Twitch, a well-liked video service, will shut down its struggling enterprise in South Korea, a choice its chief govt blamed on allegedly “prohibitively expensive” prices for working within the nation.
In a weblog put up asserting the corporate’s plan this week, Dan Clancy stated the community charges the corporate has been paying to South Korean web operators have been 10 occasions greater than in most different markets. He didn’t present particular numbers to again such claims.
“We’ve made the difficult decision to shut down the Twitch business in Korea on Feb. 27, 2024,” Clancy stated within the put up. Twitch was capable of decrease prices by limiting video high quality, he stated, however “our network fees in Korea are still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries.”
A platform popular with video game fans, Twich downgraded the quality of its video services in South Korea to a resolution of 720 p from 1080 p in September 2022, citing a need to reduce costs. Later that year it blocked South Korean streamers from uploading video-on-demand content.
The moves drew vehement complaints from South Korean users and are thought to have encouraged many to switch to other services like YouTube or South Korean streaming sites like Afreeca TV.
Twitch likely would have faced tougher competition in South Korea next year with Naver, the biggest domestic internet company, reportedly planning to launch live streaming services for online video game leagues.
The planned withdrawal from South Korea is the latest sign of business struggles at Twitch, which announced in March that it was laying off 400 employees, saying that its “user and revenue growth has not kept pace with our expectations.”
“Twitch has been operating in Korea at a significant loss, and unfortunately there is no pathway forward for our business to run more sustainably in that country,” Clancy wrote in his weblog put up.
South Korean telecommunications corporations that function web networks have feuded lately with world content material suppliers like Network and Google, which complained of excessively excessive costs. There are related conflicts between these corporations and web suppliers in Europe.
In September, Netflix stated it reached an settlement with SK Broadband, a South Korean web supplier, to finish a authorized dispute over community charges. The corporations didn’t launch the phrases of their settlement.
Jung Sang-wook, an official from the Korea Telecommunications Operators Association, an trade foyer compromised of the nation’s main telecommunications suppliers, stated he had no method of verifying Clancy’s claims about community charges, that are negotiated individually between corporations and sealed with non-disclosure agreements.
“Similar services like Afreeca TV have been enjoying profits, so Twitch’s decision could be based on the company’s broader management problems,” Jung stated. The affiliation in October issued an announcement final yr criticizing Twitch’s choice to decrease the decision of its movies, saying that precipitated many customers to complain to telecoms suppliers that have been “providing services smoothly without any problems.”
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
