The CEO of the world’s largest live streaming company has revealed that the cost of operating Twitch in Korea is “prohibitively expensive” and that despite efforts to reduce operating costs, the company has made little progress in meeting its goal. It was announced that despite the measures taken, the costs could not be reduced sufficiently, and for this reason, Twitch left South Korea.Twitch is out of South Korea
CEO Clancy gave examples such as peer-to-peer streaming experiments and limiting video quality to 720p as attempts to reduce operating costs, but it was underlined that although these measures reduced costs, they were not enough. “Twitch is operating at a significant loss in Korea and unfortunately there is no path forward for our business to be operated more sustainably in this country,” Clancy says.
Clancy says that Twitch’s decision to shut down its service in South Korea does not reflect the company as a whole, that Korea is a “unique situation”, that operating costs are “significantly higher than other countries, and they have been openly expressing this challenge for a while.” Twitch CEO writes that the company will assist streamers affected by the shutdown by contacting rival streaming services they have switched to. Twitch shutting down in South Korea will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the eSports market, as South Korea has some of the most talented and popular teams for competitive games such as League of Legends and DOTA 2.
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