Twitch is getting bought, but it's not YouTube and Google that are
doing the buying. Amazon has agreed to buy the massively popular
video game streaming website for over $1 billion, according to The
Wall Street Journal . The announcement is surprising in light of recent
reports that suggested YouTube and Twitch had already reached a $
1 billion buyout agreement to bring Twitch's platform and massive
community under the Google umbrella. News that Amazon and
Twitch were in late talks about a deal was first reported by The
Information .
Before today's curve, a pairing between YouTube and Twitch made
a lot of sense. Many gamers upload highlights, impressive level
playthroughs, and other content to YouTube. But there's no
mistaking the fact that the game-streaming revolution is happening
at Twitch . With over 55 million monthly visitors, the site has become
so popular that it's faced challenges trying to scale for its ever-
growing audience. YouTube's vast infrastructure was seen as a
logical answer to that problem when reports about an acquisition
first surfaced in May. But apparently between then and now, Jeff
Bezos' company stepped in with an offer that was too good to turn
down.
At first blush, Amazon seems like a worse fit. Infrastructure isn't at
all a problem; Amazon's AWS can provide Twitch anything it needs
and then some in terms of resources and reliability. But from a
culture perspective, the link isn't as obvious. The company has
shown an interest in gaming — mostly through apps on its Kindle
Fire hardware and more recently the Fire TV set-top box. And
Amazon has also committed to building great titles of its own
through Amazon Game Studios. But taking ownership of Twitch and
its loyal audience is Amazon's most direct statement yet that it's
serious about establishing a name for itself in video games.
-The Wall Street Journal
