Motivations for specific feature use on Twitch.tv

Twitch.tv is one the most popular live streaming platforms in the world. This study investigates why people use Twitch.tv by focusing on people’s use of ten specific features: chat, cheer, emote, whisper, follow, subscribe, donate, clip, browse and search. This study employs the uses and gratifications approach in combination with the MAIN model and uses and gratifications 2.0 to measure specific feature use on Twitch.tv, contrast motivation types for using a given medium and reveal gratifications otherwise hidden by only measuring general use or time spent on a platform. In an online questionnaire (N = 181) survey data showed that Twitch.tv amounts to more than just content, gratifications are available in the technological structure of the medium. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.