Kick Surpasses 100M Users, Founder Talks About the Hurdles to Get to This Point

On April 10, 2026, popular streaming platform Kick, which has strong ties to the online casino Stake, revealed that its livestreaming platform had surpassed 100 million users just three years after launching. At the same time, co-founder Bijan Tehrani took the opportunity to acknowledge that some areas have fallen short.

Kick Co-Founder Talks About the Achievement

In a public letter to the Kick community, Tehrani said he was proud of the team’s progress in reaching the 100 million user milestone. However, he also admitted that it was ultimately more of a vanity achievement, as they were not yet where they needed or should be.

Tehrani also explained that the platform had deliberately retained its beta label, acknowledging that it had been rushed to market with weak infrastructure, underdeveloped purchasing technology, and unreliable streaming. According to Tehrani, much of the past three years had been spent addressing and improving those shortcomings.

Tehrani further noted that Kick has had significant financial backing from his other business, Stake. He and fellow co-founder Eddie Craven have invested nearly $1 billion into Kick so far, Tehrani said. The entrepreneur also identified Kick’s mobile app as a continuing weak spot for the company. He added that a complete rebuild is currently in progress and that he is personally overseeing the effort to ensure a significantly improved user experience.

Kick’s Investment Model Has Changed

Tehrani also commented on how the company now approaches deals with creators. He explained that, in the early days, the platform offered massive agreements to high-profile streamers, such as the two-year contract the popular streamer xQc signed in June 2023, which was reportedly valued at up to $100 million.

While stunts like these garnered a lot of attention and short-term growth, Tehrani said they were financially unsustainable in the long term. The focus has since moved away from these large contracts and toward strengthening the economics of the Kick Partner Program. Now, there’s an emphasis on rewarding creators who build authentic communities, Tehrani said. Despite that, in previous months, there were rumors that Kick had cut earnings from its partnership program, which prompted an official response from Craven.

Kick’s next phase involves a new recommendation feature that is currently available to around 10% of users. It is intended to highlight authentic streamers based on genuine engagement rather than inflated metrics or internal preferences. Kick is pursuing this approach to become the best long-form streaming platform for authentic engagement and discovery, Tehrani explained.