An Interview with the DingIt Team

As competition in the eSports streaming marketplace heats up, it’s important to track the key players and their approach to market. While names like Twitch and YouTube Gaming stand out, other competitors are intent on capturing a share of rapidly expanding eSports viewerships. One such outlet is DingIt. The live streaming broadcast site for professional and aspiring gamers has taken its share of lumps from several eSport communities, but remains focused on broadcasting consistent, premium daily and weekly eSports content to a global audience.

How do you respond to claims that DingIt’s plug-in architecture mimics the behavior of malware?

DingIt has built a plug-in that makes it possible for fans of gaming to watch HD quality content wherever they are in the world, even where there is a limited broadband connection. The plugin itself is supported by Akamai, the largest Content Distribution Network (CDN) in the world, and is essential to allow our technology to work.

Due to popular demand, we have also released a Google Chrome extension which is available in the Google Play Store. There is no question that the technology is safe. It’s new technology which is redefining that way users watch gaming so it’s understandable that questions are asked around how it works.

If people want to read more about DingIt’s technology, we have detailed info here.

What is DingIt’s approach to building the type of community around a streaming platform that’s vital to continued viewership and user engagement?

We are committed to the gaming community and to how we can help develop a way for broadcasters to reach fans of quality gaming. DingIt’s technology makes it possible for more fans everywhere, including in countries with lesser-developed broadband infrastructure, to experience gaming first hand in HD. We want to provide consistent, premium daily and weekly eSports content. The regular tournaments and events we run attract an audience which quickly becomes a community because the viewers (around 50% returning viewership) come back week on week to watch their favourite teams and pros play.

Furthermore, we provide an industry leading revenue share for broadcasters. We hope this will further encourage quality content onto the site. These early adopters are a critical aspect to our development and we engage with them regularly to help shape DingIt to their needs.

Does DingIt require a client download to watch a stream? If so, does this vibe with the fact that most people simply aren’t interested in doing that to view content?

DingIt does require a plugin or our chrome extension in order to watch our content, the technology we have developed cannot work without it. The benefit to using the plugin is that it offers 27x less buffering, nearly no stream delay and a very large reduction in costs which allows content creators to earn more too. The 130% average monthly growth we are seeing and over 13.5M monthly unique viewers in November (from a standing start in February) tells us that downloading the plugin or using the Chrome extension is a low barrier for use.

We also have both an iOS and android app which allows viewers to watch on the go or on handheld devices.

Is DingIt primarily focused on competitive gaming events or does it maintain plans to court individual streamers also?

Our primary focus has been on running regular eSports events; however, DingIt is an open platform that anybody is able to broadcast on. We have been investing in bespoke eSports events but we also have growing numbers of regular individual broadcasters who we are keen to support, especially those new to broadcasting. DingIt offers $50k in bonus rewards every month as well as high revenue share to continue to develop this creative contingent. The plan for 2016 is to grow our investment in competitive gaming whilst continuing to offer rewards and benefits to our more casual streamers.

Earlier this year DingIt hinted at establishing a 24/7 channel of eSports content. Are there still plans to make that a reality?

We believe that there is a market for a 24/7 channel and have proved that consistent content is what gaming fans want. Creating a slate of content that is sustainable is the key here, so we won’t be rushing into this but it’s definitely a possibility. DingIt is already in profit, largely thanks to the way we have been able to create different kinds of content for different audiences and deliver it all in HD quality wherever our viewers are. A 24/7 channel will only work if the content is sustainable and works for our broadcasters and audiences – that means keeping streaming costs at a minimum. Our technology allows for that, so watch this space.

There are rumblings that the market is in need of more competition for Twitch, but a lot of the current top eSports events are contracted to Twitch. How does DingIt plan to innovate around that?

Twitch has pretty much been the only option of broadcasting large events because smaller platforms can’t provide the necessary benefits to event organizers. We have been busy looking at why other platforms have not been able to make inroads into the market and feel that success is dependent on providing the right value for our partners and our audience. Our streaming technology reduces costs meaning we can provide better financial return. Gaming fans win because they benefit from 27x less buffering, lower latency and much better quality streams. The platform also makes it possible to detect re-streams anywhere in the world and block them. This means we can protect both our own and our partners content rights.

Finally, we have also developed some neat ad tech that prevents ad blockers from working on our streams. This is proving very popular with brands that are looking for quality, guaranteed advertising opportunities around millennial audiences. The market for eSports is growing at a phenomenal rate but it’s very important to innovate at the same pace in order to continue to engage, which we feel we are doing currently.

DingIt recently announced a female-only cup. What was the rationale/motivation for that, given the challenges women face in competitive gaming?

We have seen female teams play in our regular tournaments and provide us with some great games to watch. We decided to run a female-only cup to showcase their skills as pro players and to help raise their profile! It’s something that’s not done very often and we’d like all teams, whether male or female, to get the recognition and support they deserve and this was a fun way of doing just that.

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Alex Fletcher is founder & president at eSports Group, where he helps customers meet their eSports advisory & consulting needs. When Alex isn’t glued to a screen, he spends time with his wife, their two dogs, and pretends to learn Polish. Feel free to stalk him on Twitter – @FletchUnleashed

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