Amazon.com's popular global game streaming platform, Twitch, has announced its withdrawal from the Korean market, citing the burden of network usage fees.
On the 6th, Twitch announced through a notice, "We have decided to cease business operations in Korea as of February 27th."
Twitch emphasized, "The cost of operating Twitch in Korea has reached a severe level, with network fees being 10 times higher than most other countries, making operations unsustainable."
As a result of this decision, Twitch users in Korea will no longer be able to purchase paid products after February 27th, and streamers will also be unable to generate revenue.
Twitch mentioned, "We understand how important it is for streamers and the community to find a new home, such as AfreecaTV or YouTube. We intend to support this transition by using in-service notifications to post links to other services."
Last September, Twitch reduced the maximum video resolution in Korea from 1080p to 720p due to network fee burdens. In November of the same year, it also discontinued its Video on Demand (VOD) service.
Industry observers speculate that Twitch's measures consider the escalating conflict between ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and foreign content providers (CPs) like YouTube and Netflix.
Dan Clancy, CEO of Twitch, explained the reasons for the service termination and answered users' questions in a Twitch broadcast this morning.
Clancy stated, "Due to network fee costs, the Korean market incurred greater losses as it grew and gained more users."
He added, "We considered reducing video quality to 480p in Korea, but it wouldn't have been sufficient. Providing services from overseas was another option, but it would have increased latency and faced regulatory issues."
Famous Twitch streamers urgently went live this morning to discuss future strategies with their viewers.
With Twitch announcing its business withdrawal, other platforms like AfreecaTV and YouTube are expected to benefit.
Especially Naver plans to launch a game streaming platform 'Chzzik' (tentative name) next year.
Responding to a related question, CEO Clancy said, "If Naver provides such a service, it will be another option for broadcasters, and we are willing to cooperate with Naver if necessary."
[Korean reaction]
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Twitch's global 'network access fee' is about 20 billion won, while last year's 'network usage fee' that South Korea demands for FHD broadcasting is about 90 billion won.
From now on, don't call South Korea an internet powerhouse.
ㄴ The term 'internet powerhouse' was relevant 10 years ago. Now, our internet speed is slower than Thailand, China, and Japan. As of 2022, we're ranked 22nd in internet speed.
South Korea's three evil laws (systems): the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act, the Fixed Book Price Policy, and network usage fees.
After comfortably collecting 5G fees all this time, now they say they don't want to invest.
The three major telecommunications companies need to be thoroughly investigated and stopped from engaging in such nonsense.
ㄴ And in the midst of this, they're talking about 6G, seriously...
What's even funnier is that the politicians and broadcasters at that time were busy favoring these three telecommunications companies.
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