Star Wars: An Empirical Investigation of Star Performer Turnover and Content Supply on Multi-Sided Streaming Platforms: An Empirical Study of Star Performer Turnover and Content Supply on Multisided Streaming Platforms

Competition between user-generated content platforms (e.g., Twitch, Spotify, YouTube) is characterized by fierce talent poaching of highly popular "stars" on the supply side. However, little is known about how the loss of a star affects content production from former cocreating peers on multisided content platforms. Whereas theory suggests that star turnovers might decrease the demand for cocreating peers or trigger them to depart the platform as well, empirical understanding is still lacking. To address this gap, we examine the defection of Fortnite star Richard Tyler "Ninja" Blevins from Twitch.tv to Microsoft Mixer in 2019 using a quasi-experimental research design and novel streamerlevel data. Findings are fourfold. First, the turnover of a star decreases peer creators' content contribution by -20.4%, suggesting that the departure of a star contracts supply for the platform overall. Second, the negative star turnover effect on content contribution is lesser for creators who have a diversified content portfolio and are relatively more popular. Third, evidence suggests that the overall negative effect operates through a downsizing rather than desertion mechanism, (i.e., remaining creators reduce their contribution rather than abandoning the platform entirely). Finally, creators experiment with shifting their focus to other types of content but eventually abandon these efforts. We conclude that star turnover can cause both primary and spillover losses in content supplied to a platform. Our findings have implications for platform management, the content strategy of creators, and our understanding of stars' influence on multisided content platforms.