The Twitch brand is something that most every gamer in today’s day and age know quite well. It has become the only name in live-streaming of video game content. Sure, there are loads of streaming services that came before it and no doubt more still to come, but Twitch is the juggernaut of the industry. Streaming through the service has had news time and time again, most recently making waves with the ‘Twitch Plays’ streams of games like Pokemon and Street Fighter 2.
Twitch is so large that it ranked as the fourth-highest source of traffic on the internet within the United States. With so many avenues for content available having that sort of traffic is most impressive. With all tihs being said it’s no wonder that so many companies were quick to try and jump on to buy the company up to bolster their portfolios. The biggest (and at times only name) company that made waves about purchasing Twitch with Google. That would have made perfect sense as Google already has YouTube and integrating the Twitch way of live streaming would go a long way to help the company.
Well, how quickly things change as it has just been announced that Amazon has stepped in and just bought the company right from under all other potential buyers. With Twitch bringing in 32 million viewers for season 3 of League of Legends (only 15 million watched the 2013 World Series of baseball) that brings a huge market into the Amazon fold. The question is why? Why would Amazon, clearly not a media/streaming/gaming company, want to do with Twitch?
For those that aren’t aware, Amazon has been making strides into getting into people’s living rooms for a number of years now. The Amazon Fire tablet introduced many people to the new physical Amazon brand. Amazon Prime brought streaming to its large user base and has even began producing original content for the service, quality not withstanding. Most recently Amazon has released the Fire TV set top box with integrated gaming support. Sure, it’s in no way comparable to any of the next generation consoles, but having Twitch integration could entice both users and developers. Oh, and don’t forget the new Amazon phone that could benefit from having Twitch available.
So this is all well and good, but just how much money did Amazon shell out for Twitch? How does $970 million in cash sound for a price tag. That’s nearly 1 billion dollars in cold hard cash, though the current offering has yet to go through government approval. Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon had this to say about the deal:
“Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month – from The International, to breaking the world record for Mario, to gaming conferences like E3. And, amazingly, Twitch is only three years old.”
Twitch went about releasing their own statement regarding the sale:
“We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch.”
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