Justin Kan Cashed Out of Twitch Too Early for $970 Million
By Kelli Luu | 24 Jul, 2025

Twitch started off at Justin.tv where Justin Kan recorded his life 24/7 and is now a 45 billion dollar empire turning creators into millionaires.

Twitch has become the world’s livestreaming giant, turning everyday people into influencers and making streamers millionaires, but what people don’t know is that the platform began as just an experiment. 

It all started in 2007 when Chinese American entrepreneur Justin Kan decided to co-found Justin.tv where he would live stream his entire life 24/7. 

Kan was just 23 when he was walking around wearing a camera on his head sharing what his everyday life looked like. He called this “livecasting” and Kan’s concept sparked commotion online, leading to many interviews including one on the Today Show with Ann Curry. 

It didn’t take long for people to want to stream their lives as well, so Kan opened up Justin.tv to everyone making it one of the world’s largest streaming platforms with over 30 million unique users logging on every month. 

Gamers quickly took over the platform which led Kan and his team to develop a separate website specifically just for gaming. From there Twitch was born in 2011 and by mid-2013, there were over 43 million global users with the average viewer spending an hour and a half a day watching live streams. Around 12-15 million of these users were in the U.S. 

Twitch became a place of community where fans could tune in and interact with their favorite streamers in live time making them feel like they are a part of the show. 

Users are streaming live cooking shows, live concerts, game shows, ASMR — pretty much anything you can think of. On Twitch, there is a niche for everyone. 

In 2014 Amazon wanted in on the future of social media and bought Twitch in an all cash deal for $970 million, setting up Kan for his next chapter as a serial tech entrepreneur. He launched an electronic music discovery platform in 2015, a technology-enabled law firm in 2017, and an NFT marketplace in 2021. 

Fast forward to 2025, Twitch is valued at $45 billion and is home to millions of streamers across every category possible. Top creators have made a career from streaming with some pulling in six or seven figures every year through subscriptions and donations. 

Whether you’re playing Mario Kart or eating a huge seafood boil, Twitch has become a digital stage where anyone with a smart phone can make it big. It all started with Justin Kan live streaming his life. Although he has stepped away from Twitch, he created an empire that gave millions of people the power to be seen.