Twitch will close its streaming platform in South Korea
Twitch, the popular video streaming service, will end its services in South Korea next year, the company said Tuesday, after years of struggling with the high costs of operating in the country.
Twitch was once one of the most popular platforms for gamers in South Korea, even as it competed with domestic services like AfreecaTV and giants like YouTube, analysts say. The service, owned by Amazon, attracts about 35 million visitors per day worldwide, according to the company.
“Twitch was once in the driver’s seat among South Korean professional gamers for a while,” said Ha Jae-pil, an esports professor at Kookje University in South Korea. Some League of Legends, Overwatch and Apex Legends tournaments in the country were streamed exclusively on Twitch, he said.
Than a downgrade of video quality to a resolution known as 720p, which the company said lowered operating costs, made text less readable and drove users to YouTube, he said. “Twitch’s influence has weakened since then,” he said.
Now it plans to close its South Korean operations on February 27, 2024.
“Although we have reduced costs as a result of these efforts, our network costs in Korea are still ten times more expensive than in most other countries,” the company added. “Twitch operates at a significant loss in Korea, and unfortunately there is no way to make our business operate more sustainably in that country.”
South Korea’s high network usage costs have led to legal disputes. Netflix recently sued a South Korean internet service provider, arguing it had no obligation to pay network usage fees. In 2021, a court in Seoul upheld the provider’s right to receive such compensation.
Daniel Clancy, CEO of Twitch, said on social media that “this was a very difficult decision that we have postponed for some time,” adding that he was “aware that this will have a real impact on them.”
Twitch said it would help South Korean streamers on the platform migrate to alternative services by lifting the ban on simulcasting streams on another platform, and encouraging them to share links to their channels on other services.