Source Code: Your daily look at what matters in tech.
To give you the best possible experience, this site uses cookies. If you continue browsing. you accept our use of cookies. You can review our privacy policy to find out more about the cookies we use.
china| chinaauthorZeyi YangNoneDavid Wertime and our data-obsessed China team analyze China tech for you. Every Wednesday, with alerts on key stories and research.9338dd5bb5
January 27, 2021
Considered China's third-largest game-streaming company, Bilibili has long walked a tightrope to keep the nation's biggest tech companies happy. But to keep growing, it will have to face off with China's entertainment powerhouse, not to mention one of its own investors: the mighty Tencent.
It may be a relative unknown in the U.S., but Bilibili is used by just about every Gen Z Chinese person with an internet connection. A diehard anime fan with a degree in programming named Xu Yi founded it in 2009 as a website for anime video and relevant user-generated content, named after a popular character in a Japanese manga series. After a few years, Bilibili had become not just the country's leading anime community, but its leading video platform, a kind of YouTube for China. Since then, it has diversified, hosting all kinds of entertainment content: lifestyle vlogs, documentaries, movies — and gaming.
Now, after a $4 billion IPO on the Nasdaq in 2018 and an upcoming $2 billion secondary listing in Hong Kong, Bilibili is flush with cash, and its component pieces are beginning to form a closed circle, allowing different products and services to feed traffic and revenue to each other. In other words, it's on the cusp of being something not just big, but huge — large enough to threaten Tencent at the apex of Chinese entertainment technology and trigger the tech giant's defensive instincts.
"Should Bilibili keep expanding and become a larger player, their relationship with Tencent will surely deteriorate," Charlie Chai, vice head of research at the Shanghai-based equity research company 86Research, told Protocol.
Bilibili's big break
Bilibili's ascension began when it figured out that mobile gaming was the best way to monetize its anime fans' loyalty. In 2014, the company successfully distributed a game by miHoYo, the Chinese company that, in 2020, released the worldwide hit Genshin Impact. Bilibili's biggest break came in 2015, when it obtained the Chinese licensing rights to Fate/Grand Order, or FGO, an immensely popular game derived from a Japanese anime franchise that at one point contributed to over half of Bilibili's total revenue. From the day Bilibili listed on the Nasdaq in 2018, mobile gaming has consistently been its biggest source of revenue. Some users call FGO the game that made Bilibili's Nasdaq listing possible.
But there's more to gaming than mobile. Bilibili embraced its early successes by expanding aggressively into other areas, notably esports and livestreaming. "You can say [Bilibili] has done vertical integration," said Zeng Xiaofeng, vice president at Niko Partners, a gaming analytics firm focusing on China.
It founded an esports club, Bilibili Gaming, in 2017, which is now home to a number of professional teams in China, winning top places in national tournaments. The company also manages tournaments, like the esports Shanghai Masters it launched in 2019. It spent a whopping sum of 800 million RMB (about $123 million) in 2019 to purchase the exclusive broadcasting rights to League of Legends tournaments. And its Bilibili esports livestreaming platform is now third only to that of Huya and DouYu, both of which have heavy investment from Tencent.
Investors have noticed. In January, its esports subsidiary received 180 million RMB (about $28 million) in its first round of funding. Zhang Tao, the CEO of one of the investors, Chengdu B-Ray Media, told Chinese press that "Bilibili esports has set foot in all levels of the industry value chain." All three investors in Bilibili esports have state backing; first- and second-tier city governments see esports as the next opportunity to attract young talent and stimulate economic growth.
Beware a Chinese tech titan scorned
Bilibili has so far managed to walk a careful line between China's behemoths. Tencent thrice invested in Bilibili, but just when everyone started to think of it as a Tencent associate, Alibaba declared a plan for strategic cooperation with Bilibili too. Currently, Tencent and Alibaba respectively own the second-largest stake (12.6%) and fourth-largest stake (6.8%) in Bilibili.
Bilibili isn't the only company performing this kind of balancing act — this is life as a yaobu gongsi (腰部公司), literally a "waist-level company," a term that refers to companies that aren't tiny, but aren't yet titans; big enough for the nation's tech giants to consider valid opponents without seeking to crush them in the marketplace. In this way, it's not unlike Q&A site Zhihu, video-sharing app Kuaishou and ecommerce company Vipshop. Each is valued at billions of dollars and is a household name.
Many yaobu companies — like Xiaohongshu, which has replaced Instagram in China, and Didi Chuxing, the unrivaled rideshare leader — take investment from competing giants. They are too big to be bought out, but they're still dwarfed by Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.
If non-titans fail to tread carefully, their larger peers can make life very difficult. In 2013, Alibaba famously decided to block Mogu, an ecommerce challenger, from connecting to its website. Mogu has never really recovered. More recently, ByteDance had the nerve to ascend from China's second tier into its first, resulting in a ferocious reaction from the top dogs, especially Tencent. Tencent-owned WeChat has blocked its users from accessing almost every ByteDance product. "ByteDance and Tencent's relationship went sour because they had some historical clashes, and it gradually reached the point of no return," Chai said. "It's a deliberate choice [by ByteDance]."
By contrast, Bilibili is trying to walk the line. ("Bilibili has chosen not to offend anyone," Chai said.) The company did not respond to Protocol's request for comment. In October 2018, Bilibili and Tencent announced an anime streaming collaboration. Bilibili's CEO Chen Rui commented, "Bilibili needs more powerful partners to achieve the goal [of promoting Chinese anime], a goal that's shared by Tencent." Just two months later, Alibaba became Bilibili's partner in ecommerce, and Chen Rui released a similar message: "On a platform as large as Taobao, the creative and quality content produced by Bilibili users will be seen by more people."
The final mile
However careful it has strived to be, Bilibili is at a tipping point where it could soon become a giant itself. It's diversifying its product and reaching into sub-industries the tech titans have traditionally controlled, including social media, ecommerce and even online payments. Its future likely depends on how it can continue to navigate the dynamics of competing alongside the existing mega-players.
Any fallout could be painful. Because Tencent owns or operates several blockbuster games in China — League of Legends, Honor of Kings, PUBG — as well as platforms Huya and DouYu, it can throw its weight around in the gaming sector. This is why Alibaba's own esports championship doesn't involve any Tencent-owned games, and creators on ByteDance's short videos platforms are banned from streaming Tencent games.
"There's definitely a monopoly in this industry," said Zeng, the gaming analyst, "and it's a powerful monopoly by Tencent." That power can backfire: The merging of Huya and DouYu, brokered by Tencent, is currently under an antitrust investigation.
Contacted by Protocol, Tencent's spokesperson said: "We take an open-platform approach and partner with different category leaders to create value for users, as well as generating synergies with our core businesses."
There are signs of potential further friction. Tencent is reaching deeper into the anime world, Bilibili's core industry, taking back franchises it once leased to Bilibili to broadcast. Meanwhile, Bilibili is moving into the traditional entertainment production industry — arguably Tencent's home court — by investing in heavyweight films, TV series and even a New Year's Eve gala that younger Chinese viewers might enjoy (in contrast to the more staid, if slickly-produced, CCTV special). And in January, Bilibili reportedly registered a domain for, and recruited developers to, its own payment system, an area in which Alibaba and Tencent are some of the world's most powerful companies.
Early signs suggest that could all be straining Bilibili's thus-far cordial relationship with Tencent. Especially when it comes to livestreaming, Bilibili is now seen "not as a useful partner, but a disobedient opponent," an anonymous Tencent employee, told Chinese media outlet Ran Caijing.
Bilibili has tried to talk nice, but its actions have spoken louder than its words as it cements a reputation as a major player in China's entertainment industry. The only thing that now stands between it and greater success is Tencent. This last hurdle will be the highest.
From Your Site Articles
- Sell your tech bonds 'while the getting's good' - Protocol ›
- Verizon strikes a deal with 'League of Legends' - Protocol — The ... ›
- Esports are taking over the world - Protocol — The people, power ... ›
- China's culture wars, now playing on Bilibili - Protocol — The people, power and politics of tech ›
Zeyi Yang
Zeyi Yang is a reporter with Protocol | China. Previously, he worked as a reporting fellow for the digital magazine Rest of World, covering the intersection of technology and culture in China and neighboring countries. He has also contributed to the South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, Columbia Journalism Review, among other publications. In his spare time, Zeyi co-founded a Mandarin podcast that tells LGBTQ stories in China. He has been playing Pokemon for 14 years and has a weird favorite pick.
People
Making the economy work for Black entrepreneurs
Funding for Black-owned startups needs to grow. That's just the start.
"There is no quick fix to close the racial wealth and opportunity gaps, but there are many ways companies can help," said Mastercard's Michael Froman.
Photo: DigitalVision/Getty Images
February 26, 2021
Michael Froman serves as vice chairman and president, Strategic Growth for Mastercard. He and his team drive inclusive growth efforts and partner across public and private sectors to address major societal and economic issues. From 2013 to 2017, Mike served as the U.S. trade representative, President Barack Obama’s principal adviser and negotiator on international trade and investment issues. He is a distinguished fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company.
February 26, 2021
Michael Froman is the vice chairman and president of Strategic Growth for Mastercard.
When Tanya Van Court's daughter shared her 9th birthday wish list — a bike and an investment account — Tanya had a moment of inspiration. She wondered whether helping more kids get excited about saving for goals and learning simple financial principles could help them build a pathway to financial security. With a goal of reaching every kid in America, she founded Goalsetter, a savings and financial literacy app for kids. Last month, Tanya brought in backers including NBA stars Kevin Durant and Chris Paul, raising $3.9 million in seed funding.
<p>
Reaching this milestone is a testament to Tanya's perseverance and resilience as she, like many other Black women founders, struggle to find institutional investors. Our financial system is simply not set up to help Black entrepreneurs launch a business. Most new businesses are initially funded from savings and home equity, but the persistent racial wealth gap in our country places Black would-be entrepreneurs at a dramatic disadvantage since many don't have those assets available. On top of that, of the approximately $625 billion in venture capital invested since 2015, only around $15 billion went to Black and Latinx founders; that's just 2.4% of funding. For Black women founders specifically, the numbers plunge to 0.27% of funding over the past <a href="https://www.projectdiane.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">two years</a>.
</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
</div>
</div></p><p>
This is not an issue that will resolve itself; we need to be deliberate about opening doors and bringing down barriers, not just to solve for one Black or minority-owned business at a time, but to rebuild a system that gives everyone a chance. Capitalism has lifted millions of people out of poverty and improved their quality of life, but it has also left many behind. As we now rebuild our national economy, we need to ensure future growth is inclusive, and that small businesses — the backbone of our economy — recover in a way that lifts up promising Black-owned startups at every point in their journey.
</p><p>
There is no quick fix to close the racial wealth and opportunity gaps, but there are many ways companies can help. Here are four insights we've learned from years of working with startups and community organizations.
</p><p>
<strong>Invest in the network.</strong> Startups like Oakland-based <a href="https://www.mycnote.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNote</a> are working to channel capital to underserved micro and small businesses through a vast network of Black-owned banks, minority credit unions and community development financial institutions that have direct access to many local communities. However, these market innovators are hampered by complex governance requirements that Fortune 200 companies have to put in place before they will do business. We need to make it easier for new players like CNote to pass procurement hurdles and get into the pipeline so they can grow. By helping them on the back end, it opens them up to partnering with large corporates from all across the country.
</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="2">
</div>
</div></p><p>
<strong>Open up access to markets.</strong> For those Black-owned businesses that do secure a first round of funding, their growth trajectory often slows when it comes to entering new markets. A startup's ability to scale increases exponentially when larger companies with trusted relationships not only make introductions to its partners but also offer the startup's services as part of a proposed solution to customers. This is an approach that has helped <a href="https://mocafi.com/about/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MoCaFi</a>, a New York-based, Black-owned startup that offers banking services to lower- and moderate-income communities, to start working with local city leaders in new markets. This work can be mutually beneficial for corporations: The ability to deliver effective support to underserved communities increases when the right partners with the right solutions are brought to the table.
</p><p>
<strong>Digitizing access to capital.</strong> Black entrepreneurs are being denied or given smaller bank loans nearly <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2017-september-availability-of-credit-to-small-businesses.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">twice the rate of</a> their white peers — 54% compared to 30%, respectively. Microfinance institutions and CDFIs have stepped in to fill this void, supporting applications for those previously denied loans. However, the demand exceeds the resources and tools available, and getting funds to those who need it urgently can be challenging. New digital tools can be transformative in this situation if we could accelerate access for these organizations. Many rely on slow paper-based processes, but through the digitization of both applications and distribution of loans, CDFIs like the <a href="https://crfusa.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Community Reinvestment Fund</a> and micro-finance institutions like <a href="https://www.grameenamerica.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Grameen America</a> have been able to process requests faster, more securely and for more businesses, throughout the pandemic.
</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="3">
</div>
</div></p><p>
<strong>Going all in. </strong>Finally, one of the most important lessons we've learned is that the programs and partnerships used to tackle these issues can't be just for a moment in time or a single intervention. For maximum impact, companies need to be all in with the full breadth of their assets — funding, product pilots, supplier practices, consulting services, data insights — as this is how to drive a catalytic impact and create a more sustainable, inclusive digital economy.
</p><p>
As more businesses, CEOs, corporate treasurers and venture capitalists join in this effort, we can collectively help bridge that wealth and opportunity gap. Startups can't scale up if they aren't given that first chance.
</p><p>
As we are reminded during this Black History Month, the problems of racial economic disparity have existed for too long, and although the challenge seems daunting, we are confident that with perseverance we can successfully build a more just and equitable economy. Our early progress matters, and we should make every effort to build on the first steps by coming together across sectors and organizations so that amazing ideas like Tanya's are embraced from the outset.
</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="4">
</div>
</div></p>
Keep Reading
Show less
Michael Froman serves as vice chairman and president, Strategic Growth for Mastercard. He and his team drive inclusive growth efforts and partner across public and private sectors to address major societal and economic issues. From 2013 to 2017, Mike served as the U.S. trade representative, President Barack Obama’s principal adviser and negotiator on international trade and investment issues. He is a distinguished fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company.
Sponsored Content
Building better relationships in the age of all-remote work
How Stripe, Xero and ModSquad work with external partners and customers in Slack channels to build stronger, lasting relationships.
Image: Original by Damian Zaleski
February 21, 2021
February 8, 2021
Every business leader knows you can learn the most about your customers and partners by meeting them face-to-face. But in the wake of Covid-19, the kinds of conversations that were taking place over coffee, meals and in company halls are now relegated to video conferences—which can be less effective for nurturing relationships—and email.
Email inboxes, with hard-to-search threads and siloed messages, not only slow down communication but are also an easy target for scammers. Earlier this year, Google reported more than 18 million daily malware and phishing emails related to Covid-19 scams in just one week and more than 240 million daily spam messages.
<p>To keep the lines of communication wide open in this new reality, organizations are adopting new cloud solutions at a rate CIOs expected to see years from now. In fact, 79% of CIOs agree that the pandemic will force their organizations to digitally transform faster than planned, according to <a href="https://slack.com/blog/transformation/people-partners-systems-slack" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">J.P. Morgan</a>. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
</div>
</div></p><p>But executive leaders know it takes more than just adopting a communication platform or software bundle to build relationships remotely. You have to find the <em>right</em> solution that meets both your internal and external collaboration needs. That's why competitive businesses today are turning to Slack, the <a href="https://slack.com/features/channels" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">channel-based messaging platform, </a>to close communication gaps with partners and customers in the age of remote work. Companies can securely collaborate with external parties using <a href="https://slack.com/help/articles/360017938993-What-is-a-channel" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slack channels</a>, a single place to share files and messages, in the same <a href="https://slack.com/resources/using-slack/setting-up-a-shared-channel" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slack workspace</a> through <a href="http://slack.com/connect" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slack Connect</a>.</p><p>With Slack Connect, organizations can build stronger customer and partner relationships through real-time communication. And unlike email—which leaves users open to the risk of spam and phishing—companies and external parties receive communications only from <a href="https://slackhq.com/introducing-new-layers-of-enterprise-grade-security" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">verified members in Slack channels</a>. Plus, Slack workspace administrators can maintain control over data and monitor external access. </p><p>Here's a closer look at how teams at Stripe, Xero and ModSquad are using Slack Connect to engage customers, prospects and partners in real-time and close deals faster. </p><h4>Stripe: Expediting sales deals while building lasting relationships with customers</h4><p><a href="https://stripe.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stripe</a> is an online payment provider with a mission to support e-commerce. The Stripe sales team works with early-stage startups all the way through global Fortune 500 companies, and uses Slack Connect to engage with customers, keep communication organized and teams in sync, and jump on sales opportunities.</p><p>Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, head of Americas revenue and growth at Stripe, says communicating with prospective customers in Slack has been instrumental in maintaining engagement and closing deals.</p><p class="pull-quote">"Historically, the gold standard of a deep relationship in sales was getting the person on text," says DeWitt Grosser. "Now the gold standard is getting them into a Slack channel."</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="2">
</div>
</div></p><p>Usually at the beginning of a sale, DeWitt Grosser explains, reps used to double down on communication using the "law of 2x." Essentially, you start with a meeting and then follow up a week later. But this strategy no longer makes the cut: A lot could change in a week, and Slack is more in line with the tempo of the digital workplace. </p><p>"In Slack channels, the dialogue with the prospect happens in real time, as opposed to the next time you align your schedules," DeWitt Grosser says. "This kind of personal, persistent connection grows customer loyalty and retention."</p><p>Often sales reps have to communicate with a variety of departments to seal the deal. Instead of emailing them separately and creating silos, Stripe's account executives and solution architects set up a Slack channel with key customer stakeholders, like developers, the head of payments and a finance representative. </p><p>"When you need to move quickly, email is not the right format: It's more formal and responses take longer," says James Dyett, Stripe's head of global product sales and payments optimizations. "Slack has super powers. It's a much better experience." </p><h4>Xero: Working with external partners like they're on the same team</h4><p>If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it's that relationships matter. Whether it's launching a marketing campaign with a partner or hiring contractors to complete a specific project, we can't—and shouldn't—try to do everything ourselves. <br><br>When it comes to nurturing partnerships in the midst of the pandemic, <a href="https://www.xero.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Xero</a>, a cloud-based accounting software company, affirms that working in Slack Connect has been a game changer. Justine Wallendorf, New Zealand partner marketing manager at Xero, says Slack Connect helped her team launch a joint online marketing campaign with partners, <a href="https://www.figured.com/en-us/figured-xero" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Figured</a> and <a href="http://paysauce" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Paysauce</a>. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="3">
</div>
</div></p><p>The three companies were offering a complete software solution for farmers looking to manage their business digitally. By coming together in one Slack channel, #xero-partners, the sales and marketing teams across all three businesses could connect and ensure alignment on: </p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Immediate universal access to all campaign details</li><li>Consistent messaging across sales enablement deliverables, such as one pagers and slide decks</li><li>Quick feedback and turnaround times for deliverables</li><li>Clear leadership signoffs</li></ul><p class="pull-quote">"Working in Slack Connect guaranteed that everyone was beating the same drum and speaking the same language, positioning our partnership as best as possible in the market," Wallendorf says.</p><h4>ModSquad: Winning customer loyalty with exceptional customer support</h4><p>With so much uncertainty in the world, efficient and reliable customer support is akin to a safe harbor in a storm. That's why Slack customer, <a href="https://modsquad.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ModSquad</a> has its support teams troubleshoot customer issues in real time with Slack Connect.</p><p>As a customer experience outsourcer, ModSquad knows good customer service. Each day, ModSquad's global crew of experts—the Mods—help their customers engage with their audiences online through customer support, content moderation, community management and social media. </p><p>ModSquad works with its clients in Slack Connect to set up service level agreements and incorporate support dashboards. With the <a href="https://slack.com/apps/A0108APQFQC-geckoboard" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Geckoboard Slack integration</a>, ModSquad monitors clients' incoming calls and chats—without ever leaving Slack. Whenever the team sees an uptick in activity or service impacting issues, they can quickly alert clients and internal teams for quick resolution. The team also relies on a <a href="https://slack.com/apps/A9WFQ3M0B-zendesk" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Zendesk Slack integration</a> to track service desk tickets, troubleshoot and resolve issues.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="4">
</div>
</div></p><p>According to Steve Henry, senior vice president, client services at ModSquad, Slack channels also help build a culture of transparent communication and trust with clients.</p><p>"Establishing trust with our clients is very important, and Slack provides a crucial component for all of our efforts" Henry says. "With Slack, we can provide world-class support solutions and improvements for our clients, driving efficiencies while growing their business in the process."</p><h4>In an all-remote world, Slack Connect builds strong partnerships</h4><p>Slack Connect is available for <a href="https://slack.com/pricing/paid-vs-free" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">all paid plans</a>. If you're already a customer but new to Slack Connect, feel free to <a href="http://slack.com/contact" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reach out</a> or learn more on <a href="https://slack.com/resources/using-slack/setting-up-a-shared-channel" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">how to get started</a>. And if you want to see how others are using Slack Connect to work with external partners, check out a few of our recent <a href="https://slack.com/blog/collections/slack-connect-shared-channels-shared-success" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">customer stories</a>. </p>
Keep Reading
Show less
People
How Chess.com built a streaming empire
Twitch users watched 18.3 million hours of chess content in January, nearly as much as they consumed throughout 2019. Last week, chess even surpassed League of Legends, Fortnite and Valorant as the most-watched gaming category.
To date, Chess.com has over 57 million members.
Photo: William West/Getty Images
February 22, 2021
Hirsh Chitkara (@ChitkaraHirsh) is a researcher at Protocol, based out of New York City. Before joining Protocol, he worked for Business Insider Intelligence, where he wrote about Big Tech, telecoms, workplace privacy, smart cities, and geopolitics. He also worked on the Strategy & Analytics team at the Cleveland Indians.
February 22, 2021
There's something inherently perverse in calling chess "open source." It's a bit like saying France "pivoted" from monarchy to republic, or that indoor plumbing was a "10x idea."
Nevertheless, it's true: Anyone has free rein to make a chess game.
<p>This makes it all the more surprising that one company — Chess.com — dominates the world of online chess. A company representative estimated that 65% to 70% of online players use Chess.com. As of this writing, there are 427,580 people around the world playing games on the site. Total registered users grew from <a href="https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-many-chess-players-are-there-in-the-world" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">20 million</a> in 2017 to over <a href="https://www.chess.com/members" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">57 million</a> today. </p><p>Some of Chess.com's success has to do with the network effect, since having more players improves matchmaking, which in turn attracts more players. Chess.com also excels at detecting cheaters and bots, an essential capability when we're all just a few clicks away from consulting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMTcawGzbOk" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Magnus-level</a> chess engines. </p><p>In 2018, Chess.com <a href="https://www.chess.com/terms/komodo-chess-engine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">acquired</a> an engine of its own, Komodo, which was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-real-kings-of-chess-are-computers-1420827071" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">once considered the best</a> but has since been narrowly <a href="https://www.chess.com/computer-chess-championship" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">usurped</a> by the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/science/chess-artificial-intelligence.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">open-source Stockfish</a> project. Regardless, investment in engines has been another key to Chess.com's success. Komodo offers post-game analysis, revealing player blunders and missed mate opportunities. Chess.com's engineers have also developed dozens of opponent AI personalities for the community: Some are adaptive, meaning they adjust the skill of each move according to how well the opponent plays; others bring chess legends back to life, using old game logs to emulate their skill and style of play. Following the release of "The Queen's Gambit," Chess.com worked with Netflix to develop engines that simulated Beth Harmon's gameplay from different periods in the show. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
</div>
</div></p><p>These factors are foundational to the success of Chess.com, but they haven't been driving the incredible growth over the last year. That would be streaming. </p><p>"The first thing to understand is that this is many years in the making," Nick Barton, VP of business development at Chess.com, told Protocol. "We've had a partnership going with Twitch since 2018 in which the onus was on Chess.com — because of our market position within the playing sphere, the size of our playing platform and the size of our player base — to try to grow what we would call now the middle class of streamers."</p><p>Chess.com has showcased how investing in a streaming community can provide immense returns over time. Building out from a core group of Chess.com-sponsored streamers, chess has taken Twitch by storm. Throughout February, for instance, Chess.com has been hosting the latest iteration of its signature <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/view/chess-pogchamps-mrbeast-pokimane-xqc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">PogChamps</a> tournament featuring Twitch megastars xQc, Rubius and Pokimane as well as rapper Logic and actor Rainn Wilson. Altogether, Twitch users <a href="https://twitchtracker.com/games/743" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">watched</a> 18.3 million hours of chess in January 2021 — nearly as much as they consumed in the entirety of 2019. And for a brief period last week, chess surpassed League of Legends, Fortnite and Valorant to become the <a href="https://twitter.com/chesscom/status/1361456501534175235?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">top gaming category</a> on Twitch by viewers. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="2">
</div>
</div></p><h3>A star is born</h3><p>When he was 2, Hikaru Nakamura <a href="https://hikarunakamura.com/about-hikaru/#:~:text=Hikaru%20Nakamura%20is%20an%20American%20Chess%20Grandmaster%20who%20was%20born,father%20and%20an%20American%20mother.&text=He%20began%20playing%20at%20the,author%20and%20teacher%20Sunil%20Weeramantry." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">moved</a> with his family from Japan to the U.S. At 7, he played his <a href="https://vault.si.com/vault/2001/12/17/on-the-board-early-only-14-hikaru-nakamura-is-the-best-young-us-player-since-bobby-fischer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first game</a> of chess, and at 15 years and 79 days old, he became the youngest American Grandmaster ever, <a href="https://www.uschesschamps.com/bio/hikaru-nakamura-9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">breaking</a> Bobby Fischer's record. Nakamura has since become a five-time U.S. Chess Champion and the top-ranked player in blitz, a high-speed chess variant.</p><p>This is all to say that Nakamura is one of the greatest to ever play the game, which makes his status as a bona fide Twitch celebrity even more improbable. </p><p>Top chess players have historically been shrouded in mystery, more like academics than movie stars. Legends such as Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca spent much of their lives sequestered indoors, developing chess theory in a bid to elevate the game to new heights. Tournaments gave the world an opportunity to behold their genius, though to the untrained eye, the events provided little in the way of entertainment. </p><p>Nakamura began streaming in July 2017. Danny Rensch, chief chess officer at Chess.com, had been an early advocate for Nakamura to take to Twitch. Looking back on his first stream <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6i69R8QrjA" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">three years later</a>, Nakamura joked that Chess.com locked him in a room and told him to stream if he wanted a contract. By his own standards, Nakamura's first stream was unpolished (referring to himself: "This dude needs to get some energy and some excitement because he sounds really depressed."). The inaugural stream still managed to attract several hundred viewers, thanks in part to promotion on the Chess.com landing page. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="3">
</div>
</div></p><p>In late 2018, despite being on the globetrotting professional chess circuit, Nakamura began streaming on a <a href="https://twitchtracker.com/gmhikaru/statistics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">semi-regular basis</a>. His camera presence improved, as did the channel's production value, thanks to a small team that included Chess.com employees. </p><p>Nakamura turned out to be a genuine streaming talent; his hard-hitting chess content was just as likely to garner views as his<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C30oYMzknPM" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> exhaustive ranking</a> of fast-food chains or his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV0ayW1WUuA" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">session playing the Windows XP pinball game</a>. His streams tap into the appeal of watching a prodigy show glimpses of being an otherwise ordinary person, as when Nakamura tries to identify the meat in his breakfast croissant or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJjfqODUmTI" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">scrolls through memes</a> posted by the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/HikaruNakamura/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">r/HikaruNakamura</a> subreddit. </p><p>By the start of 2020, Nakamura amassed <a href="https://twitchtracker.com/gmhikaru" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">over 80,000</a> Twitch followers — enough to be in the ranks of professional streamers, but not breaking the top 100. </p><p>Then lockdown happened. Sports leagues shut down and boredom became a way of life. This led to what Chess.com's Barton calls the chess meta. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="4">
</div>
</div></p><p>"A meta on Twitch is sort of this respectfully ironic engagement of [something] like a game from childhood or an inside joke among a community," Barton said. "A few key content creators really wanted to tap into what we call the nostalgia meta … and chess became part of this." </p><p>One of those creators was xQc, a French-Canadian streamer and <a href="https://blog.gfuel.com/xqc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">retired professional Overwatch player</a>. xQc is one of the top personalities on Twitch, where he <a href="https://twitchtracker.com/xqcow/statistics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">regularly streams</a> nine or more hours a day, bouncing between games that catch his interest. Nakamura offered to give xQc a chess lesson while streaming. They went over fundamental tactics in this first session, which now has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSzIbeMYkd8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">over 1.4 million</a> views on YouTube. </p><p>Though Nakamura's channel was already gaining viewership from the chess meta, his lesson with xQc marked an inflection point. In the weeks leading up to the lesson, Nakamura's channel <a href="https://twitchtracker.com/gmhikaru" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">would attract</a> around 2,000 live viewers; by May 2020, average live viewership had soared above 13,000. His livestreams now average over 24,000 viewers, making him one of the <a href="https://twitchtracker.com/gmhikaru" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">top global streamers</a>.</p><h3>Cross-pollination </h3><p>Nakamura wasn't the only chess streamer benefitting from the broader Twitch community's interest in the game. In fact, his channel accounts for <a href="https://twitchtracker.com/gmhikaru/statistics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">around 20%</a> of <a href="https://twitchtracker.com/games/743" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">total time spent</a> watching chess on Twitch — a sizable amount, but he's not the only show in town. </p><p>Prior to the pandemic, Chess.com sponsored most of the top chess streamers, even though many of them averaged only a few hundred live viewers per stream. This early investment in the community paid off, as channels such as BotezLive (Alexandra Botez and Andrea Botez), GothamChess (Levy Rozman) and Chessbrah (Eric Hansen) saw viewership increase significantly over the course of 2020.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="5">
</div>
</div></p><p>This wasn't a simple case of a rising tide lifting all boats. Chess.com helped facilitate collaboration between streamers, which helped build a sense of online community and sustain viewers' interest in the game. The Botez sisters <a href="https://youtu.be/MrEX8NNkQ5Y" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">faced off against a blindfolded Nakamura</a>, Nakamura invited Rozman on his channel to help <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95057f-T0VE&t=2237s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rank the greatest chess players of all time</a>, Hansen challenged Alexandra Botez to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPOgGGsRnx0&t=132s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a series of blitz games</a> with $1,000 on the line — the cycle went on and on. </p><p>"We were able to create this roster of diverse personalities so that someone could log on and watch an untitled player that might be at the same level they are or they could watch Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, who now has over a million followers on Twitch, and everything in between," Barton said. "This was the core focus for us for quite a few years, and it took a very long time for it to catch on." </p><p>Streaming provided a secondary benefit to the chess community in that it gave lifelong players a new way to monetize their talents. Similar to aspiring professional athletes, chess amateurs often dedicate their youth to the game, hoping to become one of the top 20 or so players who can make a living on tournament earnings alone. If amateurs failed to reach this ultra-elite status, their remaining options within the chess world were primarily limited to coaching or migrating to the business side. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="6">
</div>
</div></p><p>The Botez sisters are exemplary of the new paradigm. Alexandra and her younger sister Andrea started playing chess at age 6. They trained with their father and began winning competitive tournaments — so much so that they both were chosen to represent Canada in the Chess Olympiad. Alexandra won the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/12/05/alexandra-botez-is-taking-the-chess-world-by-storm-live-on-twitch/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. Girls National Championship</a> at 15 and later captained the Stanford chess club. </p><p>Despite all the accolades, Alexandra and Andrea didn't think they could make a living from chess. Andrea told Protocol that Alexandra began streaming while at Stanford "as a hobby, just something for fun, because she missed playing in competitive tournaments." After graduating, Alexandra co-founded a social media startup, but it <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/12/05/alexandra-botez-is-taking-the-chess-world-by-storm-live-on-twitch/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">folded in 2019</a>. </p><p>It was only after the pandemic hit that the Botez sisters began streaming together regularly. Alexandra moved back home, and Andrea was wrapping up high school. "That was right before the chess boom, so we were able to build our foundation as a sibling channel," Andrea said. Since the start of the pandemic, BotezLive has seen <a href="https://twitchtracker.com/botezlive" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">live viewership increase</a> by more than 1,600%. In December 2020, Alexandra and Andrea <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhxgxfObL8Q" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed to Team Envy</a>, a top esports organization. </p><h3>Sustaining the meta</h3><p>If xQc's first stream with Nakamura was the most important event for jumpstarting the chess meta, then PogChamps has been the most important for sustaining it. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="7">
</div>
</div></p><p>Chess.com put up $50,000 in prize money for the <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/view/chess-com-pogchamps-twitch-rivals" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first PogChamps tournament</a> in June 2020. It <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/view/voyboy-moistcr1tikal-win-chess-pogchamps-finals" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">featured</a> many of <a href="https://www.chess.com/article/view/chesscom-pogchamps" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitch's top streamers</a>, including xQc, Ludwig, moistCr1tikal and VoyBoy. Nakamura and Alexandra Botez coached the participants and later served as commentators for live matches. The inaugural tournament broke all sorts of viewership records, <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/view/voyboy-moistcr1tikal-win-chess-pogchamps-finals" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">including</a> the first chess stream to break 1 million unique views and the first time a chess video reached 150,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch. Many of these records have since been eclipsed by the second and third iteration of PogChamps, as well as the BlockChamps tournament (for Minecraft streamers) produced by Chess.com in collaboration with the Botez sisters. </p><p>PogChamps significantly raised the profile of chess in the esports and streaming world — so much so that the wider chess world took notice. Most feedback was positive, but a few prominent voices complained that it degraded the sport. Stefan Löffler, an editor at ChessTech, <a href="https://www.chesstech.org/2020/is-pogchamps-a-good-way-to-promote/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">likened PogChamps</a> to reality TV in which "celebrities embarrassed themselves for attention, publicity and a handful of cash." On his own stream, Grandmaster Ben Finegold disparaged PogChamps participants (referring to xQc as "QVC") as having "negative talent in life." Grandmaster Yan Nepomniachtchi was a bit more even-keeled when he <a href="https://twitter.com/lachesisq/status/1363614821002969091?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a>, "With all respect towards [Chess.com] and amount of work they put into promoting chess, #PogChamps3 as a popcorn stuff is replacing and displacing any real chess content and this is just terrifying."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<a href="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MzI3NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NzQ3NjQwN30.HBdOgU5PTRXzZ16fN7u5IJC4za9SqCY0Y_ZgshKwvy0/img.png?width=980" target="_blank"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MzI3NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NzQ3NjQwN30.HBdOgU5PTRXzZ16fN7u5IJC4za9SqCY0Y_ZgshKwvy0/img.png?width=980" id="b8360" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6e981fd7ddbe28ef19a2a1557b9c0197" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></a>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">WFM Alexandra Botez, GM Hikaru Nakamura and Chess.com's IM Danny Rensch were commentators during PogChamps 3. </small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
Image: Chess.com
</small>
</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="8">
</div>
</div></p><p>Politics aside, the simple fact is that Chess.com's streaming efforts have helped chess reach a broader audience than perhaps ever before.<br></p><p>This expanded audience includes people like Sunjay Josyula, a product manager in Michigan. Josyula turned to streamers after "The Queen's Gambit" renewed his interest in chess, which he hadn't played since childhood. "Now when I have time after work, I would rather fire up a chess game and play that versus watch a show," Josyula told Protocol. </p><p>Similarly, after lockdowns shut down the pickup basketball scene, D.C.-based journalist Cole Carnick found himself without a competitive outlet. He stumbled upon Nakamura and Rozman chess content on YouTube. He has now played over 4,000 games on Chess.com. "At the time, a lot of people were talking about how they wanted to get a pandemic hobby," Carnick said. "That wasn't the situation — it was just something I started doing, and then I realized I was playing several matches a day."</p><p>For those worried Twitch and PogChamps are changing chess for the worse, there may be some comfort in appreciating the longevity of the game. "Chess has been around for a very long time, and it will continue to exist long after the term esports has ceased to exist," Barton said.</p><p><strong><em>Correction</em></strong><em>: This story was updated Feb. 22 to correct the spelling of Sunjay Josyula's name.</em></p>
From Your Site Articles
- Nvidia ignores the console wars and doubles down on GPUs ... ›
- Facebook thinks the future of Oculus is top-end games - Protocol ... ›
- Google and Microsoft are betting big on gaming in 2020 - Protocol ... ›
- Amazon is good at so many things. Why is it bad at games? - Protocol ›
- Chess stormed Twitch thanks to chess.com streaming - Protocol — The people, power and politics of tech ›
- ViacomCBS to launch Paramount+ streaming service for $9.99 a month - Protocol — The people, power and politics of tech ›
- Paramount+ is CBS's new streaming service - Protocol — The people, power and politics of tech ›
Keep Reading
Show less
Hirsh Chitkara (@ChitkaraHirsh) is a researcher at Protocol, based out of New York City. Before joining Protocol, he worked for Business Insider Intelligence, where he wrote about Big Tech, telecoms, workplace privacy, smart cities, and geopolitics. He also worked on the Strategy & Analytics team at the Cleveland Indians.
Transforming 2021
Blockchain, QR codes and your phone: the race to build vaccine passports
Digital verification systems could give people the freedom to work and travel. Here's how they could actually happen.
One day, you might not need to carry that physical passport around, either.
Photo: CommonPass
February 23, 2021
Mike Murphy ( @mcwm) is the director of special projects at Protocol, focusing on the industries being rapidly upended by technology and the companies disrupting incumbents. Previously, Mike was the technology editor at Quartz, where he frequently wrote on robotics, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics.
February 23, 2021
There will come a time, hopefully in the near future, when you'll feel comfortable getting on a plane again. You might even stop at the lounge at the airport, head to the regional office when you land and maybe even see a concert that evening. This seemingly distant reality will depend upon vaccine rollouts continuing on schedule, an open-sourced digital verification system and, amazingly, the blockchain.
Several countries around the world have begun to prepare for what comes after vaccinations. Swaths of the population will be vaccinated before others, but that hasn't stopped industries decimated by the pandemic from pioneering ways to get some people back to work and play. One of the most promising efforts is the idea of a "vaccine passport," which would allow individuals to show proof that they've been vaccinated against COVID-19 in a way that could be verified by businesses to allow them to travel, work or relax in public without a great fear of spreading the virus.
<p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
</div>
</div></p><p>But building a system that everyone agrees with — and can access — is no small task. There are several companies working on competing projects to verify vaccinations. But beyond that, there are more than a few hurdles that could prevent vaccine passports from succeeding, from antiquated medical records systems to interoperability issues and privacy concerns. Here's how they could actually succeed. </p><h3>Competing projects, similar standards</h3><p>Pretty much since the first blockchain white paper, people have been looking for perfect examples of where a distributed, immutable ledger could be valuable. There's obviously the push to use it for currencies, and companies have tried to use it for things like tracking <a href="https://www.protocol.com/ibm-blockchain-supply-produce-coffee" target="_self">food production</a> and <a href="https://www.govtech.com/products/Blockchain-Voting-Debate-Heats-Up-After-Historic-Election.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">voting</a>, but there are few use cases that have truly taken off, at least so far. "We've been working on this since 2014; we never thought that health care would be the kind of the use case that we take this mainstream," Jamie Smith, the senior director of business development at Evernym, a company focused on using the blockchain as a basis for verifying identities, told Protocol. </p><p>Smith said Evernym had been discussing its concepts with automakers, retailers, telcos, governments, loyalty companies and banks prior to the pandemic. One of those companies was IAG, the airline group that owns British Airways, which had been interested in the idea of contactless travel based on a single identity credential that follows you from the airport check-in to your gate. With the pandemic, that morphed into thinking about ways to verify that passengers have had negative COVID tests, and eventually, that they've received a vaccine. "From our perspective, it was a really easy lift to see," Smith said. "We're doing contactless travel, and we just added verifiable credentials for test results."</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="2">
</div>
</div></p><p>It's a similar genesis for IBM's Digital Health Pass initiative, which leader Eric Piscini said started about two years ago as a way to store people's entire health records in a safe, accessible platform. It also relies on the blockchain for its immutable record of proof, and both Evernym and IBM are part of an open-standards group called the Good Health Pass Collaborative, which aims to bring private credentialed vaccine records to business and people around the world. Companies are working on their own implementations of the standards, but Evernym's Smith said the data is meant to be portable from one passport to another. </p><p>Most of the companies working on passports say their systems are private by design, especially given that they're mainly working off the same open standards. In most cases, the health information only ever remains on a user's phone, but where it asks to verify that the user's information meets a system's standards — such as whether this person has had two COVID vaccines and should be allowed into an office — that information is recorded on a blockchain. "You can, using blockchain technologies, verify that someone has been tested recently, without having access to the underlying data," Piscini said. "I don't know any other technology where you can do that."</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="3">
</div>
</div></p><p>Similarly, the nonprofit Commons Project's CommonPass, backed by the likes of Oracle, Microsoft and Salesforce, started out as a project to bring an analog to Apple Health for Android. JP Pollak, a senior researcher at Cornell and founder of the Commons Project, first launched CommonHealth to bring the sort of data and insights that Apple Health offers to iPhone owners to Android users. Last summer, the group started building an app that could take health data and privately share it with others — in that case, it was to help truckers stuck at the borders in <a href="https://www.newtimes.co.rw/opinions/digital-technology-re-opening-africa" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">East African countries</a> who couldn't easily prove they'd taken COVID tests. This morphed into vaccine credentialing, with the group now working to pull together the various data streams needed to get a project like this off the ground. </p><p>"Health care institutions, EMR vendors, retail pharmacies, state vaccine registries, all issuing people a digital verifiable credential of their vaccination record that they could then use in the app of their choice, to be able to get access to various kinds of services," Pollak said. CommonPass is also working with the Mayo Clinic, as well as Epic Systems and Cerner, two of the largest EMR vendors. </p><h3>Something for everyone </h3><p>With so many competing efforts to become the world's digital vaccine passport, it might seem that the country is heading for some sort of VHS versus Betamax format war for proving everyone has had COVID vaccines. But given that so many of the efforts are using the same standards, and in many cases, looking to embed their tech in someone else's app rather than their own, the race might be less about the best tech winning, and more about various approaches working in different situations. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="4">
</div>
</div></p><p>"The intent is not to be the only company; we don't want to be the proprietary platform that everybody has to use because they have no choice," IBM's Piscini said. "That's not who we are right now: That's the IBM from 30 years ago, not the IBM of today."</p><p>For IBM, though, the selling point is that the company already works with so many other massive companies. Why look elsewhere for a vaccine passport solution if your airline booking system is already powered by IBM? "We believe our network is going to be more valuable than any other because of our scale and our ability to integrate the platform with CRM systems, building systems or stadium systems — we can do that every day," Piscini said.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY2NTc3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTM1MjYyM30._ykxxCyx3_wDbZrYgCcmK0QT2Ue1tZFdP5pf60kOmPU/img.jpg?width=980" id="c81c9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3967636652192acfdaad341861263bc8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">IATA's digital passport app.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo: IATA</small></p><p>For other companies, it's about securing new partnerships with major players in the hopes of finding that scale. Evernym, for example, is working with International Air Transport Association, the airline industry's trade association, on an air travel-specific app called Travel Pass. IATA is working with airlines and local governments to ensure it has the latest requirements to feed the app's rules engine. "It will say, 'Hey, you're flying JFK to Heathrow, you need a PCR test 48 hours in advance before you can land,'" Evernym's Smith said. "And of course, those policy changes are changing every day." Qatar, Emirates and Etihad Airways are all <a href="https://simpleflying.com/qatar-iata-travel-pass-launch/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">expected</a> to start trialing the app in the next few weeks.<br></p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="5">
</div>
</div></p><p>In other instances, the technology will live inside other companies' existing apps; why make someone download yet another app and add another hurdle to compliance? Instead, the experience will be rather like adding a loyalty account or TSA PreCheck number when booking a flight. Airlines and other venues restricting access will require uploading negative test results or vaccine records using one of these services. "You're going to be using the United or the Delta app, and they'll be using our solution or somebody else's, but you will do it via their app," IATA's Travel Pass lead, Alan Murray Hayden, told Protocol.</p><p>The World Health Organization is also working on its own offering, and recently convened the <a href="https://www.who.int/groups/smart-vaccination-certificate-working-group" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smart Vaccination Certificate Working Group</a>. It's built upon the WHO's nearly century-old notion of the "yellow card" vaccination record, which first was used to document that travelers had been inoculated against diseases such as cholera and yellow fever. Evernym Chief Trust Officer Drummond Reed is part of the working group; he said there should be more to share in the coming months. </p><h3>What could go wrong?</h3><p>It's entirely possible that as more people start to get vaccinated, vaccine passports start to become the norm. You walk to work — still masked, of course — scan a QR code reader in the lobby, and are let in. You go out for lunch, and your loyalty card app has a discount for in-store shoppers verifying they're vaccinated. Your concert ticket is also tied to health pass information that you shared earlier in the day with Ticketmaster. But there are more than a few hurdles ahead of the companies rushing to turn these concepts into realities. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="6">
</div>
</div></p><p>First off, there's the … reality … of the real world that any digital system has to contend with. For anyone without access to the internet, digital vaccine credentials will prove difficult to acquire, though all the companies Protocol spoke with said they would offer a paper-based QR code for people who don't have smartphones. But there's also the issue of having to corral so many different stakeholders into one system, especially when some health care providers are still reliant on antiquated database systems or <a href="https://www.protocol.com/manuals/health-care-revolution/electronic-health-records-after-coronavirus" target="_self">even paper records</a>. "The amount of inefficiency in the system is tremendous," IBM's Piscini said. </p><p>But in the U.S. at least, all vaccinators are required to report COVID-19 vaccines to their state. Piscini said that even for people who just received a paper copy of their vaccine records, systems like IBM's can likely link up to the state's immunization registry and allow people to import records to a vaccine passport.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY2NTc4My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzg3MTM2M30.RZtqR7F_FuXK1S24V6jVaqUZ0xOSG-gCwj00xU3fxcM/img.png?width=980" id="b0bd3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="11d8002d92c0cd6ef39b12fc7b8dccf8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">How CommonPass's app shows your records. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Image: CommonPass</small></p><p>And states are willing to help out, Pollak said, adding that CommonPass has started working with Hawaii to roll out its offering for would-be tourists. "We're seeing a lot of state governments stepping up and doing a really good job with this," Pollak said. "It would be surprising if there wasn't a coordinated federal effort very soon." That being said, while <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/iceland-covid-passports-canada-1.5904828" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">many countries around</a> the world are committing to working on vaccine passports, getting a straight answer out of the U.S. government on what it's doing has proven difficult. The State Department, which maintains America's traditional, analogue passports, referred me to Homeland Security, which referred me to the White House. The acting director and chief of staff of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, Kei Koizumi, told Protocol that "OSTP can't discuss projects we are working on before they are publicly announced."</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="7">
</div>
</div></p><p>But even with systems in place at a federal level, there's still a fair amount of education that needs to happen before people will trust systems like these. "There's a substantial gap in understanding and knowledge of how these systems work, and people's views, in terms of who should get access to which data," Pollak said. </p><p>"We assume there's a Facebook Borg in the sky, monitoring every interaction," Smith said. "The emergence of verifiable credentials breaks down that mental model, where actually it becomes more like decentralized bits of paper that I can carry around, and no one's to know that I've been sharing this information."</p><p>"Our belief is that if you do the right thing, from a platform point of view, protecting your privacy, and giving you control and access to the platform to everybody who wants to use it," Piscini said. "I think those are very basic things that allow the core of the platform that we build to generate adoption by the individuals."</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="8">
</div>
</div></p><p>Even with a system that works, there may still be holdouts to this potential new normal. "Some people are saying, 'I will never get vaccinated,'" Piscini said, "and I don't know if the airlines are going to say, 'Well, maybe you will never fly again.'"</p>
Keep Reading
Show less
Mike Murphy ( @mcwm) is the director of special projects at Protocol, focusing on the industries being rapidly upended by technology and the companies disrupting incumbents. Previously, Mike was the technology editor at Quartz, where he frequently wrote on robotics, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics.
EA wants to take esports mainstream
Todd Sitrin on EA's unconventional competitive gaming strategy.
EA's esports strategy is driven by traditional sports games, such as the immensely popular Madden NFL and FIFA titles, and the TV show "The Sims Spark'd."
Image: EA
February 19, 2021
Shakeel Hashim ( @shakeelhashim) is a growth manager at Protocol, based in London. He was previously an analyst at Finimize covering business and economics, and a digital journalist at News UK. His writing has appeared in The Economist and its book, Uncommon Knowledge.
February 19, 2021
Todd Sitrin's been in the gaming industry for close to 30 years, and he's got a confession to make: "I don't understand League of Legends."
Sitrin, who heads up EA's competitive gaming entertainment group, is far from the only one. Despite its immense popularity among both players and esport spectators, League is a notoriously complicated game. For League, as with most esports, Sitrin thinks that "in order for you to enjoy it, or even understand it, you have to be a player of that game — or certainly a pretty darn hardcore player of video games." That, Sitrin thinks, limits many esports' potential. "Their audience is capped by the size of the popularity of their games," he said. "There is a huge population that finds what the entire industry is doing as completely inaccessible."
<p>For Sitrin, that presents an opportunity. "Our vision is to take competitive entertainment mainstream," he said. And EA has a particularly specific definition of "mainstream": People should be able to enjoy watching competitive gaming without being players of the games. Sitrin pointed to "The Great British Bake-Off" as an example. "I do not bake, I do not cook," he said. "But I watched that religiously, because it is entertaining as hell." In the same way that "GBBO" created a baking show that anybody, even non-bakers, can watch, EA wants to make competitive gaming shows that people will watch even if they don't game.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
</div>
</div></p><p>EA might have an advantage over other publishers in doing that, because its esports strategy is driven by traditional sports games, such as the immensely popular Madden NFL and FIFA titles. For FIFA, Sitrin said, "the lowest-hanging fruit will be the core FIFA video game player," followed by the rest of FIFA's 100 million-strong player base. But he thinks there's scope to grow the audience much, much more. There are around 4 billion soccer fans in the world, he said, and Sitrin counts those as potential fans of FIFA esports, too: That's "the big prize." </p><p>Part of EA's strategy for reaching that 4 billion involves deviating from the traditional way of making esports content. "Esports, historically, has played from the exact same playbook for 20 years," Sitrin said. "It's two people behind a broadcaster desk, one person is going to do play-by-play, the other person is going to do the color analysis." In other words, it's "a traditional sports presentation." EA thinks that format is ripe for disruption.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="2">
</div>
</div></p><p>Sitrin and EA might be right. ESPN, which started covering esports in 2016, pulled the plug last year. "Esports on ESPN.com was by far our lowest-trafficked section," ESPN said when explaining the decision to end coverage. If traditional sports broadcasters can't make esports work, EA's gamble to try something completely different might pay off.</p><p>The best example so far is "The Sims Spark'd," a reality competition show based around The Sims. The show, which aired both digitally on BuzzFeed and linearly on TBS, was a big departure from traditional esports content, but still fits in with EA's expanded idea of "competitive gaming entertainment." It's "a prime example of how we are approaching it through an entertainment lens," Sitrin explained, pointing to how the change in format helped increase diversity, too. "Almost 90% of the competitors were female," he said. "That's the most diverse thing this industry's ever produced."</p><p>EA hopes to make money from more entertainment-focused products themselves, through sponsorships and media deals. But it also hopes to use them as a way to bring viewers "farther down the marketing funnel." Sitrin pointed to another entertainment-focused series, Derwin James vs. The World, which featured NFL player Derwin James playing various online and offline celebrities at Madden. "We acquire you with the entertainment property," Sitrin said, "because maybe you're a fan of ... some rap artist that's going to be on the broadcast. You watch it, and then we introduce you to the fact there's this other thing where professional players are playing esports. We try to sequence things to bring a non-viewer to becoming a viewer, and a viewer to becoming a fan."</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="3">
</div>
</div></p><p>So far, it's still early days. EA says its FIFA 21 Challenge, which paired top soccer players up with FIFA esports players, had an average minute audience of 254,057. That's EA's most-watched esports broadcast in history, but still minuscule compared to last year's League of Legends World Championship Final, which had an audience of 23 million. Sitrin might not understand League, but plenty of others still do.</p>
From Your Site Articles
Keep Reading
Show less
Shakeel Hashim ( @shakeelhashim) is a growth manager at Protocol, based in London. He was previously an analyst at Finimize covering business and economics, and a digital journalist at News UK. His writing has appeared in The Economist and its book, Uncommon Knowledge.
Latest Stories
See more
Most Popular
Bulletins
February 25, 2021 17:33 EST
February 24, 2021 18:59 EST
Get Source Code in your inbox
David Pierce's daily analysis of the tech news that matters.