DLive is a broadcasting app which is driven by blockchain technology – it is promoting the link-up as the “exclusive livestreaming platform” for PewDiePie.

The YouTube phenomenon started his career with a degree in industrial economics and technology management at Gothenburg’s Chalmers University in Sweden before dropping out to start his YouTube channel.

PewDiePie – aka Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg – now has around 94,000,000 subscribers to his PewDiePie YouTube channel, which mainly streams gaming and humour-based content. However, given his huge following, any link-up makes economic and marketing sense.

DLive uses tech based on Lino and offers a reward-based system to content creators and viewers with Lino tokens, the platform’s own crypto.

DLive now has more than 3 million monthly active users and 35,000 active streamers – in statement released on 9 April, PewDiePie said that the hook-up with DLive suits him as he is treated “like a real partner”, so it is a mutual love-in so far.

The birth of PewDiePie

After dropping out of college, PewDiePie launched his YouTube channel in 2010 and by April 2019 had totted up 21 billion video views, making it tenth on the Top 10 of most-viewed channels on YouTube.

Kjellberg’s success story has not been without controversy, however, including allegations of posting supremacist content, allegations he has strongly denied.

An online petition with more than 81,000 signatures was also launched following news of the Christchurch massacre in a mosque in New Zealand and an alleged statement made by the gunman relating to PewDiePie’s YouTube channel.

Kjellberg has countered such allegations, saying they are “blatantly misrepresenting and misinforming people”, as well as countering that some allegations against him are “flat out lies”.

The calls to ban PewDiePie from YouTube seem to have been answered in part by the announcement from DLive about the new partnership between them and Kjellberg’s online streaming platform.

We want to welcome a new member to the DLive family- @pewdiepie will now be streaming exclusively on DLive. https://t.co/XeQvXXCoOI He will #SupportCreators by donating up to $50,000 to a maximum of 100 streamers. https://t.co/uDBWnCiBY1

— DLive (@OfficialDLive) 9 April 2019

DLive plans for PewDiePie hook-up

DLive is still a comparatively small platform, but with PewDiePie’s devoted army of followers, the growth potential of the commercial partnership for the platform is potentially a winner.

Co-Founder of the Lino Network – which DLive uses – Wilson Wei, said:

“DLive is a place where instead of competing against each other, it benefits creators to support one another. With no platform cuts, we incentivise everyone to create the highest-quality content for viewers.

“PewDiePie has always been a fierce advocate for the value that creators bring with their hard work, time and effort – and he believes in DLive’s vision.

“Our livestreaming platform has the potential to forever change how creators are represented in this industry – and we’re proud to have PewDiePie help us lead this charge.”

“Leading the charge” is a strong term to describe what is envisioned by the partnership – and the move to appoint PewDiePie to lead at the front suggests that DLive and Lino see the move as pioneering in how creators are served in the industry.

PewDiePie promotion

PewDiePie has already pledged to donate up to $50,000 in Lino Tokens to fellow creators on DLive during his debut live-stream on Sunday, to encourage more subscribers – indicating the amount of will there is to make the partnership a success and bring more subscribers to DLive.

At this point, let us try not to remember the free Tesla debacle elsewhere in the crypto space.

However, it appears the streaming community may still need a bit of a nudge and a carrot on a stick to “incentivise” them to sign up to a new streaming service. But PewDiePie’s endorsement for his partnership with DLive is naturally strong:

“I’m excited to start live-streaming again regularly. DLive is great for me because I’m treated like a real partner, just like all of the other streamers on their unique platform."

It seems a double-edged approach to identify as just like all the other streamers on the platform and also offer $50,000 in rewards to encourage sign-ups; but, of course, there are sound commercial principles behind this partnership, despite the rhetoric – and it shows just how business savvy the world of online streaming has become.

As content creators, our presence on a streaming platform is valuable in terms of numbers, as well as the unique content created on the platform, plus the viewer numbers and subscribers that accompany it. It is a marketing exec’s dream, the thought of an audience nearly 94,000,000. PewDiePie has become a marketing cutie-pie.

@PewDiePie Congratulations PewDiePie! You reached 94,000,000 subscribers on #YouTube. ✨ – https://t.co/CTvwlw3pXP pic.twitter.com/zWIf4XMalg

— YTCount (@YTCount) 13 April 2019

Crypto and gaming

There is now also a new crypto index for gaming tokens thanks to AltDex – showing how valuable a market the livestreaming gaming market now is, despite other streaming services such as Twitch dropping bitcoin and bitcoin cash as subscriber payment options. It is still a slightly topsy-turvy marketplace in terms of the relationship between crypto, business and the innovation that online platforms allow.

PewDiePie leading the charge might well be what is needed to create a level playing field and make the crypto ethos of unregulated peer-to-peer sharing and co-operation acceptable to big business.

Twitch is, after all, an Amazon-owned streaming service and no one know more about business success than Amazon.

But gaming is not going to suffer if established currencies are demanded by platforms – however, platforms issuing their own crypto tokens and reward incentives is pretty much an interest-free credit system, whereby subscribers are actually becoming investors in the company with variable returns, while offering marketers a ready-made audience for advertising.

The USP in this case is the fact that creators support each other, rather than competing so there is a co-operative element to the platform’s operation, which can be very appealing, especially accompanied by an enhanced reward system. Cynical? Perhaps. But how viewers and users are attracted to and become involved in online content and platforms is the stuff of academic theses.

It will be interesting to see how many followers and how soon PewDiePie helps bring to DLive when the streaming partnership goes live on Sunday. Part of PewDiePie’s management team, Kat Peterson, reinforced that the partnership is “a good fit” for their client.

“This platform is able to support creators, in terms of the revenue share, in a way that is hugely favourable to the creator.”

The $50,000 Lino Points promo to other DLive creators is intended “to get everybody on the platform excited that he’s there”.

Money talks, whether in hard currency or crypto – prepare to number crunch on the success of the partnership, and happy streaming.