Bit by (Twitch) Bit: “Platform Capture” and the Evolution of Digital Platforms

Abstract

This article considers the history of donation management tools on the livestreaming platform Twitch. In particular, it details the technical and economic contexts that led to the development of Twitch Bits, a first-party donation management service introduced in 2016. Two contributions to research on the platformization of cultural production are made. One, this article expands the empirical record regarding Twitch by chronicling the role of viewer donations in livestreaming since 2010, as well as the many tools that have facilitated this practice. It is argued that this history traces the complex and co-productive interactions between Twitch as a sociotechnical architecture and a political economy. Two, by considering how the first-party donation tool Twitch Bits has gradually challenged the dominance of the third-party tools that preceded it, this article theorizes the notion of platform capture, a critical rereading of platform envelopment, a popular concept in business studies. Ultimately, it is argued that platform capture demonstrates how platform owners leverage power asymmetries over dependents to aid in their platform’s technical evolution.