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A new British eSports streaming site has launched, boasting 80 million unique viewers to date. We chat to Adam Simmons, the firm’s director of content, to find out how DingIt.tv can compete with the likes of Twitch.
Can you beat Twitch and YouTube? Or do you see DingIt as a strong alternative that doesn’t necessarily compete directly with other streaming services?
DingIt’s focus is different in a lot of ways to other platforms, so a straight head to head comparison isn’t always accurate. We aim to produce premium quality, eSports content that caters for both live audiences and those looking for VOD content.
Thanks to our technology, we can reach a global audience in a sustainable way, which opens up opportunities that may not be open to other platforms. One key area of growth for us is through reaching a more casual gaming audience through our highlights, which offer bite-size content as a gateway to eSports.
Why should gamers use DingIt over the other rival live-streaming services?
For viewers, DingIt offers significantly reduced buffering, low stream delay, global reach and premium eSports content.
For content creators, DingIt is able to offer superior revenue potential and tools to create engaging, sustainable content.
80m unique viewers is quite a feat. Where are those views coming from predominantly, in terms of regions, and which games are most popular?
Viewership is split quite evenly between North America, Europe and Asia currently. In 2016, we are looking to expand our efforts to emerging regions through both dingit.kr and new offices.
A large portion of our viewership goes towards our professionally made highlights – something we focus on marketing towards more casual gamers. A large portion of the viewers who enter the site through highlights become returning viewers who transition into watching more long form content (full reruns) and live events.
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In terms of games, we are currently focused on Counter Strike and StarCraft with Hearthstone on the horizon. Throughout the coming year we have some exciting plans to expand our content offering both in scale of events and diversity of the events!
Will you host any UK League of Legends eSports tournaments?
While there aren’t any plans for a UK League of Legends tournament, we are always on the lookout for events and communities we can support. Critical for us is creating something that is sustainable – while it is great to run a couple of high profile events, unless it grows the games community and adds value in the long term it is probably not something we want to give false hope to.
There are already some great organisations in the UK pushing the local eSports scene and we are keen to get involved when appropriate.
What do you think of the UK eSports scene in particular?
The UK definitely has produced and will no doubt continue to produce world-class talent. You only have to look at some pro players and commentators to see the potential. It will be exciting to see how the local communities continue to grow.
What is your response to some criticism online describing DingIt as malware, or that it’s difficult to use and hard to shut down?
At DingIt, user experience is paramount and in 2016 we have some great plans for site development. We also listen to all feedback we get from our viewers and content creators.
Sometimes, there are technical limitations or time frames that we have to work with to implement suggestions. Some criticism is unfounded though, there is nothing malicious in the technology we have developed. We do understand that not all users want to download a plugin or chrome extension to watch a stream and, for that reason, we have recently released a version of our player that does not require an extension or plugin to use.
While some benefits of our technology are diminished by removing the plugin, we have reached a point where they are minimal and will soon offer a choice for users to use the plugin if they want to enhance their viewing experience. For now and in the future – no plugin is required, just optional!
Check out the game streaming service for yourself at www.dingit.tv.
