Initially, the new video system was criticized by users because it caused a significant stream delay, interfering with broadcaster-viewer interaction. Also in order to address these problems, Twitch implemented a new video system shown to be more efficient than the previous system. Twitch has subsequently added new servers in the region. In late 2013, particularly due to increasing viewership, Twitch had issues with lag and low frame rates in Europe. Twitch made up 1.8% of total US Internet traffic during peak periods. By February 2014, Twitch was the fourth largest source of Internet traffic during peak times in the United States, behind Netflix, Google, and Apple. As of mid-2013, there were over 43 million viewers on Twitch monthly, with the average viewer watching an hour and a half a day. Competing video services, such as YouTube and Dailymotion, began to increase the prominence of their gaming content to compete, but have had a much smaller impact so far. : 40Įspecially since the shutdown of its direct competitor in early 2013, Twitch has become the most popular e-sports streaming service by a large margin, leading some to conclude that the website has a 'near monopoly on the market'. : 40 In addition to the influx of venture funding, it was believed in 2013 that the company had become profitable. Investors during three rounds of fund raising leading up to the end of 2013 included Draper Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners and Thrive Capital. Twitch has been supported by significant investments of venture capital, with US$15 million in 2012 (on top of US$7 million originally raised for ), and US$20 million in 2013. The company was headquartered in San Francisco's Financial District.

Twitch had about 80 employees in June 2013, which increased to 100 by December 2013. Since then, Twitch has attracted more than 35 million unique visitors a month. It launched officially in public beta on June 6, 2011. In June 2011, : 40 the company decided to spin off the gaming content as TwitchTV, inspired by the term twitch gameplay. The gaming category grew especially fast, and became the most popular content on the site. When was launched in 2007 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, two recent Yale graduates, the site was divided into several content categories.

History Founding and initial growth (2007–2013) As of May 2018, Twitch had over 27,000 partner channels. As of February 2020, it had 3 million broadcasters monthly and 15 million daily active users, with 1.4 million average concurrent users. In 2017, Twitch remained the leading live streaming video service for video games in the US, and had an advantage over YouTube Gaming, which shut down its standalone app in May 2019. Twitch acquired Curse LLC in 2016, an operator of online video gaming communities and introduced means to purchase games through links on streams along with a program allowing streamers to receive commissions on the sales of games that they play.īy 2015, Twitch had more than 100 million viewers per month.

That month, the service was acquired by Amazon for US$970 million, which later led to the introduction of synergies with the company's subscription service Amazon Prime. At the same time, 's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the shift in focus – was shut down in August 2014. In October 2013, the website had 45 million unique viewers, and by February 2014, it was considered the fourth-largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. The popularity of Twitch eclipsed that of its general-interest counterpart. The games shown on Twitch's current homepage are listed according to audience preference and include genres such as real-time strategy games (RTS), fighting games, racing games, and first-person shooters.

Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand. It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform. Twitch is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of, Inc. Twitch is an American video live streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions, in addition to offering music broadcasts, creative content, and ' in real life' streams.

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