New technologies are changing the leisure activities of young people. Today, most forms of entertainment are on the internet, and this has been successfully embraced by different platforms.

Twitch is the world’s largest streaming platform. Every day, thousands of young people connect to follow streamers on different topics, from the most popular ones, video game streaming, to music and sports, or simply chats where thousands of people interact with a streamer, discussing a topic they are passionate about. The ability to interact with a person who is speaking to thousands of people gives it an appeal that few other mediums have.

Twitch was founded in 2011 and bought by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million, that is some €820 million. Since Amazon purchased it, Twitch has continued to grow, capitalizing on the huge success of eSports around the world.

Today, Twitch’s influence is so great that it controls more than 75% of the live broadcasting market. The platform has 17.5 million daily visitors, and more than 4 million people generate content on it every month.

Twitch arouses as much interest among young people as the emergence of television or other mass media did in the past. Twitch is becoming the platform of a future that has already arrived.

Posted by Juan M. Corchado

Juan Manuel Corchado (15 May 1971, Salamanca, Spain) is Professor at the University of Salamanca. He has been Vice-Rector for Research from 2013 to 2017 and Director of the Science Park of the University of Salamanca. Elected as Dean of the Faculty of Science twice, he holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Salamanca and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of the West of Scotland. He leads the renowned BISITE (Bioinformatics, Intelligent Systems and Educational Technology) Research Group, created in 2000. Director of the IoT Digital Innovation Hub and President of the AIR Institute, J. M. Corchado is also Visiting Professor at the Osaka Institute of Technology since January 2015, Visiting Professor at the Universiti Malaysia Kelantan and Member of the Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda of the European Counter Terrorism Centre (EUROPOL). J. M. Corchado has been president of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, and academic coordinator of the University Institute for Research in Art and Animation Technology at the University of Salamanca, as well as researcher at the Universities of Paisley (UK), Vigo (Spain) and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK). He currently combines all his activity with the direction of Master programmes in Security, Digital Animation, Mobile Telephony, Information Systems Management, Internet of Things, Social Media, 3D Design and Printing, Blockchain, Z System, Industry 4.0, Agile Project Management, and Smart Cities & Intelligent Buildings, at the University of Salamanca and his work as editor-in-chief of the journals ADCAIJ (Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal), OJCST (Oriental Journal of Computer Science and Technology) or Electronics MDPI (Computer Science & Engineering section). J. M. Corchado mainly works on projects related to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, IoT, Fog Computing, Edge Computing, Smart Cities, Smart Grids and Sentiment Analysis. He has recently been included in the board of trustees of the AstraZeneca Foundation, along with other health professionals and researchers recognised for bringing scientific knowledge closer to society.