Indonesian Viewers' Money Spending Behavior in the Live Streaming Platform: Twitch

Abstract

Twitch as a live-streaming platform that is growing in popularity in Indonesia, is a space that is still not easy to navigate for content creators. Most Indonesian Twitch content creators have not been able to maximize the earnings they can get from platform. On this platform, content creators can earn income through three alternatives, namely: Subscriptions, Bits, and Donations. Many previous studies have discussed the motivation of Twitch viewers to spend money, such as having emotional connection with the content creators, wanting to achieve rewards, wanting to support financially, etc. However, most of these studies focus on only one alternative of spending and only discuss briefly about the other alternatives of spending. Thus, this study would like to analyze the factors that motivate a viewer to spend money on Twitch on each alternative of money spending. This research will be conducted using qualitative methods with semi-structured interviews and quantitative methods using online surveys. Interviews were conducted with 14 respondents. The interview results in a discovery of a new motivational factor variable and several new indicators that will be added into the quantitative research using online surveys. The online survey collected 203 respondents. Those data were analyzed by the Kruskal Wallis test and Multiple Linear Regression using SPSS. This study shows that there is a significant difference in the three alternatives of money spending on Twitch. The significant difference found was the Rewards variable. Moreover, this study indicates that Emotional Connection, Rewards, Supporting Financially, and Consistency are the four motivational variables that influence viewers repurchase intention. With the result obtained, this study can help content creators to know which area they need to improve in order to get their viewers to be more motivated to do money spending on the alternatives that are yet to be optimal for them.