Twitch announces new deal to pay streamers more

 

Streaming site Twitch has announced plans to share more of its revenue with creators as part of a shake-up.

Streamers make money through fans subscribing to their channel, which starts at £3.99 per month in the UK.

This is then split 50/50 between Twitch and the creator, after fees are paid.

Sweetheart deals have previously been given to the most famous streamers, but the new system means anyone with more than 100 paid subscribers will now receive 60% of the money fans pledge.

The news comes two weeks after parent firm Amazon announced it would axe more than 500 Twitch employees - accounting for a third of the people who work there.

Twitch chief executive Dan Clancy said at the time that the site had paid out $1bn (£780m) to streamers in 2023, but the site was struggling with making money.

"We've implied this before... but I'll be blunt, we aren't profitable at this point," he said in a stream on the platform.

Meanwhile, parent firm Amazon made $9.9bn profit in July to September, according to its most recent earnings report - up from $2.9bn in the same period in 2022.

A new deal

Twitch is a livestreaming platform, where people typically play video games while chatting to viewers.

The revamped system, called the Twitch Plus programme, will come into effect in May.

Twitch estimates this will mean "three times as many streamers" will benefit from better revenue shares than the default 50/50 split.

"Streamers and the communities you build are the foundation of Twitch," Mr Clancy said in a blog post.

"We understand the important role the revenue you earn from streaming plays in each of your lives.

"These changes aim to create a long term, transparent framework for streamer compensation that rewards and encourages creators who are committed to live streaming."

The new deal will keep in place the 70/30 revenue split offered to the site's even more popular users, who have more than 350 paid subscribers each month.

That part of the new system was previously announced in June 2023, as part of what was then called the "Partner Plus" programme, which was met with a degree of criticism at the time.

Some felt that it was very difficult to reach the milestone, meaning the deal only benefitted those who were already popular.

Others called for the 70/30 split to be available to all creators, not just those making the most money.

Under the new rules, streamers will now need to achieve 300 paid subscribers to receive a higher payout.

Growing competition

As part of its new rules, Twitch is also abolishing a long-standing system which meant once its top earners brought in $100,000, their revenue split would drop back down from 70/30 to 50/50 - which could be seen as an effort to draw back some of those who left.

The firm may be concerned with the growth of rival platforms, such as Kick, which offer streamers a significant 95% share of the revenue they generate through subscribers.

Kick has poached several of its rival's biggest names as it continues to grow, including Amouranth and xQc in 2023.

Meanwhile, YouTubers receive 70% of the revenue from their subscriptions, known as memberships. But YouTube also takes a 30% cut of donations from fans - whereas Twitch gives all donations to streamers.

And the announcement comes just two days after top YouTuber MrBeast announced how much money he was able to make from videos on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The social media platform is aiming to court content creators who use rival platforms by offering a large share of its advertising revenue.

While MrBeast seemingly earned a lot from the single video he posted - more than $250,000 (£197,000) - it pales in comparison to the millions of dollars he makes from YouTube.

Virgin Media most-complained about broadband provider

 

Virgin Media is the most-complained about broadband, landline phone and pay-TV service in the UK.

The company attracted 32 complaints per 100,000 broadband customers between July and September 2023, regulator Ofcom said.

For pay monthly mobile services, O2, which is part of the same group as Virgin, attracted the most gripes.

Virgin Media O2 admitted the figures fell short of its expectations but said customer service was its priority.

Alongside Virgin Media, NOW Broadband and TalkTalk received higher-than-average numbers of complaints for their landline services, while NOW Broadband also received higher-than-average complaints about broadband.

Sky was the best-performing firm when it came to broadband, with only five complaints per 100,000 customers.

Fergal Farragher, Ofcom's consumer protection director, said there had been an overall "slight increase in complaints" compared with the previous quarter.

"Providers must continue to focus on improving customer service," he said.

Ofcom said a factor in Virgin Media's complaints figures was the regulator's announcement in July 2023 that it was launching an investigation into customers' difficulties cancelling contracts with the firm, and how it handled complaints.

"As well as engaging fully with Ofcom's ongoing investigation, we are investing in every area of our business to give our customers the best possible experience, with a real focus on resolving any issues at the first time of getting in touch and making it easier for them to get support when they need it," a Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said.

"Our number one priority is to provide an excellent service to our customers, and we accept that the rise in complaints in the third quarter falls far short of our expectations.

With pay monthly mobile phone services, the data showed six complaints per 100,000 customers for O2, compared with two for the best performing providers, Sky and EE.

Ofcom said that Sky continued to be the provider that attracted the fewest or joint fewest complaints per 100,000 subscribers across all four services.

Fortnite to come back to iPhones in EU

 

Popular video game Fortnite will come back to iPhones after a four-year absence.

Developer Epic Games will be allowed to run its own app store on Apple devices after a new EU law designed to increase competition.

Currently, anyone with an iPhone can only download apps from Apple's own App Store.

But Apple must allow its customers to access alternative app stores on iOS devices purchased in the EU from March.

Apple has always maintained that its rules protect users' security.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Fortnite wrote: "Remember Fortnite on iOS? How bout we bring that back."

It added: "Apple, the world is watching."

Epic Games famously withdrew hit game Fortnite from the App Store after disagreeing with Apple's policies. It has not been available on the App Store since 2020, although it is possible to play it via the web.

Apple had been accused of creating a monopoly, giving customers and developers no choice but to go through its own channels, and charging developers up to 30% commission.

It has meant that developers who either fail to meet Apple's standards for being on the App Store, or do not wish to pay its fees, are excluded from the millions of people who use Apple gadgets.

In Fortnite's X post, it also wrote: "Shoutout DMA - an important new law in the EU making this possible."

That refers to the EU's Digital Markets Act coming into effect. The aim of the new law is to regulate the largest companies that are gatekeepers to services such as search engines and app stores to make the market fairer for established companies and smaller firms.

The changes will not apply in the UK at this stage - although the UK's Digital Markets Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, is likely to put Apple's practices under similar regulatory scrutiny.

Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney said on X there was a lot of "hot garbage in Apple's announcement".

These include, he said, "junk fees on downloads".

He may be referring to the core technology fee, which charges developers of apps that are downloaded by over a million people.

Developers will have to pay €0.50 for every user who downloads their app, after the first million downloads.

This is a charge to the makers of apps, not to the customers.

Browser choice

Apple also said it would further open up browser choice, so that EU users will be able to opt out of using the firm's Safari web browser from the very first time they open it.

But it warned that while it was setting high standards for all new alternative apps and stores, it believed the move would create additional security risks for customers, and increase their risk of being exposed to malware, fraud and scams hidden within apps from other places.

"The changes we're announcing today comply with the Digital Markets Act's requirements in the European Union, while helping to protect EU users from the unavoidable increased privacy and security threats this regulation brings," Apple said.

The US tech giant sells premium-priced products, with the promise that they offer an extra layer of security.

It said: "For apps that use alternative payment processing, Apple will not be able to issue refunds, and will have less ability to support customers encountering issues, scams, or fraud."

Android apps can already come from a wider variety of stores. However, as a result, malware is far more common on Android devices than Apple ones.

The purpose of both the new EU rules and UK proposals are to try to maintain open and competitive markets where lots of companies can successfully operate alongside each other.

China appears to U-turn on 'obsessive' gaming crackdown

 

China seems to have backtracked on strict rules to combat what the regulator deemed "obsessive" gaming.

The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) had proposed regulations limiting the amount of money and time people spent playing video games.

However, on Tuesday the draft rules were no longer on the NPPA website.

China is the world's biggest online gaming market, but the industry has had frequent run-ins with the authorities.

The new rules would have limited in-game purchases. Incentives such as daily log-in rewards for gamers would also have come under fire, while the introduction of a pop-up warning players of "irrational" behaviour was proposed.

Share prices of Chinese gaming firms - including the world's biggest gaming company Tencent Holdings and its rival NetEase - jumped after the apparent U-turn.

They had plummeted after the rules were first proposed in December, wiping nearly $80bn (£63bn) off the value of the two companies.

However, analysts say the sector is still clouded by uncertainty about what the government might do next.

"I think this type of sentiment will probably last for quite some time, unless we get a very drastic turnaround in government rhetoric, or unless we get some super supportive policies," said Ivan Su, senior analyst at Morningstar.

China's largest crackdown on gamers came in 2021 when children were banned from playing for more than an hour on certain days.

That same year, the government stopped gaming licences from being granted for eight months.

As a result, says Mr Su, "a lot of Chinese developers have started shifting their development pipeline toward overseas games".

NetEase and Tencent acquired or invested in companies in the likes of France, Japan and the United States.

It remains to be seen whether the current uncertainty will prompt another wave of overseas expansion.

US regulator admits cyber-security lapse before rogue Bitcoin post

 

The US financial regulator has confirmed a key security procedure on its X account had been suspended for six months when hackers made a fake post about Bitcoin in January.

The cryptocurrency surged in value before the post was deleted.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not have multi-factor authentication (MFA) in place when hackers gained access to the account.

Cyber-security experts say it should be a wake-up call for other agencies.

"While the SEC's X account hack is a minor security incident, all governmental agencies should review the security of their social network accounts," said Ilia Kolochenko from cyber-firm ImmuniWeb.

He pointed out that a similar incident at a body such as the US Department of Defense could have more "devastating consequences".

"While MFA had previously been enabled on the @SECGov X account, it was disabled by X Support, at the staff's request, in July 2023 due to issues accessing the account," the SEC said in a statement.

"Once access was re-established, MFA remained disabled until staff re-enabled it after the account was compromised on January 9.

"MFA currently is enabled for all SEC social media accounts that offer it."

Sim-swapping attack

The SEC has confirmed the account was compromised by a fraudster convincing a mobile operator to transfer an SEC employee's phone number to a new Sim.

The employee who was targeted had their phone number associated with the SEC's account for X, formerly known as Twitter.

Because MFA had been suspended on the account, the hacker was able to reset the password, log in and make a post.

It announced the SEC had approved so-called exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Bitcoin, which shot up in value to $48,000 (£37,800) before the post was withdrawn.

Though the SEC has subsequently confirmed the regulatory change, the cryptocurrency fell to just over $38,600 on Tuesday, its lowest value in 2024 so far.

• Crypto fans can now invest in exchange-traded funds - but what are they?

In a Sim-swapping attack, typically a hacker will call a mobile phone operator claiming they have lost the phone they are targeting and need a new Sim card sent out to them.

Sometimes, the hackers will go into a store in person to carry out the con.

MFA is intended to protect against this kind of hack.

It takes many forms, including having a dedicated app that gives you a pin code for a website, as well as sending a text message, though this is considered less secure.

If the verification a person chooses is to receive a text confirming they are the user, a person who has gained access to their phone number will receive the text message instead.

Because of this, experts advise people to use a dedicated app for verification instead.

Meta tool to block nude images in teens' private messages

 

Meta has said it will launch a new safety tool to block children from receiving and discourage them from sending nude images, including in encrypted chats later this year.

The tool is likely to be optional and available to adults too on Instagram and Facebook.

It follows criticism from government and police after Meta started to encrypt Messenger chats by default.

They say encryption will make it harder for the firm to detect child abuse.

According to Meta the new feature is solely designed to protect users, particularly women and teenagers - under-13s are not allowed to use its platforms - from being sent nude images or being pressured into sending them.

It also announced that minors would, by default, be unable to receive messages on Instagram and Messenger from strangers.

Earlier this month, police chiefs said youngsters sending nude images contributed to a rise in sexual offences committed by children in England and Wales.

And legal filings recently made public as part of a US lawsuit against Meta, allege company documents show an estimated 100,000 teenage users of Facebook and Instagram are sexually harassed online every day. Meta has accused the lawsuit of mischaracterising its work.

But on Thursday the tech-giant revealed a planned new feature to help protect teenagers from inappropriate images in their messages.

This system will also work in encrypted chats with more details to be revealed later this year.

Meta's recent decision to protect Facebook Messenger chats by default with end-to-end encryption (e2ee) has been fiercely criticised by government, police and leading children's charities.

E2ee means only sender and recipient can read messages meaning, critics say, Meta cannot spot and report child abuse material in messages.

Other messaging apps such as Apple's iMessage, Signal and Meta-owned already WhatsApp use the tech and have strongly defended the technology.

However, some critics say platforms should deploy a technique called client-side scanning to detect child abuse being sent via encrypted apps.

Client-side scanning refers to systems on a user's device that scan messages for matches with known child abuse images before they are encrypted and sent, and report any that contain suspected illegal content to the company.

Children's charity the NSPCC has suggested Meta's new system "shows that compromises that balance the safety and privacy rights of users in end-to-end encrypted environments are possible".

According to Meta its new feature is not client-side scanning, which it believes undermines the chief privacy protecting feature of encryption, that only the sender and recipient know about the contents of messages.

It will use machine learning only to identify nudity and will work entirely on device, the BBC understands. According to Meta, using machine learning to identify child abuse is much harder and there would be a serious risk of errors if this was attempted across its billions of users with the potential of innocent people being reported with grave consequences..

Instead a range of systems are used to protect children, which according to Meta do not undermine privacy including:

• Systems that identify adults behaving suspiciously, and stop them interacting with under-18s or finding and following other suspect adults.
• Preventing adults from contacting minors, by measures limiting over-18s' ability to message teenagers who don't follow them.

New tools

Meta argues it has introduced over 30 tools and resources to help keep children safe and on Thursday it also revealed a number of new child safety features.

By default children will be unable to receive messages on Instagram or Facebook Messenger from people they do not follow or are not connected to, it announced.

Meta policy already stops adults from messaging teenagers who do not follow them.

"Under this new default setting, teens can only be messaged or added to group chats by people they already follow or are connected", Meta blogged.

The parental supervision tools will now also give parents the ability to deny a teenagers' requests to change their default safety settings - such as who can direct message them or whether they can view more sensitive content. Previously they were merely notified of a change.

Alaska Airlines warns of $150m Boeing blow-out cost

 

Alaska Airlines says it is facing a $150m (£118m) hit, after the dramatic mid-air blow-out of a panel on one of its planes this month.

The 5 Jan incident on a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane terrified passengers and prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground 171 jets with similar designs.

Alaska had to cancel more than 3,000 flights in the wake of the incident.

It said it expected its travel to return to normal by early next month.

But it warned that growth would be lower than expected in the months ahead, as deliveries of new Boeing aircraft are likely delayed.

The FAA on Wednesday said the grounded Boeing planes could return to service if they have been inspected.

But Boeing's output has been capped, while the FAA investigates its manufacturing.

The troubles at the company, one of the world's two major plane-makers, are now spilling over to the rest of the industry.

United Airlines, another major 737 Max 9 customer, earlier this week said it was braced for delays in deliveries and looking at alternatives to Boeing as it plotted out aircraft orders.

It warned investors that it would lose money in the first quarter due to the incident.

Executives at Southwest and American, which are also reporting earnings this week, have also echoed the concerns about delayed aircraft and frustration with Boeing.

"Boeing needs to get their act together," American Airlines chief executive Robert Isom said.

Boeing for its part, has apologised for the disruption and pledged to work transparently and cooperatively with regulators.

Alaska Airlines had also faced questions from passengers, after it was revealed that the airline had restricted the jet involved in the accident from certain routes due to a pressure issue.

Chief executive Ben Minicucci said the problem was "totally unrelated". Speaking to financial analysts, he said passengers should feel confident in the safety of flying on its planes.

Mr Minicucci said he was having "tough" conversations with Boeing and would hold its "feet to the fire", but did not go so far as to threaten to cancel orders.

"We have a longstanding deep relationship," he said, noting that the company had been happy with the planes in the past.

Boeing has been struggling with a spate of smaller manufacturing issues in recent years, while trying to repair its reputation after fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 - involving a different version of the 737 Max - killed 346 people.

Robert Mann, president of RW Mann & Company, an airline analysis and consulting firm in New York, said airlines used to have staff on hand to oversee more of the manufacturing process, but that they had scrapped that practice in recent decades in a drive to cut costs.

"As upset as these airlines are - and you can understand why they would be - they don't exactly have clean hands," he said.

Now, with the industry dominated by just two big players - Boeing and European rival Airbus - they are in "a bit of a box", he added.

They don't "really have any alternative as a practical matter," he said.