Watchers emerged victorious from the startup pitch competition at SiGMA Americas, taking home the first prize with their innovative SaaS solution.

Watchers Takes Home Top Prize from SiGMA Américas Pitch Competition

We competed with 100 pre-selected startups in the iGaming industry and got the opportunity to showcase our solution in SiGMA Startup Village, connecting with investors,&nbsp;experts,&nbsp;and the best players in the industry among six six-pitch competition finalists.<img src="https://watchersweb-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/0c0733e4-f03a-4897-9e26-84b4d1ee76ec.png">Watchers' CPO Adel Gaisin presented our company on 25 April. The Expert-led judges:&nbsp;Vinícius Moraes De Carvalho,&nbsp;Investment Partner At Ikigai Ventures,&nbsp;Alessandro Valente,&nbsp;Co-founder of Super Afiliados,&nbsp;Heitor Miguel from&nbsp;PMZ Capital, Eduardo Gamarci,&nbsp;COO At Revenue Capital, and&nbsp;Tomash Devenishek,&nbsp;Founder &amp; CEO At Kero Sports,&nbsp;chose our pitch and the solution as the best one.SiGMA Américas Summit (22 - 26 April) gathers a large community of players, operators, and experts in&nbsp;the&nbsp;iGaming industry. It is one of the most significant platforms for market leaders to connect and discuss the latest trends and technologies.&nbsp;

When was the last time you watched or listened to a live stream? Do you do it regularly?

Learn about the different user motivations and platform-specific interactions during live streaming, and why video and audio streaming integration on your platform can significantly boost engagement, retention, and revenue.

Internal audio and video streams: Let's delve into the most interactive type of content

Platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Steam have become integral to our digital habits, where participating in and consuming live streams is more than just a trend—it's a routine. When a new game is released, many users prefer to watch others play before deciding to purchase it. Often, users are uncertain about engaging with content, playing, or buying a game, but they are eager to see how others experience it, feel about it, and what they think.Users' attitudes towards participation in streams vary widely. Understanding these differences is key to exploring the specific uses and gratifications that attract new viewers to streaming sites.<h3>What are the motives for watching streams? Types of users according to their goals</h3>In our participatory culture, digital users increasingly feel the neccessity to interact with the content they consume. Live video streaming, particularly of gaming or watching processes, is one of the most interactive forms of content. Analysing these interactions offers valuable insights into user consumption behaviour, emotional involvement, and audience engagement.Emotional involvement is crucial for platforms to build strong connections with their audiences, fostering loyalty. Meanwhile, user interaction is a major factor in attracting and retaining viewers. Video Game Streaming (VGS) motivates viewers to actively engage with broadcasters and other co-viewers, sharing their passion and experiences with the game.﻿<img src="https://watchersweb-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/6a082009-df0f-4bf8-9f9e-f225e6209612.jpg">A study of 1,060 streams across video gaming and talent shows, provided by Xu, Wu and Zao for the study “Exploring viewer participation in online video game streaming” found that the streamer’s level, number of fans, and stream start time have little impact on real-time user interactions and comments. Frequent updates and the constant influx of new streamers have made audiences accustomed to seeing fresh faces, reducing the importance of a streamer’s level or fan count. Notably, female streamers received more real-time comments than male streamers, while the duration of a live stream had minimal negative effects on comments. The number of viewers, likes, and gifts all positively influenced real-time comments.Comparing game video streaming and talent show streaming revealed that the number of viewers had a stronger positive effect on real-time comments in-game streams. In talent shows, likes were a more powerful stimulus for real-time comments, unlike in-game streams where they had a less significant impact.Through a questionnaire study, provided by Sjöblom and Hamari for their article “Why do people watch others play video games,” five distinct types of motivations for using streaming platforms were identified: cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative, and tension release. Information-seeking was positively associated with the amount of time users spent on the service and the number of individual streamers they watched. Social integrative motivations were the primary predictors of subscription behaviour.At the same time, Speed, Burnett, and Robinson divided users who interact with streamers into four groups:<ul><li>Try before you buy</li></ul>Users who watch video streams for entertainment and making a final decision about a purchase.<ul><li>Antisocial viewers</li></ul>Users who watch streams for entertainment but reject any other interactions.<ul><li>Loyal Lurkers</li></ul>Users who consume a variety of content related to their favourite streamers but are not interested in others.<ul><li>Social viewers</li></ul>Those who use the platform to create and support social communities with other streamers and viewers.Considering these groups, you can predict the level of interaction and engagement of the stream and imagine how many users stay with the platform, how many stick to the particular streamer, and what share of users will be ready to buy content per product the stream is dedicated to.<h3>Differences in Streaming Across Various Platforms</h3>The three primary platforms for live video streaming are Twitch, Discord, and YouTube. However, each of these platforms serves a different purpose, even at the most fundamental level. Twitch is a dedicated streaming service designed to enable individuals to broadcast live content to others. Discord, on the other hand, began as an instant messaging app tailored for gamers, allowing them to communicate with each other through text and voice while gaming. Then, the platform developed other functions for community activities, for instance, you can co-watch YouTube videos via Discord. YouTube, primarily known as a video-sharing platform, is the most public and traditional of the three. As a result, both users and streamers have different expectations and goals when using these platforms, even though they may all seek to deliver a similar live-streaming experience.When discussing Discord, it’s important to mention audio streaming, which is a unique and intriguing avenue for platforms, users, and streamers.Audio streams require significantly less energy, time, technology (such as OBS), and financial investment compared to video streams. While audio streams can be just as interactive as video streams, they have their own specific characteristics and cannot be used in exactly the same way. One example is the Clubhouse app, where users were able to join groups to discuss topics via voice. However, it didn’t gain long-term traction because users lacked pre-planned topics or events, making it challenging to continuously generate new themes for discussions.<iframe class="ql-video" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fOkNd4y57YU?showinfo=0"></iframe>Despite the ease of use associated with audio streams, streamers still need to invest effort into creating engaging content. If streamers are willing to dedicate more attention to this medium, audio streams can serve as open podcasts, for example. One of the simplest formats could be live commentary on various types of content, such as sports games or films, where influencers can rewatch movies with their audience and provide real-time commentary without worrying about their appearance.Additionally, major social media platforms like Instagram offer streaming capabilities, notifying all of a streamer’s followers when a stream begins. This is effective for both streamers and the social media platform itself. However, a key question remains: how does this benefit the platform that pays the streamer?&nbsp;<h3>Why Hosting Streams on Your Platform is Beneficial</h3>For companies, hosting streams on their own platform rather than relying on third-party services like Twitch or YouTube offers several advantages. First, it keeps the audience within your ecosystem, which boosts engagement and retention rates. For example, brands that integrate live streaming into websites or apps often see a 20-30% increase in user engagement and a similar boost in user retention compared to those relying on external platforms. Additionally, owning the streaming platform allows you to monetise content directly, capturing 100% of the revenue from ads, subscriptions, and virtual goods. It also strengthens brand loyalty, as users associate the streaming experience with your brand rather than a third-party service.Finally, having direct control over the streaming environment enables better data collection and analysis, allowing companies to refine their content strategies and improve user experiences based on real-time feedback and interactions, and providing absolutely trustful space which cannot be guaranteed by social media platforms.<a href="https://watchers.io/post/moderation_sports-online_communities" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent;">Read about social media and trusted spaces during sports tournaments</a>If you would like to discuss opportunities to integrate live streaming solutions, both audio and video, fill out the form below.

Since July, our partners can activate sending images to a chat for users, create a developed system of badges and assign them to users to stimulate engagement and paid actions. 

Add integrated community chats and allow users to communicate not only with text, voice, stickers, but also with pictures. Award users with badges and achievements. Provide tools for meaningful communication directly on your platform with Watchers. 

Images and badges: what great we’ve added to chats for users

Let's see what’s new on the Watchers product side?The developed badge system<img src="https://watchersweb-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/00780b60-8797-483b-bdb9-dd11876e0232.png">Partners can create a developed ramified system of badges for awarding users, or just one specific badge and assign them to users or different groups of users. Users themselves see a tooltip on how to get the badge and a notification about a new assignment. Users can be awarded multiple badges, and all of them will be visible on the user profile.Pictures and images<img src="https://watchersweb-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/556a478a-dbcf-44cb-8fe3-c7b12c0b211c.png">Users can send pictures and images to a chat if you activate this opportunity. Users can send up to 10 pictures at once. Other users can report, react, and reply to messages with pictures. Admins and moderators on the partners' side can block the image sending or just hide a sent picture. Especially important that sending pictures can be disabled at any moment. In this case, the button to attach a picture will just disappear.Some small adjustmentsModeration of threads is linked to their parental roomsThreads can be moderated with the parental rooms, and all restrictions users have in the main room work for threads as well.Notification about the activation of the autotranslation toolUsers will see the notification linked to the button if the partner activates the autotranslation feature for them (remind: this feature allows users to communicate in a multilingual chat by choosing a needed language. All messages including new ones will be translated to this language automatically)Admins can pin messages in a chat through the admin panelNo need to open the chat on the interface for it.Opportunity to block users externally through bearer tokenIt allows partners to block users, specifying a reason and a length, in a particular room or all rooms, or unblock them.***If you need any help with the activation, or you would like to get more details, text us through the form below. We are here to help!