Not just TikTok.
Twitch, the live streaming site for video games launched in 2011, is also growing in Italy, three years later bought by Amazon for 970 million dollars.
"In Italy the growth took place this year during the lockdown - explains Vincenzo Cosenza, social media expert and author of the Vincos blog - At the moment, according to some data available to me - he says - I estimate that there are about 4 million Italians who they appear on Twitch every month. They are mostly men (67%) and students (24%), interested in technology, science and music. "
Today Twitch worldwide has a daily average of 26.5 million visitors, 2 million average viewers at any one time, and over 6 million streamers each month, for a total of 600 million minutes viewed in 2019. In the United States, where it has now reached maturity, more than half of users are aged between 18 and 34 and 14% are under 18.
Twitch is a kind of YouTube dedicated to video games, but those who have a channel do not upload videos but broadcast live.
And a chat lets the community of viewers who gather around a channel talk.
"It reminds me a lot of the type of aggregation that took place in the bars of the Eighties - underlines Cosenza - when groups formed around the champion on duty, bent over the Scramble or Wonder Boy joystick".
But unfortunately, the expert warns, "of the arcades of the past, Amazon's social network, also retains that feeling of being in a free zone, destined for a few initiates, where everything is allowed. It is not difficult to come across players who swear or they launch into racist and sexist statements. Only recently the company has begun to monitor more consistently, also to prevent advertisers from escaping.