The livestreaming community is growing across the world, but there has been a massive setback in South Korea. Twitch, one of the leading streaming platforms, has decided to pull out all its operations from the Asian country.
The purple platform has been the go-to choice for live streaming since 2011, leading thousands of content creators to become stars. But in a recent press release, the CEO Dan Clancy announced they have been moving away from South Korea since February 27, 2024, blaming the network fees of the country.
“Currently, the cost of running Twitch in South Korea is at a serious level. We’ve been working hard to find ways to keep our operations in Korea down the drain.”
Clancy highlighted their trials to continue Twitch services in the country. They tried using the P2P model in terms of source quality and later offered the maximum quality of 720p. These helped them to reduce the price, but still in vain. The cost to operate in the Republic of Korea is ten times higher than in most countries.
Twitch helps streamers with a smooth transition
There is a user base for Twitch in the Asian country. So the platform closure would mean the streamers living in that country would no longer be able to monetize the streams. Undoubtedly, it would have a huge impact on the Korean streaming community.
Even Twitch is saddened by this inconvenience: “Korea has always been a stellar player in the global esports community.” So they are trying their best for the streamers to transition onto other platforms. By announcing their closure in Korea now, they are offering two months for all the big moves to happen.
Twitch is ending support for ALL streaming in South Korea, effective February 27, 2024.
In a letter to Korean streamers, Dan Clancy says, “We will work to help Twitch streamers in Korea move their communities to alternative livestreaming services.”#TwitchNews pic.twitter.com/f2s5S6Orjx
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) December 6, 2023
The purple platform is also encouraging those Korea-based creators to emigrate to rival platforms like YouTube. Moreover, Twitch has also reached out to alternative platforms to help with the transition. They are also letting the streamers use the onsite messaging system to share their links to new platforms.
This move is going to have a huge impact on the streaming scene, as a huge population of streamers are going away from Twitch. It will be a great opportunity for rival platforms like YouTube, Facebook Gaming, or even local platforms like AfreecaTV to get on board some big-name Korean Twitch stars.
