Twitch was co-founded by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear. Its roots lie in Justin.tv, a live-video startup launched in 2007 before its gaming-focused division became Twitch.
The original Justin.tv began as an unusual lifecasting experiment: Kan attempted to broadcast his life continuously using a camera attached to a baseball cap and a laptop setup. Kan, Shear, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt then broadened the project into a platform where anyone could stream video. Gaming quickly became its most popular category.
In June 2011, the company spun out its gaming content under the TwitchTV name, inspired by the idea of “twitch gameplay.” Twitch entered public beta on June 6, 2011, and grew into a major service for game streams, esports, music, creative work, and “just chatting” broadcasts.
The wording sometimes creates confusion because Twitch developed from Justin.tv rather than appearing as an entirely separate company from the beginning. Justin.tv shut down in August 2014 so the company could focus on Twitch. Amazon officially acquired Twitch later that month for a reported $970 million.