You guys should talk to about a partnership. We don't need a new frontend, but do need streaming and InLeo's Threadcasts are already created for streaming chat. It does need features you've mentioned above like interactive emoji's, tipping, etc. They also have paywalls on the roadmap and you guys can work together to get a fully competitive app put together in a much faster manner than going it separately.
RE: [Updated Proposal] Creating an Open Source Streaming Framework for Hive