there a stream or your video. The site is available at any device using a browser: computer, laptop or smartphone. Another ability is using of the app livestreamer, which lets you watch video content on the site without using any browser in VLC.

Structure of the site

The site has a rather easy structure. Entering the site, the following points are seen:

• Discover;
• Browse;
• Try Prime;

Additional menu (…) – a sign where a window pops up while pointing at the sign, pressing the button a long line of additional points appears:

• General – includes sub-sections blog, jobs, download apps, store, partners, press, developers, advertisers.
• Help and Legal – concerns the main rules of the site and safety.
• Field for entering search requests. On the right from the search there is a figure of a white two-dimensional crown which could be pressed and then you can learn more about the additional services offered by the platform. Usually there is a number under the crown indicating the quantity of of new offers.

In the middle of the screen there is a modelling tool of video streams of the channels from the whole world with the most popular users in different games (Dota 2, CS:GO, Call of duty, Halo 5). Scrolling the channels placed on the central screen with the help of arrows «right» «left». The quality of the picture is good, volume is good, video doesn’t freeze up. The only reason of delay of the picture is problems with streaming to the player’s device. It has happened several times while testing by the author of the article. Apart from the video, on the right there is information about the player whose video stream is held on the main screen.

At the lower part of the main page, under the screen of the online stream, there are recommended channels depending on the category and games. The most popular channels are those which are connected with Dota 2 gaming.

What can you watch on the site Twitch.tv?

The site Twitch.tv offers a big choice of videos which mostly concerns computer games. A big number of streams is held in English as the biggest part of the audience of the site are native English speakers. Here you can often find gamers from Australia, Canada, the USA and other countries. But of course you can find channels in Russian. So, a Russian speaking user can get interested in the channel of the Russian site «Igromania», from the studio placed in a flat in Moscow. Guys discuss some aspects of the gaming process, including updates of the world rating,  specifics of passing some levels of games, advantages and disadvantages of the graphics, and also many other issues.

The site collaborated with the world leaders of the gaming world so there are streams of the conferences devoted to video games, streams of matches of the world esports champions. It actively collaborates with the site and Electronic Entertainment Expo, and also with International (Dota 2), so on the site we can see the most interesting  matches of popular Dota 2 tournaments.

Is it possible to make money with Twitch.tv streams?

Actually, yes, if you play well or you can comment in a very interesting way. However, there are many contributing factors which can define whether your stream on Twitch.tv will be popular or not. For example, an attractive girl telling about the gaming process in Resident Evil will gather a bigger audience having the online stream than a very good gamer, but bold and overweight.

In total, we need to say that for earning money with streams you should have a special thing which can attract people to the video among thousands of other videos on the site. Besides, gaming process in Dota 2 will attract more viewers than, for example, to GTA (popularity pick happened a long time ago).

Conclusion

The site Twitch.tv is pretty easy to use, it has a useful interface, it doesn’t contain any fancy unnecessary instruments. Combination of light colors (white, violet, and blue) do not cause harm to eyes, relax and focus your sight on the dark background where the video is being translated online. You can see that the main purpose of the developers was showing a video material. The site is created for watching videos, gamers who like streams of the main battles of their favorite game. Should you sign up? It will not be harmful, but also it will not be useful. Of course, if you do not want to have your own streams which could be successful due to the factors mentioned above. You do not need high speed for watching the content, the quality of the picture is set due to the Internet connection. There is a full screen mode. Fans of video games will find there an endless choice of videos. You can recommend this site to game fans, including Russian speaking.