Amazon acquires Twitch.tv - Page 36

Letter from the CEO August 25, 2014 Dear Twitch Community, It’s almost unbelievable that slightly more than 3 years ago, Twitch didn’t exist. The moment we launched, we knew we had stumbled across something special. But what followed surprised us as much as anyone else, and the impact it’s had on both the community and us has been truly profound. Your talent, your passion, your dedication to gaming, your memes, your brilliance - these have made Twitch what it is today. Every day, we strive to live up to the standard set by you, the community. We want to create the very best place to share your gaming and life online, and that mission continues to guide us. Together with you, we’ve found new ways of connecting developers and publishers with their fans. We’ve created a whole new kind of career that lets people make a living sharing their love of games. We’ve brought billions of hours of entertainment, laughter, joy and the occasional ragequit. I think we can all call that a pretty good start. Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by Amazon. We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch. I personally want to thank you, each and every member of the Twitch community, for what you’ve created. Thank you for putting your faith in us. Thank you for sticking with us through growing pains and stumbles. Thank you for bringing your very best to us and sharing it with the world. Thank you, from a group of gamers who never dreamed they’d get to help shape the face of the industry that we love so much. It’s dangerous to go alone. On behalf of myself and everyone else at Twitch, thank you for coming with us. Emmett Shear, CEO

On August 26 2014 05:52 appletree wrote:
How will this affect Twitch.tv -> youtube.com ? I mean, will google continue to support twitch videos being uploaded to youtube.

I don't agree with people here, with this being the better choice than google. I think something amazing could've come out of some semi-fusion between youtube and twitch.

I mean, both companies have vast amount of resources, to the point where it doesn't matter which they've picked, but instead focusing on 'dedication'. What could amazon give twitch, that google couldn't ? Twitch is perfect as it is, all it needs, is exposure and I would have picked google to be the better company in that area.

Eitherway, Congrats. This is something I wouldn't have believed possible 5 years ago.

On August 26 2014 05:56 Lonyo wrote:

Google could give Youtube all the features it needs to compete with Twitch if they wanted without buying Twitch. That's why it's a good thing.

If you had Youtube + Twitch, then what would or could compete with that? Nothing, so you would be beholden to Twitch/Youtube, and if you had a problem with it, well, suck a fat one, you don't have another choice.

If Twitch and Youtube are owned by different people, both have incentives to expand and develop, which means it's beneficial to consumers/users/streamers. Competition. It's good, remember? Did everyone forget this or something.

Amazon moved in to buy the online gathering place for video gamers after the startup’s deal with Google Inc. fell through, people with knowledge of the matter said. Amazon is paying $970 million in cash. Including retention-related payouts, the transaction is worth about $1.1 billion, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

The deal, the largest in Amazon’s 20-year history, gives the Web retailer an online forum of more than 55 million monthly active users, where people discuss games or watch other gamers as they play. Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive officer, has made video games a focus of a strategy to add more entertainment services. Just as the company is beefing up its TV programming available to Amazon Prime members, the company operates a game studio in Seattle and has been luring software developers to build more video-game titles for its Fire TV set-top box, Fire Phone and Kindle Fire tablets.

“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,” Bezos said in a statement.