Kick CEO Eddie Craven has admitted that he underestimated the extent of viewbotting on the streaming platform. He originally thought that Trainwreckstv was being “nuts” with his warnings four or five years ago, before admitting that he himself was “the crazy one.”
The Australian native believes it’s better now that other creators speak out about the issue, as Trainwreck was on his own for a long time doing so:
Craven said that viewbotting is a “really bad problem” in the industry and that a lot of people are involved in it. Kick began taking major action in September against any streamers caught trying to boost their viewership numbers artificially. It initially kicked 200 people from its partnership program and aims to ban an additional 100 users every week for a year for their use of malicious tactics.
the larger their clients’ audiences are, the larger their commissions
xQc is another streamer who has been very outspoken on the topic. He believes that talent agencies play a role in viewbotting, as the larger their clients’ audiences are, the larger their commissions.
Rival platform Twitch has experienced similar issues. The Amazon-owned company conducted its own crackdown in July, although it allegedly accidentally flagged some legitimate, smaller creators after certain viewers were incorrectly identified as suspicious.
