NDC Ignite Startup Taiwan 3.0, Bringing World-Class Entrepreneurs to Taiwan
Kevin Lin, Co-founder and COO of Twitch, the World’s Pioneering Leader in Live-stream Gaming, Shares His 3 Keys to Startup Success
Date: Feb. 17, 2016
Despite its relatively small population of 23 million, Taiwan is currently the world’s 15th largest market for digital games. On Twitch streaming platform, Taiwan is one of the top 5 most viewed area in the world with 4.5 million “Unique User” and a billion minute-watched per month. This impressive number makes Taipei the No.1 city in the world in terms of minute watched. Moreover, Taiwan holds significant potential for further growth as both consumer and provider of top-quality games are based on the widespread acceptance of game user fees, the innovativeness of the domestic game industry and development teams, and the presence in Taiwan of a myriad of top-notch technology device manufacturers. Responding to this potential, the National Development Council (NDC) invited Kevin Lin, Co-founder and COO of Twitch, the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers, to Taiwan as part of an ongoing government effort to help lever the nation’s digital content sector into a high-quality, world-class competitor. The worldwide live-stream phenomenon that was launched by Twitch rewrote game industry history and fundamentally transformed the industry’s business model. Kevin Lin’s visit included meetings and in-depth discussions with local technology and digital content providers as well as a large, public forum. This visit truly unveils his unparalleled charisma as a world-leading entrepreneur.
NDC Minister Tyzz-Jiun Duh commented that, “Improving the startup environment and encouraging private sector to innovate are the main policies for the government in recent years. Executive Yuan particularly formed a cabinet-level task force to coordinate the resources among different ministries and receive advice from domestic startup community with the hope to help local startup prosper. “Visiting Entrepreneur” project is hence established under these circumstances. We anticipate introducing the experience of outstanding international entrepreneur to broaden the horizons for local startups. Especially, Mr. Kevin Lin has a keen perspective for market and a very focused characteristics, along with the experience to lead Twitch to grow rapidly to be a startup unicorn; it would all be the best role model for local startups.
Twitch, Amazon’s most celebrated subsidiary, broke average monthly traffic volumes of over 100 million users and 1.7 million broadcasters worldwide in 2015 - just four years after its launch in 2011 which makes the company a startup unicorn in global startup communities. In talking about how Twitch was able to attract the undivided attention of 2 million people around the world concurrently, Twitch Co-founder and COO Kevin Lin notes, “We’re the product of social media. Through interactions with broadcasters and our fans, we created a shared experience and an atmosphere of fun, which transformed gaming into the digital content sector.” Having experienced this process of change and integration, Kevin Lin points to three elements that have proven critical to realizing startup success. These include:
1. Focus - Invest 100 percent of your energies on the most important issues;
2. Create Shared Value - Find benefit for others in your business; and
3. Persist in Your Pursuit of Goals - The higher your goals, the greater your future.
The Visiting Entrepreneur Program is honored to welcome Kevin Lin back to Taiwan for a weeklong schedule that is packed full of activities and visits with local startup groups. Kevin shared that during the process of startup a new business, the most difficult thing is to remain the team focused, and continuously strive for the goal with passion. Kevin envisions the future of Twitch: People will use all kinds of technology devices including mobile phone, PC, game players and VR etc. On the other hand, one of the key intentions to visit Taiwan is to meet all the great streamers, passionate gaming communities, competitive e-sport teams and top-notch manufacturing firms, innovative game developers and all the decent partner in the supply chain. Via Visiting Entrepreneur project, we hope to coordinate and share resources to generate global success for Taiwanese startups, creating a new future under streaming era!