Amazon buys Twitch now I guess

[Qalbert]

http://variety.com/2014/digital/news...es-1201185204/

Google’s YouTube has reached a deal to buy Twitch, a popular videogame-streaming company, for more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the pact.

The deal, in an all-cash offer, is expected to be announced imminently, sources said. If completed the acquisition would be the most significant in the history of YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion. The impending acquisition comes after longtime Google ad exec Susan Wojcicki was named CEO of YouTube earlier this year.

Reps for YouTube and Twitch declined to comment.

San Francisco-based Twitch lets users upload and watch free, live gameplay videos that can be streamed from Microsoft Xbox and PlayStation 4 consoles. The company claims to have more than 45 million monthly users, with more than 1 million members who upload videos each month. It also has deals to distribute shows from partners including CBS Interactive’s GameSpot, Joystiq and Destructoid.


YouTube is preparing for U.S. regulators to challenge the Twitch deal, according to sources. YouTube is far and away the No. 1 platform for Internet video, serving more than 6 billion hours of video per month to 1 billion users worldwide, and the company expects the Justice Department to take a hard look at whether buying Twitch raises anticompetitive issues in the online-video market.

Twitch was launched in June 2011 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, co-founders of Justin.tv, one of the first websites to host livestreaming user-generated video. Shear currently serves as CEO of Twitch.

Founded in 2011, the startup has raised about $35 million in funding. Investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Alsop Louie Partners, WestSummit Capital, Take-Two Interactive Software, Thrive Capital and Draper Associates.

One of Twitch’s competitors is Major League Gaming, a New York-based company whose investors include Oak Investment Partners and Relativity Media CEO Ryan Cavanaugh.

In March 2014, Twitch represented 1.35% of all downstream bandwidth on North American fixed-access broadband networks — nearly triple from last fall, according to bandwidth-equipment company Sandvine.

wasn't 100% sure where to post, but seemed relevant here?

[Cantih]

[Qalbert]

but but but google overlords, they're 'the good guys'

[Quicklet]

I can't wait for Content ID to come to twitch streams!

[Mistress Stowastiq]

Link in the headline below. Mentions Wall Street Journal article as well. I did not see anything about the original info from Variety.

33 Mins Ago
Reuters
Google said to be in talks to buy streaming-video site Twitch: Report

http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc...g?v=1392072113 Getty Images

A sign is posted on the exterior of Google headquarters on January 30, 2014 in Mountain View, California.

Google was said to be in talks to acquire video-streaming service Twitch, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
Officials at Google and Twitch declined to comment on the matter.
The report said the size of the deal could not be learned and discussions between the parties were at an early stage. In addition, the company was said to be looking at raising additional funding instead of selling itself.

In September, Twitch raised $20 million in funding from Thrive Capital, WestSummit Capital and Take-Two Interactive Software, among other parties.

[Madeline]

Thinking on how YT handles content at current, this kind of makes my head hurt thinking of what they might do with Twitch in hand.

On the other hand, I'm happy Twitch probably will receive extra support and hopefully some updates to the god awful UI and server infrastructure.

Y'know, assuming any of this actually goes down. I have a hard time believing it will having seen some of the things the Twitch people talk about.

[Qalbert]

[Callisto]

IMO the improvements to Twitch's functionality from getting Google resources behind them, as well as possible improvements to their built-in-editor to upload archive clips directly to YT potentially removing the need to spend hours upon hours rendering videos in an outside application to prep for upload will outweigh the possible ContentID issues. That probably is a bigger deal to me as someone whose streaming is focused on occasional large events rather than daily at-home streaming that includes music in the background or whatever the whippersnappers are doing these days.

The only thing worse than Twitch stream monsters is YT comments though, combining those two is a pretty scary concept.

[6souls]

Twitch chooses Google over Microsoft amid multiple buyout offers

YouTube is indeed close to securing a $1 billion buyout of live-streaming service Twitch, and will have fended off multiple suitors including Microsoft if the deal goes through, according to people with close knowledge of the talks. The two companies have agreed on a price and are working out details such as how independent the Twitch company and brand will remain, said one person close to the deal who asked to remain anonymous. Twitch is said to have evaluated possible bids and decided on Google's YouTube as the best fit to help the company scale in line with its massive growth over recent years. Variety first reported details of the talks.

Twitch is said to believe that Google can help the company become what it wants to be — the definitive platform for watching and streaming live video gaming. The company raised $20 million from investors in 2013 and is likely to turn a profit this year. But capital isn't enough to allow Twitch to scale its technology and infrastructure to keep pace with its growth. It had plenty of offers from venture capitalists looking to give it more money, said the source, but what it needs is a partner that can help it handle massive amounts of live and user-generated video on a global scale. Despite not being well known beyond gaming circles, Twitch already pushes more traffic during its peak hours than titans like Facebook and Amazon. "To be quite honest, we can't keep up with the growth," Twitch marketing VP Matt DiPietro told The Verge last year, adding "That's a good problem to have."

Microsoft and others have made serious approaches to Twitch, said the person, but YouTube was deemed the better fit. It's unlikely that the gamer-friendly Twitch would have wanted any part of a deal that would tie the service to Xbox, as it's embedded in Sony's rival PlayStation console as well. A source familiar with the deal says that Twitch likely would have rejected a billion-dollar offer from other companies, but was willing to accept it as part of a partnership with YouTube.

YouTube dipped its toe into the game-streaming waters by introducing an API at last year's Game Developers Conference, but the effort never got much traction in the community — it only opened live streaming capability to all in December. Twitch, meanwhile, has huge mindshare among the video game audience, as evidenced by its role as the streaming platform for all major e-sports tournaments, giving it command over a lucrative advertising demographic. The proposed deal can be compared to Facebook's $1 billion acquisition of Instagram back in 2012, where an established giant snapped up a fast-growing startup it saw as a potential competitive threat.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/18/57...isition-report

[Waraji]

Well, when you look at it that way, at least Microsoft won't be able to monopolize the platform now. I'm sure Google would continue to "lend' its resources to Sony.

[Mistress Stowastiq]

IMO the improvements to Twitch's functionality from getting Google resources behind them, as well as possible improvements to their built-in-editor to upload archive clips directly to YT potentially removing the need to spend hours upon hours rendering videos in an outside application to prep for upload will outweigh the possible ContentID issues. That probably is a bigger deal to me as someone whose streaming is focused on occasional large events rather than daily at-home streaming that includes music in the background or whatever the whippersnappers are doing these days.

The only thing worse than Twitch stream monsters is YT comments though, combining those two is a pretty scary concept.

Yes some hybrid, semi sentient artificial life form might just mutate from having the two comment streams merge into one platform. It is hard to even imagine worse than it is on you tube. heh
So has twitch officially said anything about this as of yet?

Edit:
PC World on this:
Twitch as we know it will die if it's bought by Google, and that's a good thing

Spoiler: show

Twitch as we know it will die if it's bought by Google, and that's a good thing

Over the weekend, news broke that Google is in talks to snap up Twitch.tv, the popular games streaming service, possibly for as much as a billion dollars. The Internet, with its characteristic Zen calm and tempered "wait-and-see" reaction to all things news, immediately coined the hashtag #RIPTwitch to complain about the deal.

Let's get this straight: Twitch is not a good service. Twitch was never meant to grow as big as it is—the fourth-largest source of traffic on the entire Internet. Twitch needs help. Twitch is the de facto standard for games streaming not because it's an incredible platform, but because it's the only platform of any real merit.

That's not to say it's bad. Heck, when YouTube's most recent copyright robot scandal exploded I suggested that if Twitch started allowing users to simply upload game-related videos (professionally produced Let's Plays and the like) it would start siphoning all that traffic away from YouTube. And I stand by that.
The problem is Twitch can't handle that sort of site. It can't even handle the site as it stands now.

Growing pains

It's important to remember that Twitch started as a small, games-related subcategory on Justin.tv. Then, in some sort of chicken-and-egg relationship, Twitch and the eSports community built each other into a massive phenomenon that rents out the Staples Center for professional gaming events and boasts 1.8 percent of the U.S. Internet's traffic at peak hours. The craze grew so big, in fact, that Twitch swallowed up its parent company, Justin.tv, back in February.

Twitch integration is baked into the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, which has caused the service's popularity to skyrocket even more.

But like a number of other start-ups that have grown exponentially, Twitch can't handle its popularity. Neither developers nor video streaming technology comes cheap! Twitch's live video quality is abysmal, even on the best settings—and despite looking like garbage, Twitch has a tendency to lag. Twitch's mobile apps are subpar, especially when it comes to user interface. And Twitch management still has to deal with issues like this, left over from a time when it was a much smaller company.

Yes, investment cash could help Twitch build out for the long haul, but beyond the $1 billion, Google offers already-established infrastructure. Google offers money to actually pay livestreaming gamers, and lots of them, instead of the 4,000 or so Twitch Partners currently getting paid. Google offers (presumably) full YouTube integration, so there would be no more need to archive a video on Twitch, download it, and then upload to YouTube—an archaic and awful process people endure because they know the real money is made through YouTube and not Twitch.

And most importantly, Google offers an enormous audience—the type of audience that probably doesn't even know what Twitch.tv is. That means more streamers can build a following, more viewers can behold the spontaneous creativity of the likes of Twitch Plays Pokemon, and there's more incentive for third-parties to invest in creating "make my life easier" streaming tools, be it open-source software like OBS or premium products like Fraps.

You want legitimacy for game streaming? This is legitimacy. It's not a perfect solution, by any means—I have serious misgivings about YouTube's spotty record with copyright issues, and the possibility of needing a Google+ account to use Twitch. No, a perfect solution would be Twitch building up its own infrastructure and offering legitimate, long-term competition to YouTube. I'm just not convinced Twitch has the money to undertake such a gargantuan task, and jumping straight to #RIPTwitch for partnering with a company that can move mountains that size? Well, that's an overreaction.

If Google or another interested party didn't step in, Twitch would likely be killed off in time, no matter how popular it is with the Dota 2 crowd. It would just die the slow, screaming death of a service whose back is breaking under the weight of its own popularity before another service with more funding and more robust infrastructure—you know, one like YouTube—came along to put an end to its existence.

Forbes:
Will YouTube Crack Down On Twitch's Beloved Cleavage Cams?

Spoiler: show

Will YouTube Crack Down On Twitch's Beloved Cleavage Cams?
Tech 5/20/2014 @ 11:28AM |8,363 views

Google is reportedly close to a deal to buy Twitch, the streaming video service, for $1 billion, and make it part of YouTube. Twitch is a platform where gamers can watch other gamers play video games, but that’s not the only attraction. As Buzzfeed notes, more than half of the most-watched videos on the site feature a handful of young women who habitually play in low-cut tank tops, with the camera positioned just so. This kind of thing:



With screen names like Kaceytron (pictured) and KneeColeslaw, these women have six-figure followings, whom they can hit up for subscription fees and donations. Kaceytron’s donation page explains her terms: ”Donations of $1 or more trigger the sound. I try to read donations on stream as much as possible, however, if I am busy in a game I may miss it.”

It’s no secret that prominently displayed cleavage in a thumbnail preview is a foolproof way to get people (presumably mostly men) to click. YouTube knows this only too well. A few years ago, it wrestled with the issue of what were known as “reply girls.” As defined by Know Your Meme, ”‘Reply Girls,’ are female YouTubers who are known for uploading videos in response to an already popular or trending video in an attempt to capitalize on the high view counts. They typically use sexually suggestive thumbnails, often with prominently exposed cleavage, to solicit views.”

Thanks to YouTube’s Partner Program, the more popular reply girls didn’t have to solicit donations to make serious money. But they were viewed as spam, both by users and the network itself. YouTube tried tinkering with its algorithm, adjusting the weight of factors like time spent watching to drive reply-girl videos down in suggested results, but eventually it just ended up scrapping the video response feature that enabled them altogether.

I reached out to a few of Twitch’s top cleavage-cam gamers to ask if they’re worried that YouTube, once it takes possession of Twitch, could take similar actions to curb their visibility. I heard back from KneeColeslaw, whose channel has almost 14 million views. She wrote this:

I was unfamiliar with the term “reply girl” so I had to look it up. From my understanding, it’s girls who replied to popular YouTube videos and wore low cut tops to get more views on their videos. YouTube responded to this by giving more weight to time watched rather than views for ad revenue.

With that knowledge, I’ll say that I’m not that concerned. Ad revenue is only a small portion of my income and ad revenue from highlights is even smaller. Now you could say that higher viewed videos gives me more popularity and brings in more viewers and that may be affected with the merge. That is certainly possible but I am not entirely concerned with it. Streaming is a hobby and a way to make extra money outside of my “real” job. Should I lose popularity and money as a consequence of this new deal, as we say here in Louisiana, “c’est la vie.” To be honest, my main concerns are less about money and more about what this means as far as site changes are concerned. I’m known to be resistant to change and I’m curious and anxious to see what this merge has in store for the site.

[Quicklet]

The only way I see this as a net positive is if twitch can somehow avoid having to implement the same automated copyright detection measures that Youtube already uses. While better quality and more reliability would be nice, having the same backwards intellectual property policies invade what is currently the best (and really only -- at least as far as gaming is concerned) alternative to Youtube would be disastrous for game streaming. What will probably end up happening, if this deal goes through and Content ID becomes a reality on twitch, is the big names who are already established will get grandfathered in and not have to worry too much about automatic flagging of their stream, meanwhile anyone outside of that small group will be out of luck and will get to deal with the same bullshit that most Youtube broadcasters do.

[6souls]

New sources say the purchase has been completed

Google has reached a deal to buy game livestreaming firm Twitch for $1 billion, confirmed sources familiar with the matter.

We don’t know everything about this deal, such as when it will be announced and the exact purchase price. We do know that investors who participated in past rounds are pleased that they will be getting significant returns that are multiple times the amount they originally invested. The deal underscores the value of live Internet streaming and the rise of competitive gaming as a spectator sport — something that draws millions of viewers, can offer prize pools that surpass pro golf’s marquee events, and provides a multibillion dollar opportunity for advertisers.

Google and Twitch declined comment. Both companies happen to be speaking at our GamesBeat 2014 event in September. This deal was first cited by unnamed sources from Variety said back in May that Google had made an all-cash offer and that the deal could be announced soon.

Google’s YouTube division is reportedly in charge of the acquisition, which would represent a significant transformation of YouTube’s business. Google acquired YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/24/go...-video-empire/

[Waraji]

Google+ integration for Twitch! CAN YOU FEEL IT?!

[Cantih]

Well, just last week G+ dropped it's real names policy. You can handle and pseudonym to you heart's content.
Everybody who knows the news is wondering why the suddenly did it, and it just occurred to me that this might have something to do with it.

[Shenrien]

Twitch and Youtube has already been working on integrating itself with each other, like you can go to most twitch youtuber channels right now.

perfect example


Dude is live right now on twitch and youtube advertises, hey go check him out if you more or less like his content. It may not say that exact thing but that is what it implys and it's pretty cool.

[Qalbert]

so uhhhhhhhhhhh

Amazon.com to Acquire Twitch

Amazon.com today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Twitch Interactive, Inc., the leading live video platform for gamers. In July, more than 55 million unique visitors viewed more than 15 billion minutes of content on Twitch produced by more than 1 million broadcasters, including individual gamers, pro players, publishers, developers, media outlets, conventions and stadium-filling esports organizations.

“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,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community.”

“Amazon and Twitch optimize for our customers first and are both believers in the future of gaming,” said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. “Being part of Amazon will let us do even more for our community. We will be able to create tools and services faster than we could have independently. This change will mean great things for our community, and will let us bring Twitch to even more people around the world.”

Twitch launched in June 2011 to focus exclusively on live video for gamers. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by Twitch’s shareholders, Amazon will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Twitch for approximately $970 million in cash, as adjusted for the assumption of options and other items. Subject to customary closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2014.

that happened i guess

[Ratatapa]

Can't wait for the 'buy now' button they will add in streams to redirect to amazon.com to buy that said streamed game

[Quicklet]

While this doesn't absolve twitch of their copyright auto-detection fiasco, it's a hell of a lot better than Google buying them. Preserves competition, provides a great source of infrastructure growth, and Amazon is willing to invest in services for the long-term. If we're lucky maybe there will be some extra perks for Prime subscribers as well.

[quannum]

Can't wait for the 'buy now' button they will add in streams to redirect to amazon.com to buy that said streamed game

It should be streamed game, streamed music, streamers gear all linked dynamically in chat with a referral code back to the streamer.