Justin Kan, the entrepreneur behind the pioneering webcast project Justin.tv, has decided to reboot the concept on ephemeral messaging service Snapchat. Kan, fresh off a multimillion dollar payday as one of the founders of the video game footage streaming service Twitch, published a job posting today seeking a videographer to direct the project.
I've decided to restart https://t.co/F3NC12z527 on Snapchat. Come work for me. https://t.co/kGCbRCvK1g
— Justin Kan (@justinkan) February 3, 2016
Twitch was acquired by Amazon in August 2014 for $970 million.
Justin.tv, from which Twitch eventually spawned, started back in 2007 with Kan live-streaming several of his activities over the Internet. He then expanded the project to allow anyone to do the same thing using his software tools; one of the first stars of her own Justin.tv broadcast was Justine Ezarik, which served to propel her into a career as well-known on-air personality iJustine.
Kan, now at startup incubator Y Combinator, says he'll use a Snapchat Story channel to perform the same function as Justin.tv — which was shuttered after the Twitch sale — did nearly a decade ago. For now, we've no reason to believe Kan is looking to recreate his Twitch success — it’s more like the original Justin.tv beta than the business it spawned.
The one big difference, of course, is that Kan has gone from an unknown performer to a widely recognized investor and world traveler.