‘Newness’ Will be Your New Favorite Beauty Streaming Platform

When two former Twitch employees saw the gap in beauty-content streaming, they grabbed the opportunity to push for community-driven content in the industry. Now, Newness has become a valuable treasure trove of beauty secrets.

In recent years, there has been an influx of beauty gurus on different social media channels. Now, people come to the internet for make-up and skincare advice, whether it’s for chemical peels or how to do the perfect brows. This content emergence inspired former Twitch employees Youri Park and Jenny Qian to create Newness.

About Newness

Park and Qian were inspired by gaming platform Twitch to create an exclusive and positive live streaming platform for all beauty enthusiasts. Whatever your interest is, you’ll surely find something in this space. The start-up has raised $3.5 million in a Sequoia-led seed round.

In the new seed round, other investors included Cowboy Ventures, Upside Partnership, Dream Machine, Index Ventures, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Eventbrite founders Julia and Kevin Hartz, former Twitch executives John Sutton and Jonathan Shipman, Incredible Health CEO and co-founder Iman Abuzeid, as well as other angel investors from Twitch.

Beauty brand Tatcha already signed a sponsorship deal with Newness, and they are even debuting their Silk Powder on the platform with keynote live streams and expert-led panels.

“You can get so much more information across. On Newness, I thought the two-way interaction helps you tailor information to what’s most important to the community watching. It’s nice because beauty is very personal, and there are so many tips and tricks with each product,” said Vicky Tsai, Tatcha founder.

Beauty streamers do not have a shortage of streaming platforms to choose from, thanks to the emergence of TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube, but what makes Newness special is it offers special tools and features for beauty streamers. This includes the option to do private and public streams, as well as offering contributions for those who engage in their content. There are also moderation features so fans can access free beauty products through participating.

The Authenticity of Newness

Newness also highlights a greater sense of authenticity, with no added special effects, and more candid conversations and interactions. The four-pronged community mission of the new platform are inclusion, joy, compassion, and learning. Not surprisingly, it’s not just amateur beauty gurus that love Newness. Even professional make-up artists are drawn to it. 

“Newness picks up where IG live drops off,” said Daniel Martin, Meghan Markle’s make-up artist. 

“You have this instant connection with these people, and I just got sucked into it,” he added.

Inspiration Behind Newness

The idea for the streaming platform came after Qian, who held a few roles at the OG game streaming site, started to gain interest in skincare after turning 30, and then she realized the need for a live streaming space for beauty. 

“It made me scratch my head and think: Why didn’t something like this exist for the beauty community? It’s a community that is just as passionate, if not more so … and it’s a content category that is so incredibly popular. How come there isn’t a live medium available?” she shared, adding that she was so used to Twitch’s format and she felt as if she was spoiled with live streaming. 

Hanging out with streamers and being able to ask them questions motivated her to believe in the potential of live format. However, she still did not feel comfortable with using Twitch for her idea. 

“It’s one thing to be made fun of for my gameplay. But I think it’s another if I take my makeup off and people are making fun of me for how I look. It just cuts to a whole new level,” said Qian. 

Park, on the other hand, also worked for Facebook Gaming and Blizzard, aside from Twitch.