SAN FRANCISCO — Emmett Shear, the chief executive of the livestreaming site Twitch, said on Thursday that he was resigning, ending a 16-year tenure

Twitch’s Chief Executive Says He Is Resigning

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2023-03-18 01:00:04

SAN FRANCISCO — Emmett Shear, the chief executive of the livestreaming site Twitch, said on Thursday that he was resigning, ending a 16-year tenure for the co-founder of the platform favored by video game enthusiasts.

Mr. Shear said in a blog post that he was stepping down because he had just had a child. He said that Dan Clancy, Twitch’s president, would take over as chief executive, and that Mr. Shear would remain at Twitch in an advisory role.

“Twitch often feels to me like a child I’ve been raising as well,” he wrote. “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.”

Mr. Shear leaves a platform with big challenges, but also one that has grown drastically in recent years and become the cultural center of the video game world. Now, livestreamers who broadcast themselves gaming, cooking or chatting with fans can attract audiences of thousands and earn millions of dollars on the site, which is owned by Amazon.

The platform started in 2007 as Justin.tv, a livestreaming project following the life of Justin Kan, who started the site with Mr. Shear and two others. Mr. Shear wrote that he “thought at the time that we would most likely fail and give up in less than a year.”