• by Alex Weprin , November 13, 2018

Twitch, the Amazon-owned live streaming video platform, has named Walker Jacobs to serve as the company’s first Chief Revenue Officer.

Jacobs, who will be based in New York starting next month, will be tasked with supercharging the company’s advertising sales business. Twitch COO Sara Clemens stated his “deep operational expertise” in building businesses made him the right fit for the job.

Jacobs most recently served as COO of the entertainment media brand Fandom. Before that, he was president-CRO of Clear Channel Outdoor. He also held a senior role at Turner Digital.

Twitch launched with a focus on live streams of gamers playing video games, while viewers watched and chatted with them and each other. It has since added entertainment and news programming, with an emphasis on live events.

The company said in August it would shift some content that was part of its premium ad-free tier to a new ad-supported tier to boost ad revenue for itself and creators on its platform.

Twitch’s focus on live video serves as a significant differentiator when compared to competitors like YouTube and Facebook. While both offer live video options, most video views are still watched on-demand.

“At any given moment more than 1 million people are on Twitch,” Jacobs says. “The live aspect gives marketers distinctive opportunities, as audiences experience programming simultaneously, at scale. There's a huge opportunity to bring new products, formats and experiences to the service that leverage those unique attributes.”