Google’s YouTube has reached a deal to buy the increasingly popular service –Twitch, for a price tag of $1 billion.
Twitch is a video game streaming service, designed for gamers to watch each other play. This service is commonly used on the newly released Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 consoles. Twitch claims they have over 45 million monthly users and more than 1 million members that frequently upload to the service.
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The idea of watching someone else play a game may seem absurd to some, but to gamers wanting to learn tips, tricks and techniques as well as for the entertainment factor, it’s invaluable. Twitch has gained popularity at an alarming rate since its launch in 2011.
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Twitch was launched by the co-founders of Justin.tv, Justin Kan and Emmett Shear. Justin.tv was one of the first pioneering websites to host live-streaming user-generated videos; and it has blossomed ever since after noticing the large numbers of users it raked in. That’s how Twitch was born!
Since becoming an independent company Twitch has rolled in a massive $35 million and in 2014 Twitch represented 1.35% of all downstream bandwidth on North American fixed-access broadband networks as stated on Variety.