Emmett Shear announces his resignation and with it, there’s an immediate change in Twitch’s executive suite – but is that a good thing?
“The captain is leaving the sinking ship,” writes one Twitter user as current Twitch boss Emmett Shear announces his resignation. Others are also convinced that this is an important and right move.
Now Daniel Clancy is following in Shear’s footsteps, who previously worked directly under him – what could happen now?
Captain escapes the sinking ship https://t.co/gLjp6he18y
– GPHustla (@GPHustla) March 16, 2023
Finally a change for Twitch?
Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, Michael Seibel and Kyle Vogt founded the livestream platform Justin.tv in 2006, which resulted in what is now Twitch.tv. Shear is thus the last of the original four founders to leave Twitch.
Many are celebrating the resignation, saying he has lost touch with the platform and its users anyway. He is incompetent, they say, and things can only get better for Twitch.
The most incompetent CEO in tech is finally gone.
About damn time.
This dude has been out of touch with the platform for years, should’ve been replaced a long time ago.Though surely we’ll get a better CEO this time around… https://t.co/oa9x0MQcCo pic.twitter.com/gxYGf94lb9
– Raiden⛩️Yo if u read this, ily (@UnRaiden) March 16, 2023
With Daniel Clancy, also called Dan, users and streamers have hopes that the platform will change and do more for its creators again – that hadn’t really happened under Emmett Shear.
This is what the new CEO Dan Clancy stands for
Clancy is seen as a transparent person who is probably more in touch with content creators than Shear was.
Major MMORPG streamer Asmongold had even had dinner with Dan Clancy a week before the announcement. While there, the influencer invited the new CEO to join him in a future livestream – and he agreed. It will be interesting to see what the two will talk about then.
Furthermore, the two talked about the future of Twitch and Asmongold said:
I talked to him about a lot on Twitch and I was surprised. I think he knows what he’s talking about. And I didn’t agree with him on everything, but he was able to justify things well, so maybe some things are happening.
If this is true, there might be clear announcements more often in the near future regarding upcoming changes or new features.
Others fear little or no change.
While some hope that things are finally looking up, others have concerns. Clancy, after all, was the one who penned the open letter to the community, talking about the new revenue rules on Twitch that have been criticised.
Influencers have not taken the changes well and have demanded at least improvements and an increase in the quality of the site and streams in return, instead of simply pocketing the extra money.
However, little has happened in this direction so far. The advertising programme, which is supposed to compensate for the lost income, has been praised for this, but it is going rather badly and is usually not profitable at all.
Whether Daniel Clancy can fulfil the expectations of the community and whether Twitch will develop positively remains to be seen. Emmett Shear, however, promises (in his letter):
He cares deeply about the Twitch community, its streamers and our staff and understands what makes Twitch Twitch.
