The future of press is on social media, as demonstrated by the Spanish influencer Ibai Llanos, who obtained an exclusive interview with Lionel Messi during his official presentation as a new player for Paris Saint-Germain.

 

Llanos, who is a dedicated streamer and commentator of sports video games through Twitch for several years, was one of the few attendees at the player's presentation event at El Parque de los Príncipes.

 

He even got an informal interview with the star — something unthinkable a few years ago, when the mainstream media monopolized these special events.

 

The live stream had an average of 243,000 viewers, and peaked at 552,000. It's a greater reach than any other television station present at the presentation.

 

The entire stream lasted 40 minutes, however, the interview with Messi lasted only three minutes, but that was enough to drive his audience crazy. The questions were out of the ordinary in any press interview and more associated with a "friendly" relationship between the internet star and the soccer player.

 

"I am very excited about this new project, this is a spectacular stadium, a spectacular squad... the truth is, I am very excited," Messi said while signing a T-shirt to giveaway during the stream.

 

Ibai, who has more than 7 million followers on Twitch, went to dinner at Messi's house a couple nights ago, and both joked during their interview that the Spanish ate a little too much that evening. Neither the relaxed atmosphere of the moment nor the familiarity with the platform, eased the nerves of the streamer who mentioned on Twitter how complicated these types of situations still are for him.

Llanos said Thursday that he will publish a video on his YouTube channel summarizing his experience in Paris, including the interview with Leo.

 

“I am neither a journalist nor do I want to compete with the press, I respect the profession a lot and I have many friends. But I can't turn down these things if they invite me,” he said.

Twitch is a platform that belongs to Amazon Inc. It is a streaming video platform focused on video games where people can find games played by users, eSports broadcasts and other events related to the world of online games. The platform itself is defined as a place "where millions of people meet live daily to chat, interact and create their own entertainment together."

 

The platform was born in 2011 with the aim of being able to watch and transmit videos related to the world of video games.

 

In 2014, it became the property of Amazon and has become increasingly relevant thanks to the millions of users who generate content on a monthly basis, of which many earn money through the Twitch Partner program or through donations from their subscribers.