Overview
Twitch is launching a new ads program to incentivize creators to use our “Ads Manager” feature which runs automated ads on their channel. Creators who participate will earn higher income than normal Ad revenue share which is based on impressions. The incentive will allow creators to earn a fixed $A per minute streamed/broadcasted up to B minutes in any given month. Creator earnings will be calculated as $A x Actual minutes streamed in a month (capped at B minutes) for the program.
Earning Calculations:
Creators earn normal Ads revenue share at a fixed $15 for each 1,000 impressions delivered on their channels ($15 x Actual Impressions Count / 1,000) while not using Ads Manager
Creators can only opt in the program on the 1st calendar day of the month
Creators can exit the program in two ways:
Data on creators who participated in the program is housed in the table, see schema below:
Dimensions
Description
Creator ID
Unique identifier of Creator
Day
- The date
- Minutes Streamed
Number of minutes streamed during the day
- Minutes Rate
Rate ($A) for each minute streamed under this new program
Opt In for this new program
TRUE
FALSE*
Impression Count
Number of impressions delivered on the channel during the day
*False could either mean a creator voluntarily opts out from the new ads program or they hit the maximum of minutes they can stream under the new program
I.Study #1: Accounting Questions & Analysis
List the possible payout scenarios for Jan-22 for a creator who opts in the new ads program on 5/1/2022.
Your team is responsible for supporting the accounting for this product. What are the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) cases you would develop to ensure creator earnings are calculated and reported correctly for Twitch’s financials? Be sure to highlight the "why" behind your suggested procedures.
II.Study #2: Background & Relevant Facts
Content creators are paid on a bi-monthly basis, and all billing information is received from upstream systems. The data is stored as follows (note, all data is stored at Twitch streamer ID level):
Streamer Contracts: stores individual streamer revenue share configurations / terms
System A: calculates Advertising revenue share for streamers based on configurations and Ad impressions
System B: calculates Subscription revenue share for streamers based on configurations and Subscription purchases
System C: calculates Miscellaneous revenue share for streamers based on configurations and Miscellaneous activity
System D: aggregates revenue share data (stored at Twitch streamer ID level) from systems A, B, and C on a calendar month basis
III.Study #2: Accounting Questions & Analysis
The Accounting team pulls data from System D to support month-end journal entries and billing. This data flow has recently been built and the team needs to ensure the data is complete and accurate. No system or internal controls exist for this workflow. How would you go about identifying risk areas, and what controls would you implement going forward to ensure the data is complete and accurate?