Twitch has more than 55 million registered gamers visiting monthly.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BANGALORE: Amazon is back with a surprise: this time around it turns out to be the acquisition of Twitch, a multi-channel online video platform for gamers.
Twitch originally started as a streaming platform named Justin.tv, and later changed its focus to gaming, enabling users to post videos and conduct discussions about their favorite games in the online community. The website now has more than 55 million registered gamers visiting every month, watching and discussing latest games and gaming experiences.
Twitch community members share videos about using new tactics and tricks to win games so that others who are interested can follow these steps. This specialty of Twitch makes it popular among all generations.
Twitch’s acquisition by Amazon sheds light on the tremendous possibilities of “gaming video feeds” in the coming days. The majority of the visitors to Twitch spend time watching others play or streaming recorded videos of video games.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a statement said, “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,”
The acquisition of Twitch is expected to improve the in-house gaming studio of Amazon and the Fire TV set top box, which was originally designed by Amazon for avid gamers.
CEO of Twitch, Emmett Shear said Amazon has all the qualities to make a deal with us “they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision.”
Earlier there were rumors that Google was in discussion with Twitch and were nearing a closure of the deal, but nothing shaped up between both. Many believe that the acquisition of Twitch by Google would have done better as it owns YouTube that already has a humongous audience. Amazon will have to start from scratch. Generating mass audience will take its own time.
CEO Emmett Shear in a letter addressing millions of Twitch users said that the acquisition was sealed after Amazon accepted a major demand: to give Twitch complete autonomy to operate independently.
Most probably what didn’t work between Google and Twitch must have been this clause as Google doesn’t want a competitor against YouTube to emerge from within the company.
When the deal is closed this year, it will be yet another big acquisition for Amazon, adding to Zappos, Kiva Systems, Exchange.com and Quidsi, which were bought earlier.