Justintv

Justintv, commonly written as Justin.tv, was a live-streaming platform founded in 2007 by Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt. It began as a single lifecasting channel featuring Kan’s daily life and expanded into a general platform that allowed anyone to broadcast video online. The site grew into a network of channels covering a wide range of topics, including gaming, sports, music, and talk shows, with real-time viewing, chat interactions, and later archived videos.

In 2011, a dedicated gaming section called Twitch.tv emerged within the Justin.tv ecosystem and quickly became the site’s most popular category. The gaming service was soon spun off as a separate entity, Twitch Interactive, and operated as its own site, eventually rebranding as Twitch.tv and focusing primarily on video game streaming and related content.

In 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch Interactive for approximately $970 million in cash, signaling a major shift in the streaming landscape toward large-scale platforms. Following the acquisition, Justin.tv was gradually scaled back, and the Justin.tv service was ultimately shut down, with many users redirected to Twitch for continued streaming and viewing.

Legacy: Justintv helped pioneer consumer livestreaming and demonstrated the viability of broad, user-generated live content. Its evolution contributed to the rise of esports and the broader ecosystem surrounding Twitch, which became a dominant platform for game streaming and interactive entertainment.