As Trainwreck viewers most likely already know, there’s a new streaming platform on the internet that’s looking to claim Twitch’s throne. And with promises of content creators being heavily favored in revenue split and a big name like Trainwreck attached to the platform, it’s looked like a good option for content creators looking for more from their streaming service of choice.
Some people have pushed back against the new platform, however, and those people include Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham, the caster and longtime Twitch director of creator development. Before he left Twitch in January 2022, djWHEAT spent 11 years with the company and was there through some of Twitch’s biggest periods of growth as a site.
His advice? Don’t trust Kick.
“I can’t sit idly by and watch nonsense be thrown out into the world as a beacon of hope for creators,” djWHEAT began his long Twitter thread, before diving into what makes Kick an untrustworthy platform.
His criticisms, like many others who have taken the time to look into the streaming service, stem from Stake and the online crypto gambling platform’s role in starting up the website. Despite Trainwreck’s exhortation for creators to follow him to a platform that will support them more than Twitch, Stake’s shadowy role in the platform doesn’t add up for djWHEAT.
“If you wanted to build a live-streaming Gamba-friendly platform, great. More power to you. They should say that,” djWHEAT continued in his thread. “But you can’t say, ‘Kick’s team and I have a vision to make a live-streaming platform that’s actually built first for creators’ then hide or misrepresent key details.”
Interestingly, djWHEAT’s main point of concern isn’t Kick as an outlet for people to gamble and promote gambling, but more so that the website seems to be trying to hide this fact from creators who are considering making the switch. At time of writing, the promoted streams on the website’s homepage are indeed creators gambling, along with an assortment of accounts that are impersonating popular Twitch streamers or embedding their Twitch streams in a Kick channel.
It’s this sneaky way of trying to promote gambling without saying as much that leads djWHEAT to believe that platform won’t end up being nearly as creator-centric as Kick and Trainwreck claim it will be.
“I want to be proven wrong because competition in this space is essential,” djWHEAT concluded his Twitter thread. “But if Kick is really going to try to get their feet wet, they first need to come clean about what involvement Stake has, and what that means for any creator who uses it.”
DjWHEAT isn’t the first person to criticize the connection between Stake, Trainwreck, and Kick, but he is a person perhaps uniquely suited to comment on the platform and deliver criticism where necessary. And the message from him is clear: until the forces behind Kick and their respective interests are more clearly laid out, content creators should steer clear of the site, despite what the new streaming service claims it can offer them.
