Twitch streamers lament likely loss of TikTok as an audience referral engine

“TikTok is pretty commonly used now for Twitch growth,” said Gappy, a Twitch streamer who asked to keep his real name private. “When we think of the new age of Twitch streamers — Kai Cenat, CaseOh, Jynxzi — they all got their virality through TikTok.”

On TikTok, it’s become a standard practice for masses of third-party creators to clip interesting parts of larger livestreams or long-form videos to turn them into short-form video posts. As a result of this clipping activity, TikTok will treat the original creator as a key term, pushing them to the top of the algorithm and causing a downstream spike in their follower counts.

For creators on Twitch and other streaming platforms, clipping can be one of the most effective ways to build an audience. Many large streamers run dedicated Discord servers for this purpose, prompting superfans to mass-clip their streams and post their content across hundreds of smaller TikTok accounts.

Content creator Mathews “Matcrackz” Arroyave credits TikTok for all of his roughly 41,000 followers on Twitch.

“It makes me wonder, now that TikTok is leaving — a lot of people might get hit on streaming, or feel a decline in new followers,” Arroyave said. “A lot of people took advantage of the time that they had it, but if it’s gone, I think people will at least feel new growth slow down for a bit.”

Although TikTok creators have struggled to monetize their presence on the platform in past years, some believe that TikTok’s audience growth capability is unmatched thanks to the inherently snackable nature of its short-form content.

“I see clipping/short form content as sort of like commercials or ‘trailers’ for longer-form content,” said TikTok creator Xevi, who asked to keep his real name private to protect his personal information. “If people like your shorter-form content and want to see more of you, chances are they’ll check out your longer forms of media. Without TikTok, growth for many creators just starting out will be almost nonexistent.”

Although other short-form platforms such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts offer similar opportunities for creators to clip their content, these platforms lack the “clipping culture” that developed naturally on TikTok over the years. Creators also believe that TikTok’s algorithm is designed in a way that rewards smaller creators for posting clips of viral content.

If the ban takes effect on Jan. 19, creators who want to recreate TikTok’s audience growth capabilities elsewhere will have to actively push for a similar culture to develop on whichever platform they pick next, whether it’s Instagram, YouTube or another rival.

“TikTok kind of allows it to happen, because of the recommendations and the search features — so it kind of pushes it, whereas on the others, it’s not really pushed,” said Iyrah Williams, a creator and co-founder of Gen-Z social media publisher Pubity. “It’s still a thing, but not as much.”

For creators looking to rebuild the pipeline between their short-form clips and long-form content, some observers believe YouTube and YouTube Shorts could offer more opportunities than Instagram Reels. Although short-form video is deeply ingrained into the culture of Instagram, long-form video remains a more niche content type on the platform, whereas on YouTube it’s a more dominant force.

“Short-form is like the farm system, right?” said Arthur Leopold, CEO and co-founder of YouTube ad platform Agentio. “It is generating traffic and interest through quick-hit content — but the end prize is building the largest possible audiences through long-form content. It’s where there’s far and away the most monetization opportunities.”