Global creator company Jellysmack has the itch for Twitch.
The VC-backed startup has signed fast-emerging Australian Twitch star Whippy – who spends up to ten hours every day live streaming Grand Theft Auto – to its Creator Program, Variety Australia has learned.
It’s Jellysmack’s first partnership with a Twitch star, a platform that has grown in popularity among gaming streamers over recent years. As part of the global deal between the pair, Jellysmack will also work with Whippy to expand his presence and reach across YouTube and Facebook.
Whippy – who until recently was living in a shed behind his mother’s house – told Variety Australia that he’s witnessed Twitch’s explosive growth since he started tinkering with the platform. And with its rise, he has also managed to build a legitimate business – and move into his own home.
“It’s one of the fastest rising platforms that there is compared to other livestream platforms,” he said. “Just a few years ago, Twitch was still massive, but it was just a drop in the ocean next to YouTube. But now with Jellysmack involved with Twitch, I’ve just seen the platform grow.
“Even a few years ago, I would look at games like Grand Theft Auto, or Minecraft, and the top streamer would have 2,000 viewers. When you look now, there are multiple streamers that are reaching peaks of over two million viewers. Every few weeks I’m hearing about these Twitch streamers that are hitting brand new heights that we’ve never seen before.”
Whippy’s Twitch character, Dundee, quickly gained notoriety after he teamed up with famous fellow streamers xQc and Sykkuno – and his viewership doubled. He’s now live-streamed for more than 5,300 hours and eyes a lucrative career from his passion. But how exactly does one make a full-time living while playing Grand Theft Auto all day long?
“There are multiple ways,” he explained.
“The main one is of course advertising. If you become an affiliate or partner on Twitch, which is pretty simple to do, you just have to average either three viewers a month to become an affiliate or more than 75 viewers a month to become a partner. Then you can make advertising dollars. So that’s the main way, that’s the passive income.
“Another way is subscribing, which is different to YouTube. On Twitch, you ‘follow’ instead of ‘subscribe’, but actually subscribing on Twitch is when [users] pay [creators] $5 a month to interact in chatrooms with custom emojis. Twitch is very big on custom emotes. I have a figure of a kangaroo, but others have pictures of themselves or a figure that represents them.”
Whippy said ‘a lot of my money’ also comes from people donating, and sponsorship deals (he’s already worked with brands such as NordVPN, Lenovo Legion, and Powered by Intel). But is hopeful that his new partnership with Jellysmack will bolster his income even further.
Jellysmack last year hired former Google executive Ezechiel Ritchie to lead its operations in the ANZ market, and in February tapped both Bec Hodges as marketing manager and Alex Vans-Colina as partnership manager.
Ritchie told Variety Australia that Whippy represents the ideal Jellysmack creator, in that he has the potential to translate in other markets and across multiple platforms.
“We launched the business in Australia last year because we started getting a lot of demand,” he said. “The creator economy has been booming in the U.S. and now we’ve seen the effect in Australia with a lot of very big creators having global audiences. So Whippy’s a perfect example.
“What’s pretty unique for us here in Australia is that the content is very exportable. It’s often the case that Aussie video creators have larger audiences in the U.S. or the U.K. Helping them maximise the benefits of all social platforms, growing their audiences and community, driving further engagement, and importantly, increasing their revenue, is very important.”
The signing takes Jellysmack’s collective of ANZ-based creators to 25, following the recent announcement of 12 new local signings.