Justin.tv

One man's life stream that became Twitch

Replaced
19902026

Justin.tv began in March 2007 as Justin Kan broadcasting his own life 24 hours a day from a camera on his head, then opened to anyone. Its gaming section, spun off as Twitch in 2011, grew far bigger than the parent, and the company shut Justin.tv down on 5 August 2014 to become Twitch Interactive.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2007
  2. 19 March 2007 Launch
    Justin Kan starts lifecasting

    A camera on a hat, broadcasting 24 hours a day.

  3. October 2007 Feature
    Opens to everyone

    Anyone can create a channel; thousands do.

  4. 2011
  5. 6 June 2011 Feature
    Twitch spins off

    The gaming category becomes its own site.

  6. 2013
  7. 2013 Decline
    Twitch outgrows its parent

    The spin-off dwarfs Justin.tv in traffic and revenue.

  8. 2014
  9. 10 February 2014 Rebrand
    The company becomes Twitch Interactive

    The parent takes the child's name.

  10. 5 August 2014 Shutdown
    Justin.tv shuts down

    Closed so the company can focus on Twitch.

  11. 25 August 2014 Acquisition
    Amazon buys Twitch

    Around $970 million for what grew out of the lifecast.

The site through time

Browse justin.tv as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Justin.tv Inc. 2007–2014 Founded Y Combinator startup
Twitch Interactive 2014–2014 Founded The company renames itself after its spin-off; Amazon buys it for ~$970M in 2014

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: The company shut Justin.tv down on 5 August 2014 to focus entirely on Twitch, the gaming spin-off that had outgrown its parent; Amazon bought Twitch weeks later for about $970 million.

Our analysis: Justin.tv is the rare shutdown that was a triumph. Its gaming category grew so much larger than everything else that the company renamed itself after the spin-off, killed the original, and sold the result for close to a billion dollars.

History [edit]

Lifecasting

On 19 March 2007, Justin Kan strapped a webcam to a baseball cap and started broadcasting his entire life, continuously, to anyone who cared to watch. The stunt worked as publicity, and within months the site opened to everyone: thousands of channels of people streaming whatever they wanted, which in practice meant a chaotic mix of pirated sports, chat shows, cameras pointed at pets, and games.

The gaming channels grew fastest. In June 2011 the company spun them into a separate site with a name that stuck: Twitch. Within two years Twitch had more traffic than everything else Justin.tv did combined, and by 2014 it was among the largest sources of peak internet traffic in the United States.

The parent renamed after the child

In February 2014 the company officially became Twitch Interactive. Justin.tv itself, its copyright headaches and its long tail of unmonetisable channels, no longer fit. On 5 August 2014 it was shut down "to focus on Twitch". Three weeks later Amazon bought Twitch for around $970 million, a deal Google had reportedly been circling first.

Justin Kan went on to other startups; co-founder Kyle Vogt later founded self-driving company Cruise; Emmett Shear ran Twitch for another decade. The original site, the one built on a camera taped to a hat, exists only as an archive.

Similar projects

Vine Six seconds, looped forever 2013–2017 Picasa Everyone's first photo library 2002–2016 Mixer The $100 million assault on Twitch 2016–2020 Quibi $1.75 billion, six months, gone 2020–2020 Musical.ly The lip-sync app that became TikTok 2014–2018 Periscope Live from anywhere, until the money ran out 2015–2021

Sources [edit]

  1. Justin.tv Shuts Down To Let The Company Focus On Twitch TechCrunch 5 August 2014
  2. Twitch Shutters Justin.tv Amid Google Acquisition Reports The Hollywood Reporter 5 August 2014 [archived]

Last verified: 11 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).