Posted on 08/24/2014 2:36:41 PM PDT by expat_panama
Here's Why Amazon Just Paid Nearly $1 Billion For A Site Where You Watch People Play Video Games
Screenshot
Amazon said Monday it's buying video-streaming site Twitch for $970 million in cash, noting that in just three years it's built a platform that attracts millions of visitors every month.
Google was reported to have acquired the site last month for a whopping $1 billion, but early on Monday, The Information reported that someone "close to the transaction" said the site was also in talks with Amazon.
Twitch obviously has the potential to make a lot of money if it's attracting buyers like Google and Amazon. But how did a video game live-streaming site become so potentially lucrative anyway?
What Is Twitch?
David Paul Morris/Getty
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear.
Twitch launched in 2011 as a branch of Justin.tv, a popular video-streaming site. Twitch was focused on video-game-related content.
People can create their own channels, where they upload footage of themselves playing video games while sometimes providing audio commentary over the footage. In some cases, people host video-game podcasts and shows.
The site is also where many e-sports competitions are broadcast live.
Users get their own channel pages, which include a built-in chat room for the players and the viewers to interact.
How Big Is It?
Twitch is huge. In an April report, it accounted for more than 40% of live-streaming traffic by volume in the U.S., according to online video analytics site Qwilt. That made it the No. 1 live-streaming platform by a large margin.
BI Intelligence
In February, Twitch was fourth in peak internet traffic in the U.S. after Netflix, Google, and Apple, respectively. At 1.8%, it was bigger than Hulu, Amazon, and Facebook in peak traffic.
And that's only in the U.S. According to Qwilt, Twitch ranks in the top five video-entertainment sites across the globe. That's huge for a site that's only related to video gaming.
Twitch is now so big that Justin.tv shut down Aug. 5, saying that Twitch was now the focus of its resources, according to CNET.
Why Is It So Big?
According to its own report, in 2013, 58% of Twitch users spent more than 20 hours a week watching videos on the site.
Twitch has its own iOS and Android apps and has been integrated with Xbox and PlayStation consoles. PC gamers can also upload footage to Twitch.
Even Amazon's Fire TV has a Twitch app.
On the PlayStation 4, for example, sharing some gameplay action to Twitch is as easy as pressing a share button.
People love watching other people play games and commenting on them.
Felix Kjellberg, the Swedish YouTube star behind the channel PewDiePie, makes about $4 million a year in ad sales doing just that.
Much like other video sites, Twitch offers a partner program for its users. And Twitch users can stream footage on the site for as long as they want, even 24 hours a day.
E-sports is another huge moneymaker for Twitch. People flock to Twitch to watch live streaming of their favorite video game tournaments, such as "League of Legends" and "StarCraft."
Some Cool Things Happening On Twitch
Screenshot In February, Twitch crowdsourced more than 150,000 people to play an online game of "Pokemon." To make the players move, people entered voice commands in the chat room.
And this month, Twitch users went from playing "Pokemon" themselves to watching a fish play "Pokemon." More than 220,000 users are tuning in to watch a fish named Grayson Hopper play the Game Boy game.
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.
+22% ex-trans -0.8% vs +0.5% exp
Drudge is a riot today.
This
BK to merge with Canadian donut chain...
Buffett to finance...
US tax rate 40% vs. Canadian 26%...
Dem Sen calls for boycott...
And a big picture of Obama putting a medal on Warren.
Then he proceeds to show margin/debt growing w/o placing it in proportion to net worth --another tired ploy of the doom'n'gloom set. Reality is that while investor margin/debt has in fact increased by almost 40% since the tech bubble, total market cap has doubled (that's a 100% increase for those in Rio Linda).
We got a lot of room to grow here.
Actually, half the U.S. is playing this one:
Has he included this one yet?
Consumer confidence beats: 92.4 vs 89 exp
Anybody that looks to any politician for “fairness” has real issues.
OK, stapling another page to my "why-the-econ's-fine" list. Catching up w/ the "why-it-sucks" list.
My thinking is that it's a brain dysfunction that liberals have when they ignore facts and cling stubbornly to avoid losing treasured arguments. Last night the wife & I were watching this--
--and that while everyone lies, some lie more than others and those that do are very good at lying to themselves. What happens to the brain is that more cells are diverted from reality/problem-solving and are instead dedicated to the hard work of lying which requires a lot of multiple entries. It's like what Mark Twain said, "always tell the truth, that way you have less to remember".
What do you think of this? I just started watching it last week. to early for me to say if it’s of any value.
http://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/
and it's telling me that we've got a lot of fear going on here, but that it's coming back to normal that in the past those returns-to-normal came w/ strong uptrends...
Big psychological threshold today. S&P closes above 2000 by .02. Do we shrug it off and go charging ahead?
Why Amazon’s Deal for Twitch Is About Attacking Google’s YouTube
Great question! We got sooo many arguments either way, but the bulk of the evidence (imho) favors being fully invested ready to bail. Today’s close saw stocks up in increasing volume; the up-trend’s young w/ the only distribution day on just the S&P by itself.
We’ll be having some profit taking so when it comes let’s see how deep it goes and % of the traders pile on.
That’s pretty much how I have it pegged.
Happy Wednesday! Yesterday's mixed gains in metals came w/ indexes continuing the rally in higher volume; this morning's futures are pointing to more of the same. Morning skim-thru:
It brings to mind the paleo arbitrage where financial traders would run between Baltimore and New York. They cut a profit while unifying prices. I’d like to confirm whether these trades are what paid for the first U.S. telegraphs that began there w/ Morse in 1844 linking Baltimore & Washington.
Did you ever get around to reading Flash Boys?
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