After serving as its chief executive for more than a decade, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear will take a step back at the company.
Shear is one of the original founders of Justin.tv, the variety livestreaming service that would grow into Twitch. Justin.tv was eventually overshadowed by Twitch, its spin-off service focused on gaming, and the latter product became the team’s sole focus back in 2014. That same year, Amazon bought the company for $970 million — a steal considering Twitch’s massive cultural impact today.
In a blog post, Shear described his readiness to move on from the company he’s been intimately involved with for 16 years. “Twitch often feels to me like a child I’ve been raising as well,” Shear said. “And while I will always want to be there if Twitch needs me, at 16 years old it feels to me Twitch is ready to move out of the house and venture alone.”
Twitch President Dan Clancy will take on the CEO role at the company in a leadership shift that’s effective immediately, while Shear will remain on as an advisor.
Shear’s decision to step down and elevate Twitch’s president doesn’t come as a complete surprise. Clancy was already deeply involved with the company’s day-to-day operations and functioned as a public face for some of the company’s core conversations. Last September, Clancy penned a long letter to the Twitch community addressing controversial changes to the platform’s revenue split with top streamers.
“Emmett has dedicated 16 years to building Twitch, fostering our mission, and inspiring and empowering all of us to serve this incredible community,” Clancy said. “I’m so grateful for his partnership over the last four years, and for the opportunity to continue this work alongside a team that cares so deeply about our streamers and the larger Twitch community.”
In October 2006 we started working on live video for the internet. That became Twitch. More than 16 years later, I’m now a father and ready to move to my next phase of life. I wrote a blog post, but the short version is: thank you so much to everyone who built this with me.
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) March 16, 2023
This story is developing.
