Emmett Shear is a prominent person in the IT and gaming communities, having co-founded the renowned live broadcasting platform Twitch. With the rise of Twitch and the burgeoning gaming business, many individuals have pondered Shear’s net worth and success.
This article examines Emmett Shear’s road to becoming one of the most prominent personalities in the gaming business, as well as his net worth.
Early Life
Emmett Shear was born in Seattle, Washington in 1983. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in computer science.
During his stay at Harvard, Shear became interested in video game design, which ultimately led to his employment in the gaming industry. Yale University granted him a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 2005.
After graduating from college, Emmett and Justin Kan founded Kiko Software, the first AJAX-based online calendar. During an interview, he stated, “I established my first startup with Justin Kan right out of college, and it worked well.”
Later, they sold the business on eBay for $258,000. Shear, Michael Seibel, Kyle Vogt, and Justin Kan founded Justin. tv in 2007 to allow anyone to stream internet video. The initial Justin. tv consisted of a single channel on which creator Kan streamed his life around the clock.
“We initially attempted to create a reality television show about my friend Justin’s life,” Emmett explained of Justin. tv’s fundamental concept. Twitch was created as a spin-off of Justin. tv in June 2011.
Later, Emmett elaborated: “I founded Twitch because I was passionate about video game content and believed there was a large demand for it.” Twitch allows players to broadcast their live games to other Twitch users. Also, they can make the video accessible for later viewing.
On August 29, 2011, he was appointed Twitch’s CEO. Forbes Magazine put Shear on their 30 under 30 lists in 2012. Amazon acquired Twitch in August 2014 for $970 million.
In a statement to Twitch users at the time, Emmett explained, “We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term ambition, and they want to help us get there faster.”
Google was apparently interested in acquiring Twitch for a stunning $1 billion before Amazon’s acquisition.
Under Amazon, he maintained his position as CEO of Twitch Interactive. Emmett participated in the 2016 documentary “A New Hero: The Emergence of Collegiate Gaming” himself.
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Career Beginnings
After graduating from Harvard, Shear started working as a software engineer at Kiko Labs, a startup. But, after the company failed to gain traction, Shear and his colleagues decided to create a new product: a Google Calendar-competitive calendar application.
The new product is known as Justin. tv debuted in 2007 and gained popularity rapidly as a platform for live-streaming video content.
But, the site’s owners quickly noticed that the gaming content was the most popular, prompting them to pivot once more and focus only on gaming content.
Net Worth
Emmett Shear has a net worth of approximately 100 million dollars as of June 2023, but that is not all. As the proprietor of the business, Shear received an annual revenue of $1.54 billion. In addition, Amazon.com paid him $970,000,000 to acquire his asset company.
According to many reports, Shear is putting his wealth to noble use. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the renowned investor has donated over a million dollars to non-profit groups that aid women and minorities.
Twitch and Get Rich
In 2011, Justin. tv was shut down, and it was replaced by Twitch, which is a live streaming service that only shows video games. The platform quickly gained a huge number of users, and by 2014, Twitch was the fourth largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States.
Amazon reportedly bought Twitch for $970 million in 2014, which was a huge win for Shear and his co-founders. Shear stayed as Twitch’s CEO until 2019. After that, he took on a new job as the chairman of the board.