Twitch, the popular video streaming service, said it will shut down its services in South Korea next year, after suffering for years from “extremely high” operating costs in the country.
Analysts say Twitch has been one of the most popular platforms for gamers in South Korea, even as it competes with local services like AfreecaTV and giants like YouTube. The service, owned by Amazon, attracts about 35 million visitors daily around the world, according to the company.
“Twitch has been in the driver’s seat among professional gamers in South Korea for a while,” said Ha Jae-pil, a professor of esports at Kukje University in South Korea. He said some League of Legends, Overwatch and Apex Legends tournaments in the country were streamed exclusively on Twitch.
then discount He said the video quality was down to a resolution known as 720p, which the company said reduced operating costs, made text less legible and caused users to switch to YouTube. “Twitch’s influence has weakened since then,” he said.
It now plans to close its South Korean business on February 27, 2024. It was not immediately clear whether viewers in South Korea would retain their access to the platform. But the company said streamers in the country will no longer be able to generate income through Twitch, and viewers will no longer be able to make purchases on the platform.
“Although we have reduced costs thanks to these efforts, our network charges in Korea are still 10 times more expensive than most other countries,” the company said. “Twitch has been operating at a significant loss in Korea, and unfortunately there is no path forward for our business to operate more sustainably in that country.”
South Korea has imposed higher network usage fees on foreign content providers, prompting it Controversy and legal disputes. Netflix recently filed a lawsuit against the South Korean internet service provider, arguing that it is not obligated to pay network usage fees. In 2021, a Seoul court upheld the service provider’s right to receive these fees.
“I don’t understand the high fees imposed on foreign content providers,” said Han Nam-hee, a sports professor at Korea University, adding that the country should give more opportunities to content providers, not less. “This is an unnecessary disruption to live streaming and esports in South Korea at a time when it needs to continue growing globally.”
Daniel Clancy, CEO of Twitch, He said “This was a very difficult decision and we delayed it for some time,” he said on social media, adding that he “realizes that this will have a real impact on them.”
Twitch has gradually shown signs of struggle over the past year, as it scaled back its services in South Korea. After lowering the video resolution, Twitch in February began blocking South Korean streamers from posting Video on demand Snapshots, an archive of previously broadcast content. In March the company Laid off – temporarily laid off More than 400 people.
Other than YouTube, Twitch was the most widely used streaming service among gamers in South Korea this year, according to Kijo Kim, an analyst at Hankook Research, a Seoul-based polling firm. Twitch attracts about 300,000 South Korean viewers daily, about half of whom are men in their 20s.
Twitch said it will help South Korean streamers on the platform Migrates To alternative services by lifting the ban on simulcasting on another platform, and by encouraging them to share links to their channels on other services.
“Twitch is the most established gaming and streaming community, and its loss is hard to understand,” said Alexandria Brooks, an American graduate student in South Korea who attracted more than 1,100 followers on Twitch while playing Pokémon, Lies of P and Baldur’s Gate. three times a week. “This painful.”
Ms. Brooks, 28, said she is considering a move to YouTube, but is concerned about retaining her American viewers, for whom Twitch remains the dominant streaming service. You were expected to lose several hundred dollars in monthly revenue.
“No one wants to be uprooted from what they are used to,” she said.
