Lessons from Mixer

Microsoft is shutting down Mixer, a streaming service meant to compete with the likes of Twitch:
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/22/21299032/microsoft-mixer-closing-facebook-gaming-partnership-xcloud-features

This is less than a year after Microsoft made waves courting Twitch's biggest names with multi-million dollar contracts. It was estimated Mixer paid Twitch's biggest star, Ninja, up to $30 million to stream on Mixer exclusively.

This is mostly speculation, but I have some theories on what happened here:

• Microsoft thought by basically "buying" Twitch's biggest stars that their communities would follow them to Mixer, and in turn, a large chunk of the Twitch audience.
• But what happened, was that some members of the Twitch community joined Mixer to follow their favorite streamers, but the Mixer eco-system was not enticing enough to completely replace Twitch. So people stopped by to watch Ninja or Shroud, and then immediately returned to Twitch.
• Microsoft spent their money buying influence, but didn't invest in the product itself. My personal experience with Mixer was not good. Twitch is much more user friendly and produces higher quality streams.

Watching all this unfold, I think it offers some great lessons for indie hackers.

1. Audience building isn't a "one and done" kind of deal: You have to tend to it like a garden. Mixer did the equivalent of throwing some seeds in the ground and expecting them to bare fruit within a month. Likewise, it takes more than one day on the front page of Hacker News or Product Hunt to build an audience and grow a meaningful user base.
2. Don't fear the copy cats: Twitch is so much more than a handful of popular streamers, something Mixer failed to see. They've spent years getting feedback from streamers as well as viewers to improve everyone's experience. I didn't realize this at first, but when I used Mixer, I felt it.

What do you think?