The streaming market today is dominated by big companies like the Amazon-owned Twitch, Google’s YouTube Gaming and Facebook Live. A new entry in the video game streaming space is Stream.Me, which has tournaments running on games like Killer Instinct and Street Fighter V.
The video platform gives viewers the ability to simultaneously view multiple players and casters in up to 4K HD resolution video running at 60 frames-per-second. Stream.Me also allows users to blend audio from several streams and combine chat rooms from different sources. Michael Thompson, director of sales and marketing at Stream.Me, talks to [a]listdaily about the opportunities streaming platforms open up for sponsors and brands in this exclusive interview.
What separates Stream.Me from Twitch and other streaming platforms?
There are three things that separate Stream.Me from other streaming platforms:
- Our multi-stream feature. The multi-stream feature allows users to stream up to four content creators simultaneously without using a third-party program or software. Everything can be set up on the platform itself.
- The multi-chat integration feature (which goes with the multi-stream feature). Multi-chat integration combines chats from up to four content creator streams into one multi-stream chat where people can interact with each other even though they are from separate channels.
- Our partnership process. Our partnership process is a lot less stringent than other streaming platforms. To be qualified for a subscription button, you need to create an account, stream and get 50 followers. Once this is achieved, you will receive your sub button. The streamer can set the cost of the subscription as low as $1.00 and as high as $4.99. With each subscription, the streamer will get a 70/30 split of the revenue in their favor.
How large is your beta audience?
The Stream.Me beta had a small audience at first. In the months since then, and as we have rolled out the world’s first features that some of our more popular competitors have since copied (like streaming live from your app), our platform has grown to host more than 200 streamers and over 100,000 viewers.
What’s your rollout plan?
Like any good rollout out plan, Steam.Me’s strategy will be flexible to match current trends, but there are some definitive details, including leveraging the most popular events like PAX, MomoCon and E3 to market and promote the platform.
As you have seen, we also are partnering with some of the top talent in the fighting game community (FGC) and having them participate in eSports tournaments we organize and host on the platform. We work with some of the most talented players in the world like Sonic Fox, the most decorated Mortal Kombat professional in the world, and Xixo, a member of the now-disbanded Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) team that won the 2015 Hearthstone World Championship.
We have a lot of other exciting developments in the works, and once we finalize them, we’ll make sure you are one of the first to know.
What role do you see eSports playing for your platform?
It only takes a glance at the major corporate brands now advertising at eSports events, the countless professional athletes from traditional sports clubs buying eSports teams, and the massive viewership numbers of tournaments to realize eSports is exploding in popularity.
By hosting tournaments on our platform, we have seen our viewership and number of new users skyrocket with each tournament.
How are you currently working with sponsors and advertisers?
We have partnered with sponsors like Arozzi Gaming Chairs, energy drink companies and have other deals in the works with some of the biggest companies in gaming, who are excited to see how Stream.Me will help grow their brand.
Like our competitors, our sponsors and advertisers have their products advertised on streams to viewers who are not subscribers. We also have seeded products with some of our most popular streamers—providing benefits to the sponsors by including organic advertising on specific channels while simultaneously giving our most popular streamers the option to obtain some free high-end physical goods that would cost them hundreds of dollars if they were to purchase on their own.
What opportunities do events such as the Savage Series open up for sponsors and advertisers?
Our Street Fighter Tournament, Savage Series, will open a wealth of new opportunities to directly reach the passionate Street Fighter community. We’ve found that while there is some crossover between our most active viewers and each eSports tournament we host, each new game brings in new viewers who devotedly follow their specific title, favorite teams and players.
By partnering with one of the biggest names in the Street Fighter scene, Alex Valle, and hosting the first tournament after the new patch adds Akuma as a playable character, we are uniquely positioned to help our partners and advertisers reach a significant portion of the Street Fighter community at a time when not much else will be occurring.
How are you marketing your platform to eSports fans?
We are reaching the eSports community by hosting tournaments with top talent on our platform that has a superior feature set.
Stream.Me is able to attract the best teams by providing industry-leading payout times. Often, these professionals are forced to wait months after winning a tournament to receive a paycheck. In our minds, that is wholly unacceptable. If an NFL player collects a check after every game, why should an eSports player have to wait months to receive payment? These world class athletes agree with our position, appreciate our respect for their craft, and how we do business.
We are able to attract viewers by offering tournaments with top level talent on our platform with market-leading technology like a fully integrated multi-stream functionality that doesn’t require a third-party app. That, in addition to 4K HD streaming at 60 fps, combined with the ability to merge multiple chat rooms into one, gives the viewer a second-to-none experience that turns a one-time viewer into a weekly active user.
How are you reaching ordinary gamers?
You are correct in the assumption that while eSports fans are ordinary gamers, not all ordinary gamers are eSports fans. This means we need a different approach to reach this specific audience.
We will have a presence at numerous consumer-facing events like MomoCon and PAX, which will allow us to present our superior feature set directly to potential viewers and the amazing eSports content we host on the platform, while simultaneously showcasing our friendlier terms for broadcasters.
Viewers don’t watch channels solely because of the platform they are hosted on. If they did, they would have come to Stream.Me a long time ago for our superior feature set, which is still in beta. Viewers come to a streaming platform to watch their favorite streamers. With our friendlier terms for streamers giving them the opportunity to monetize quicker and receive a bigger slice of the revenue, we have been able to attract some top talent away from other platforms, and we’ve found their audience comes with them.
What other eSports initiatives have you launched?
We’ve had a few successful eSports tournaments. The Deck Gauntlet (Hearthstone) and Kombat Cup (Mortal Kombat) events were both outstanding. We were extremely pleased with the results. We also have new projects in the works, but I’m not at liberty to discuss what they are at this time. However, I can tell you a LAN event will happen in the very near future.
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