14 ms·

Amazon’s Twitch Acquisition Is Official

475 points by lalwanivikas 12y ago

mbesto 12y ago
The underlying story for me here is this: Twitch has the potential to both compete in the same sentence as ESPN ($$$ bil) and provide a new model for content delivery in sports content consumption.
- ProAm 12y ago
  I'd glady pay for live sports streaming, it's the only thing I really miss from cutting the cable cord: F1, NHL.
  - gtaylor 12y ago
    I gladly pay for MLB.tv. The blackouts are annoying, but you can circumvent them easily if you so desire.
grantlmiller 12y ago
non-paywall link: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Famazon-to-buy-video-site-twitch-for-more-than-1-billion-1408988885&ei=m3j7U5DXGo79yQSLqoHwAg&usg=AFQjCNHUh6KbkYWRceJXAgTUgGkOoju02g&bvm=bv.73612305,d.aWw https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...
- jboons 12y ago
  Still paywalled.
  - nacs 12y ago
    Works fine for me.
samelawrence 12y ago
Wow. Google buying them made a lot of sense for deeper integration of live-streaming services into YouTube and going after current-gen console owners... but Amazon? What are you working on, Jeff?
- zanny 12y ago
  I think the general strategy is "Google wants it, so I want it, fu Google". Amazon also has a lot of tv shows and movies through Amazon Prime now. So they have something to do with video. Somewhat.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    I've been an Amazon Prime customer for years, spend thousands of dollars a year at Amazon, but have never once used Amazon Prime for their video or audio content. Go figure. Edit: If you use Amazon Prime for video/audio content, I'm curious!
    - untog 12y ago
      It's not bad at all. I've watched a few seasons of Downton Abbey, Battlestar Galactica and a few others using it.
    - Reedx 12y ago
      It's definitely worth checking out. I've been using Amazon Prime Video as much as Netflix the past year or so. Probably more, actually, because of the ability to rent/buy movies that aren't available on Netflix or Amazon's free video selection (which doesn't seem to be far off from Netflix now).
    - Someone1234 12y ago
      What is it you're trying to say? That because you choose not to use Amazon Primes' included streaming that it is, what? Or was that just a very strange anecdote about your person usage of their services?
      - 12y ago
bdz 12y ago
As an avid gamer I'm happy about that. Rather Amazon than Google.
- simonz05 12y ago
  Why? Whats the difference?
  - zanny 12y ago
    ContentID, versus a company not knee deep in the consumer video industry.
    - avolcano 12y ago
      While Amazon may not have a YouTube competitor, they certainly have a consumer video product in Amazon Prime Video.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - smackfu 12y ago
      Twitch already rolled out their own ContentID-styled system, pre-acquisition.
      - npizzolato 12y ago
        Pre-acquisition announcement! The timing of the two is so similar I think it's beyond likely that the anti-copyright protection wasn't a part of the negotiations.
    - nilved 12y ago
      Amazon is in the music and video industry. Twitch already has content ID. Amazon is pretty much Google-level evil plus sweatshops.
  - ForHackernews 12y ago
    Amazon sells actual products to consumers, Google sells consumer data to advertisers. That means Amazon tends to be more responsive to end-users. As an experiment: Compare trying to get somebody from Google support on the phone vs. Amazon.
christopherslee 12y ago
I thought it has previously been confirmed a few months ago that Google was acquiring Twitch. Did that fall through or was the confirmation later retracted?
- Vekz 12y ago
  It was rumored at the time
- ChrisClark 12y ago
  There was no actual press release from either. All the 'confirmations' were just. Just the other week someone from Twitch was on HN and said he was unable to comment on any possible future acquisitions.
- cdr 12y ago
  Months of rumors, which no doubt corresponded to ongoing negotiations, and then about a month ago a single VentureBeat reporter claimed a final deal was "confirmed" by anonymous sources. A lot of people were skeptical of a single unsourced claim, and seemingly rightly so. http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/24/googles-1b-purchase-of-twitch-confirmed-joins-youtube-for-new-video-empire/ http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/24/googles-1b-purchase-of-twi... The reporter doesn't sound very contrite: http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/25/amazon-could-steal-twitch-acquisition-from-google/ http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/25/amazon-could-steal-twitch-...
  - christopherslee 12y ago
    Thanks for the clarification!
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - mcintyre1994 12y ago
    What do they even think confirmed means? "Confirmed: Amazon could", "Amazon may", yep.. sounds really confirmed at that point.
mmuro 12y ago
Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to acquire Twitch, a live-streaming service for videogame players, for more than $1 billion, according to a person who has been briefed on the matter. The deal could be announced as soon as Monday, the person said. Google Inc. had earlier been in talks to acquire Twitch, but those talks cooled in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Twitch, launched in June 2011, is the most popular Internet destination for watching and broadcasting videogame play. The startup raised $20 million from investors, including Thrive Capital and videogame-maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. in September. News of the acquisition was earlier reported by tech website The Information.
- jawns 12y ago
  Here's the link to the story by tech website The Information ... which is also behind a paywall: https://www.theinformation.com/Amazon-Nears-Deal-to-Acquire-Twitch https://www.theinformation.com/Amazon-Nears-Deal-to-Acquire-...
  - freehunter 12y ago
    This story is literally the first time I've heard of this site. Is it really popular enough to demand payment for reading the articles? Looks like it was started on Dec. 04, 2013 [1] and has been subscription-based from the beginning. $40/mo or $400/year seems like a lot of money... any indication that they break news before any other site? [1] https://www.theinformation.com/Letter-From-the-Editor1 https://www.theinformation.com/Letter-From-the-Editor1
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - barkingcat 12y ago
      What's wrong with wanting a lot of money for content? If nobody reads their stuff, then naturally it will die off. I wouldn't put having a paywall against them. Capitalism will do the work.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
programminggeek 12y ago
So, this will change basically nothing about Twitch? I assume all of their infrastructure is already on Amazon, so probably more business as usual than having to move everything on to Google's infrastructure (which seems to usually derail product development for 3-6 months on most acquisitions).
- simonz05 12y ago
  Is twitch using Amazon for streaming video content? I wasn't aware that it was cost efficient to deliver "free" video streams using AWS.
  - hootener 12y ago
    Based on earlier reports of Justin.tv's streaming architecture[1], I'm going to say no. Granted, that article is old, but I think a pretty serious investment in physical infrastructure has been made by Justin.tv/Twitch. So I'm more willing to believe they're still leveraging some variation of this architecture rather than AWS. [http://highscalability.com/blog/2010/3/16/justintvs-live-video-broadcasting-architecture.html http://highscalability.com/blog/2010/3/16/justintvs-live-vid...]
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
alexgaribay 12y ago
Regardless of who actually ends up buying Twitch, I'm happy to see that they are valued so highly. They are a great service and have helped make competitive gaming more mainstream due to exposure.
eroo 12y ago
Non-paywall article on the same: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/08/amazon-not-google-reportedly-buying-twitch-for-1-billion/ http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/08/amazon-not-google-repo... None of the reporting outlets have any substantial details yet though.
bhouston 12y ago
Theory: Something some imagined synergies with gaming to the Amazon FireTV Console. But none of the micro-consoles have really succeeded with gaming. Does anyone have statistics on whether FireTV is doing better with gaming that OUYA? Does anyone actually use the gaming features?
- tehwebguy 12y ago
  Amazon FireTV is already my favorite way to watch twitch streams.
- worklogin 12y ago
  Sad that any hope I had of a Roku app is dead.
mmxiii 12y ago
Twitch is a great marketing platform for games/new games and this opens up the ability for Twitch/streamers to monetize through Amazon referrals. For now, Amazon is selling physical copies, but seems reasonable to reuse their content delivery infrastructure for game downloads in the future.
- chc 12y ago
  Amazon already sells downloads. They aren't a huge player in that space, but they do have a foot in the door.
- jeffasinger 12y ago
  Amazon does do digital downloads of games. http://www.amazon.com/Game-Downloads/ http://www.amazon.com/Game-Downloads/
- ssclafani 12y ago
  All of the top Twitch streamers have revenue sharing partnerships with G2A.com, a digital download videogame marketplace. It will be interesting to see if Amazon pushes their competing offer.
- specialp 12y ago
  I am a Twitch partner and just last week I received a survey asking me my thoughts about affiliate marketing in regards to promoting free to play games, selling games, and relate peripherals. Seems timely now.
  - CodeDiver 12y ago
    What questions were they asking?
- Pxtl 12y ago
  ... Valve should have thought of that. That said, Valve tries to avoid the whole business side of business.
  - 12y ago
staunch 12y ago
Twitch is not going to be another YouTube success story. There just aren't enough great uses for live streaming yet and video game streaming is very far from being mainstream. Twitch obviously can't believe it's very close to reaching NFL-like status either or it wouldn't sell for a mere billion and change. Amazon or Google will piss off or drive away the Twitch user base. The users will all move to Hitbox.tv or any number of new sites that will pop up. It's easy to do live streaming, it's just expensive. This acquisition will bring funding and Yahoo will buy the next popular live streaming site.
- vetler 12y ago
  It's true that video game streaming is far from being mainstream, but considering how engaged kids are in gaming now, I don't think it's far-fetched to see it only becoming more popular in the future. There is already a lot of money in esports, so I'll go out on a limb here, and say that it's only a matter of time before it becomes mainstream.
  - SimpleXYZ 12y ago
    I guess I'm too old to "get it". Why is watching other people play video games fun? I've been a gamer since the mid 80's and I don't see the appeal. Maybe if they hosted the Official Video Game Olympics or something, that might be cool. But just watching someone else play Fallout 3? Talk about a lack of immersion. I don't get it...
    - iLoch 12y ago
      > Maybe if they hosted the Official Video Game Olympics or something I think it's just like any physical sport - having knowledge about a game and watching someone skilled play is interesting. People watch to learn and get better at something they find interesting. That said, watching someone play Fallout definitely isn't what gamers think of when you mention "eSports" - generally eSports refers to some level of competition, which is why real time strategy games and first person shooters are so popular - both require a lot of skill and knowledge of the game to be good at. Getting back to the "Official Video Game Olympics" - there are actually some pretty serious competitions out there. Certain game developers have been known to self-host their own tournaments for millions of dollars in prizes (League of Legends and Call of Duty being two examples). There's also plenty of companies making a profitable business out of running these tournaments: ESL in Europe and Major League Gaming in the US being two of the bigger names out there right now. So in fact, the competition and prizes are very real, so anyone interested in a game may be interested in seeing who's going to win $1,000,000.
Someone1234 12y ago
In recent times Amazon has started making content exclusive to their own hardware (Amazon TV, Fire tablets/phones). Go check out the comparison chart here: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV-streaming-media-player/dp/B00CX5P8FC#compare http://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV-streaming-media-player/dp/B00C... Note what Amazon Prime Streaming works on. Then go here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/devices http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/devices Note that aside from Apple's devices, Amazon Prime video works only on Amazon's own mobile hardware. Is this why they're buying Twitch? To make it another "Amazon Exclusive" for Fire devices? Frankly that would explain a lot. If they can lock the content down it will force people into their ecosystem if they want mobile access.
- Nanzikambe 12y ago
  Buying a service primarily used by gamers streaming in game footage and locking it down to non-gaming hardware would be beyond idiotic.
  - gravity13 12y ago
    Yeah but drones, though.
  - AustinScript 12y ago
    I agree. It would instantly block out the majority of the userbase.
  - benologist 12y ago
    Yes I think this is critical. You just don't buy Kindle stuff for games or you're going to be not only disappointed but at a terrible disadvantage because of the artificial lock-in. The Amazon App Store is much smaller than Play and iTunes (though improving), and the Fire TV has a very small and stagnant selection of games (and not really improving).
  - shawn-furyan 12y ago
    I agree. A big part of the valuation of twitch.tv is it's positioning in the market. It doesn't make sense to drastically shock that positioning while locking out a large contingent of users in the process. If Amazon wanted a similar service to make exclusive to the Kindle ecosystem, it would make much more sense to grow one themselves with deep integration into the kindle line of products. They've done this with a lot of other products and services, and certainly have the capability. With Twitch, it would seem to make more sense for them to continue to seek partnerships with gaming platforms so that the Twitch.tv brand is increasingly ubiquitous in gaming, and then use that as a relatively extrinsic source of growth. I could see them locking out strategic players (hint: Google), and making certain events or content exclusive to the Kindle ecosystem, but locking everything down to Kindle doesn't strike me as a viable move.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
tdicola 12y ago
How much longer does Amazon have before investors start beating the drum to become profitable? Would love to see where Twitch fits into their bottom line--I guess it might help sell Fire TVs?
- azernik 12y ago
  People have been asking this question since the mid-90s. Jeff Bezos will get back to you on that one of these years.
- adventured 12y ago
  Well they've been given a pass for approximately 18 out of their 20 year existence, split into two segments of time. There was a two year period of time after the dotcom crash was over where they were beaten on pretty heavily about the lack of profitability. It really doesn't matter if investors beat the drums frankly. Bezos controls enough of Amazon's stock - roughly three times the next largest investor - it would be difficult to spar with him, short of the stock truly plunging (something like a 75% drop from here might do it). The Bezos family controls roughly as much stock as the next five largest owners combined. The correct answer is: so long as Amazon's sales continue to grow at ... 15% to 25% per year, and the losses do not become life threatening again, the drums will never get loud enough to disrupt what Bezos wants to do. I expect with a $100b +/- market cap, Amazon can continue to function without much external concern for quite some time. $100b or so mostly keeps them out of range of someone trying to buy them, and will enable continued acquisitions as needed, while not bashing shareholders too much on the downside such that everyone turns against Bezos. I see no reason they can't maintain that perpetually with zero profits, if sales continue to grow, given the sales scale they're likely to reach in the next decade. They will be given a serious sales multiple so long as sales keep growing relatively quickly. Investors will focus on that and be placated by the kool-aid. When sales growth stops, investors will shift to demanding profits and dividends. There would have to be some catastrophic setbacks, big losses, and a pause in sales growth, to force Bezos into changing his approach. I suspect at that point he would step aside and become just chairman. However, keep in mind, Amazon would love to have a cash cow. They'd love nothing more than to print up $4 billion per year in profit from the fire phone, or from their new advertising initiative. So they can show profits, boom the stock, and perpetually run a tight margin business everywhere else.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
namityadav 12y ago
Can we please have a rule against posting paywall links? I know we can find a cached version or search on Google or whatever, but it's still frustrating! We're not talking about work-arounds. Imagine what our reaction will be if someone posts a link to their own blog which doesn't allow visitor to read the content without paying $1. Even if they have a work-around like you can inspect element and hide the paywall popup.
- calcsam 12y ago
  A simple way to get around this for the WSJ is to search the title on Google News. Click through and you just jumped the paywall.
  - opendais 12y ago
    This actually isn't reliable. It doesn't work for me, for instance.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- malchow 12y ago
  But what if it is news broken by WSJ proprietary investigation? Should there really be a rule on HN that dampens original reporting?
  - johnward 12y ago
    It's not helpful, even if they break it first, if you cannot read the actual article.
    - ep103 12y ago
      The title alerted you to the news, you can search for coverage on other outlets after it breaks.
      - 12y ago
goeric 12y ago
Here's a short URL to the full WSJ article: http://bit.ly/wsjtwitch http://bit.ly/wsjtwitch
- kudu 12y ago
  Thanks, but it isn't working for me.
kudu 12y ago
In this case, linking to the WSJ article wasn't helpful or advisable, and isn't in the best interest of readers. First of all, it's paywalled, and requires a Google search as a workaround, and not every reader is aware of that. The main issue with it is that it doesn't bode well with the requirement for original reporting. In this case, there are 4 sources of which I'm aware (The Information, WSJ, Bloomberg and Recode) who reported on this, and all of them were original reports. Even if The Information was first to press, they all conducted their reporting indepedently and the fact that four sources have the same information is very relevant. By linking to only one original report, you're depriving the average HN reader of knowledge of this journalistic consensus. Even if the link had to be to an original report, it would make more sense to link to The Information, which is also paywalled, but was first to press. But really, I'd prefer the top HN link to be to a site like Ars Technica, which diligently compiled all the different reports.
paul7986 12y ago
I'm still bummed they closed my cable TV service, justin.tv. I have since found other TV/movie streaming sites, but none are as mature or reliable as JTV was.
- paul7986 12y ago
  Why does this get voted down? This what a lot of people used JTV for and it was a great service!
  - Havvy 12y ago
    Because Justin.tv wasn't for cable TV broadcasting. It was for generic streaming. Those who were streaming TV and whatnot were doing so illegally.
  - Crito 12y ago
    The reason they closed down your "cable TV service" was largely because it was your "cable TV service". Compared to twitch that website must have been an absolute nightmare to run. You may as well complain "I'm upset that the city bulldozed all of those crack houses; they were a really great place to buy crack."
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
funkyy 12y ago
Alternative link that does not require log in or sign up to WSJ: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/25/amazon-will-buy-twitch-for-over-1-billion/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/25/amazon-will-buy-twitch-for-...
antoncohen 12y ago
The acquisition has been confirmed by Twitch: http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/a-letter-from-the-ceo-august-25-2014/ http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/a-letter-from-the-ceo-august-2...
genericacct 12y ago
Please let me know when it's official so i can short AMZN ..
ig1 12y ago
Actual confirmation from BVP who are investors in Twitch: http://www.bvp.com/blog/twitch-time-wild-ride-start-finish http://www.bvp.com/blog/twitch-time-wild-ride-start-finish
imjk 12y ago
I think this makes sense for Amazon for two reasons: 1) One of the barriers to entry of live-streaming sites is the expensive hosting costs. With AWS infrastructure, Amazon could potentially have another competitive advantage over other live-streaming sites. They may even provide a better service through higher resolution streaming as they wouldn't be as constrained with bandwidth costs. 2) As Amazon enters the online advertising space to compete with Google Adwords and Adsense, they'll want to own web properties with high impressions for their display ads. User based video creation is great for that but comes with risk for copyright violations. Twitch solves both these issues as it'll give display ads high impressions without much concern about copyright violations as these will mostly be legit user-originated content.
- drawkbox 12y ago
  It is also good for the market to have two larger game channels (youtube and twitch, yes there are Everyplay, hitbox and there will be more now this deal happened). Amazon is really hands-off with acquisitions for the most part such as Zappos and Audible. They primarily add to the offerings by cheaper fulfillment or server/bandwidth/cpu costs and more. I think they will treat twitch better than if it was just integrated into youtube. Also, it shows a dedication to game developers and supporting marketing of games on their platforms and others. Amazon buying them is actually better for Twitch and the gaming/let's play type new marketing channels.
  - SynchrotronZ 12y ago
    A streamer also mentioned that recently Twitch send out an enquiry to partners about what kind of affiliation programs they would be interested in. My bet would be that Amazons angle is going to be integration of their storefront and other services into Twitch in the form of affiliate programs ("Buy this game now"-buttons, adding Twitch Turbo to Amazon Prime and the likes). I wouldn't even be surprised if down the road they'd announce a Steam-like digital distribution thingymagick. Steam and it's competitors are rolling in cash and have been getting quite some flack recently so now might be the best time.
    - 12y ago
tehwebguy 12y ago
Twitch CEO just confirmed: https://twitter.com/Twitch/status/503996320349057024 https://twitter.com/Twitch/status/503996320349057024
LeicaLatte 12y ago
Given their recent track record in making products in house (looking at you 3d phone lol) this is good for amazon. They can never build a streaming community this cool.
chx 12y ago
How is $970 million more than $1B?
- objclxt 12y ago
  ...depends how much of the $1 billion is in stock, or is subject to meeting certain targets, etc.
  - chx 12y ago
    Said to be cash.
alexyes 12y ago
It is confirmed: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1960768&highlight= http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-ne...
dang 12y ago
We changed the url from http://online.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-buy-video-site-twitch-for-more-than-1-billion-1408988885 http://online.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-buy-video-site-twit... because everyone hates the paywall. In general, we want the best article out there on a given topic, where "not being behind a paywall" adds points toward "best".
- namityadav 12y ago
  Thank you!
rhspeer 12y ago
I just watched 4 guys get stuck in a dumpster and shout profanities at each other for 2 minutes. A questionable use of a billion dollars IMHO. Maybe this means I'm old now?
- fletchowns 12y ago
  What is the point you are trying to make here? That every stream on twitch may not appeal to everyone? We already know that. To use the obvious comparison: If I turn on the television and flip to a random channel and I'm not interested, does that mean TV as a whole is worthless?
  - oldmanjay 12y ago
    I don't even own a random channel
fidotron 12y ago
Amazon really aren't on the radar round here nearly as much as they should be. As some in this thread have pointed out their strategy is to spend absolutely all income on slightly out there R&D, which in the case of things like their web services wildly over return. Just because they aren't based in the valley and make Apple look positively liberal when it comes to secrecy and working practices doesn't mean they should be ignored. Quite honestly I think they're the single most terrifying company in the US today, an idea Bezos would take as a compliment. The big picture is they are gunning to become the universal middle men for when people actually spend money on the net. Google only have the ad side of things together, but never really cracked getting end users to open their wallets, yet Amazon are in the position of starting in front of users, and slowly moving themselves into being the background glue between everything else, facilitating transactions between everyone while taking their cut and enforcing their rules. Terrifying, and brilliant.
- iLoch 12y ago
  I wish they'd try harder with their payments business - they could be in a position to compete with Stripe or Paypal but instead force users to pay with their Amazon accounts. That doesn't make sense as a business strategy to me.
  - S4M 12y ago
    Wouldn't that be a blatant abuse of dominant position?
    - jamesaguilar 12y ago
      If they had any monopolies, as interpreted by the us government, that could be an issue.
  - bellerocky 12y ago
    It's interesting you didn't mention Square, I think a sign of how much Square has fallen. Two years ago payment and Square were often mentioned in the same breath around here.
tzm 12y ago
I predict Twitch will become Amazon's Youtube.
oelmekki 12y ago
Could that be acqui-hire dodging ? As mentioned, twitch is a very central part of esport community. But in the same time, it might not have enough credibility on "mainstream" startup world. I wonder if google was interested in twitch service more than twitch team.
LeicaLatte 12y ago
Glad Twitch has some clout now to fight big intimidating movie studios whenever needed.
MarketingDevil 12y ago
In this rate it's just a matter of time until e-sports becomes more popular than some contact sports.

475 points by lalwanivikas 12y ago

The underlying story for me here is this: Twitch has the potential to both compete in the same sentence as ESPN ($$$ bil) and provide a new model for content delivery in sports content consumption.

ProAm 12y ago
I'd glady pay for live sports streaming, it's the only thing I really miss from cutting the cable cord: F1, NHL.
- gtaylor 12y ago
  I gladly pay for MLB.tv. The blackouts are annoying, but you can circumvent them easily if you so desire.

grantlmiller 12y ago

non-paywall link: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Famazon-to-buy-video-site-twitch-for-more-than-1-billion-1408988885&ei=m3j7U5DXGo79yQSLqoHwAg&usg=AFQjCNHUh6KbkYWRceJXAgTUgGkOoju02g&bvm=bv.73612305,d.aWw https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

jboons 12y ago
Still paywalled.
- nacs 12y ago
  Works fine for me.

samelawrence 12y ago

Wow. Google buying them made a lot of sense for deeper integration of live-streaming services into YouTube and going after current-gen console owners... but Amazon? What are you working on, Jeff?

zanny 12y ago
I think the general strategy is "Google wants it, so I want it, fu Google". Amazon also has a lot of tv shows and movies through Amazon Prime now. So they have something to do with video. Somewhat.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  I've been an Amazon Prime customer for years, spend thousands of dollars a year at Amazon, but have never once used Amazon Prime for their video or audio content. Go figure. Edit: If you use Amazon Prime for video/audio content, I'm curious!
  - untog 12y ago
    It's not bad at all. I've watched a few seasons of Downton Abbey, Battlestar Galactica and a few others using it.
  - Reedx 12y ago
    It's definitely worth checking out. I've been using Amazon Prime Video as much as Netflix the past year or so. Probably more, actually, because of the ability to rent/buy movies that aren't available on Netflix or Amazon's free video selection (which doesn't seem to be far off from Netflix now).
  - Someone1234 12y ago
    What is it you're trying to say? That because you choose not to use Amazon Primes' included streaming that it is, what? Or was that just a very strange anecdote about your person usage of their services?
    - 12y ago

bdz 12y ago

As an avid gamer I'm happy about that. Rather Amazon than Google.

simonz05 12y ago
Why? Whats the difference?
- zanny 12y ago
  ContentID, versus a company not knee deep in the consumer video industry.
  - avolcano 12y ago
    While Amazon may not have a YouTube competitor, they certainly have a consumer video product in Amazon Prime Video.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - smackfu 12y ago
    Twitch already rolled out their own ContentID-styled system, pre-acquisition.
    - npizzolato 12y ago
      Pre-acquisition announcement! The timing of the two is so similar I think it's beyond likely that the anti-copyright protection wasn't a part of the negotiations.
  - nilved 12y ago
    Amazon is in the music and video industry. Twitch already has content ID. Amazon is pretty much Google-level evil plus sweatshops.
- ForHackernews 12y ago
  Amazon sells actual products to consumers, Google sells consumer data to advertisers. That means Amazon tends to be more responsive to end-users. As an experiment: Compare trying to get somebody from Google support on the phone vs. Amazon.

christopherslee 12y ago

I thought it has previously been confirmed a few months ago that Google was acquiring Twitch. Did that fall through or was the confirmation later retracted?

Vekz 12y ago
It was rumored at the time
ChrisClark 12y ago
There was no actual press release from either. All the 'confirmations' were just. Just the other week someone from Twitch was on HN and said he was unable to comment on any possible future acquisitions.
cdr 12y ago
Months of rumors, which no doubt corresponded to ongoing negotiations, and then about a month ago a single VentureBeat reporter claimed a final deal was "confirmed" by anonymous sources. A lot of people were skeptical of a single unsourced claim, and seemingly rightly so. http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/24/googles-1b-purchase-of-twitch-confirmed-joins-youtube-for-new-video-empire/ http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/24/googles-1b-purchase-of-twi... The reporter doesn't sound very contrite: http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/25/amazon-could-steal-twitch-acquisition-from-google/ http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/25/amazon-could-steal-twitch-...
- christopherslee 12y ago
  Thanks for the clarification!
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- mcintyre1994 12y ago
  What do they even think confirmed means? "Confirmed: Amazon could", "Amazon may", yep.. sounds really confirmed at that point.

mmuro 12y ago

Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to acquire Twitch, a live-streaming service for videogame players, for more than $1 billion, according to a person who has been briefed on the matter. The deal could be announced as soon as Monday, the person said. Google Inc. had earlier been in talks to acquire Twitch, but those talks cooled in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Twitch, launched in June 2011, is the most popular Internet destination for watching and broadcasting videogame play. The startup raised $20 million from investors, including Thrive Capital and videogame-maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. in September. News of the acquisition was earlier reported by tech website The Information.

jawns 12y ago
Here's the link to the story by tech website The Information ... which is also behind a paywall: https://www.theinformation.com/Amazon-Nears-Deal-to-Acquire-Twitch https://www.theinformation.com/Amazon-Nears-Deal-to-Acquire-...
- freehunter 12y ago
  This story is literally the first time I've heard of this site. Is it really popular enough to demand payment for reading the articles? Looks like it was started on Dec. 04, 2013 [1] and has been subscription-based from the beginning. $40/mo or $400/year seems like a lot of money... any indication that they break news before any other site? [1] https://www.theinformation.com/Letter-From-the-Editor1 https://www.theinformation.com/Letter-From-the-Editor1
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - barkingcat 12y ago
    What's wrong with wanting a lot of money for content? If nobody reads their stuff, then naturally it will die off. I wouldn't put having a paywall against them. Capitalism will do the work.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

programminggeek 12y ago

So, this will change basically nothing about Twitch? I assume all of their infrastructure is already on Amazon, so probably more business as usual than having to move everything on to Google's infrastructure (which seems to usually derail product development for 3-6 months on most acquisitions).

simonz05 12y ago
Is twitch using Amazon for streaming video content? I wasn't aware that it was cost efficient to deliver "free" video streams using AWS.
- hootener 12y ago
  Based on earlier reports of Justin.tv's streaming architecture[1], I'm going to say no. Granted, that article is old, but I think a pretty serious investment in physical infrastructure has been made by Justin.tv/Twitch. So I'm more willing to believe they're still leveraging some variation of this architecture rather than AWS. [http://highscalability.com/blog/2010/3/16/justintvs-live-video-broadcasting-architecture.html http://highscalability.com/blog/2010/3/16/justintvs-live-vid...]
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]

alexgaribay 12y ago

Regardless of who actually ends up buying Twitch, I'm happy to see that they are valued so highly. They are a great service and have helped make competitive gaming more mainstream due to exposure.

eroo 12y ago

Non-paywall article on the same: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/08/amazon-not-google-reportedly-buying-twitch-for-1-billion/ http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/08/amazon-not-google-repo... None of the reporting outlets have any substantial details yet though.

bhouston 12y ago

Theory: Something some imagined synergies with gaming to the Amazon FireTV Console. But none of the micro-consoles have really succeeded with gaming. Does anyone have statistics on whether FireTV is doing better with gaming that OUYA? Does anyone actually use the gaming features?

tehwebguy 12y ago
Amazon FireTV is already my favorite way to watch twitch streams.
worklogin 12y ago
Sad that any hope I had of a Roku app is dead.

mmxiii 12y ago

Twitch is a great marketing platform for games/new games and this opens up the ability for Twitch/streamers to monetize through Amazon referrals. For now, Amazon is selling physical copies, but seems reasonable to reuse their content delivery infrastructure for game downloads in the future.

chc 12y ago
Amazon already sells downloads. They aren't a huge player in that space, but they do have a foot in the door.
jeffasinger 12y ago
Amazon does do digital downloads of games. http://www.amazon.com/Game-Downloads/ http://www.amazon.com/Game-Downloads/
ssclafani 12y ago
All of the top Twitch streamers have revenue sharing partnerships with G2A.com, a digital download videogame marketplace. It will be interesting to see if Amazon pushes their competing offer.
specialp 12y ago
I am a Twitch partner and just last week I received a survey asking me my thoughts about affiliate marketing in regards to promoting free to play games, selling games, and relate peripherals. Seems timely now.
- CodeDiver 12y ago
  What questions were they asking?
Pxtl 12y ago
... Valve should have thought of that. That said, Valve tries to avoid the whole business side of business.
- 12y ago

staunch 12y ago

Twitch is not going to be another YouTube success story. There just aren't enough great uses for live streaming yet and video game streaming is very far from being mainstream. Twitch obviously can't believe it's very close to reaching NFL-like status either or it wouldn't sell for a mere billion and change. Amazon or Google will piss off or drive away the Twitch user base. The users will all move to Hitbox.tv or any number of new sites that will pop up. It's easy to do live streaming, it's just expensive. This acquisition will bring funding and Yahoo will buy the next popular live streaming site.

vetler 12y ago
It's true that video game streaming is far from being mainstream, but considering how engaged kids are in gaming now, I don't think it's far-fetched to see it only becoming more popular in the future. There is already a lot of money in esports, so I'll go out on a limb here, and say that it's only a matter of time before it becomes mainstream.
- SimpleXYZ 12y ago
  I guess I'm too old to "get it". Why is watching other people play video games fun? I've been a gamer since the mid 80's and I don't see the appeal. Maybe if they hosted the Official Video Game Olympics or something, that might be cool. But just watching someone else play Fallout 3? Talk about a lack of immersion. I don't get it...
  - iLoch 12y ago
    > Maybe if they hosted the Official Video Game Olympics or something I think it's just like any physical sport - having knowledge about a game and watching someone skilled play is interesting. People watch to learn and get better at something they find interesting. That said, watching someone play Fallout definitely isn't what gamers think of when you mention "eSports" - generally eSports refers to some level of competition, which is why real time strategy games and first person shooters are so popular - both require a lot of skill and knowledge of the game to be good at. Getting back to the "Official Video Game Olympics" - there are actually some pretty serious competitions out there. Certain game developers have been known to self-host their own tournaments for millions of dollars in prizes (League of Legends and Call of Duty being two examples). There's also plenty of companies making a profitable business out of running these tournaments: ESL in Europe and Major League Gaming in the US being two of the bigger names out there right now. So in fact, the competition and prizes are very real, so anyone interested in a game may be interested in seeing who's going to win $1,000,000.

Someone1234 12y ago

In recent times Amazon has started making content exclusive to their own hardware (Amazon TV, Fire tablets/phones). Go check out the comparison chart here: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV-streaming-media-player/dp/B00CX5P8FC#compare http://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV-streaming-media-player/dp/B00C... Note what Amazon Prime Streaming works on. Then go here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/devices http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/devices Note that aside from Apple's devices, Amazon Prime video works only on Amazon's own mobile hardware. Is this why they're buying Twitch? To make it another "Amazon Exclusive" for Fire devices? Frankly that would explain a lot. If they can lock the content down it will force people into their ecosystem if they want mobile access.

Nanzikambe 12y ago
Buying a service primarily used by gamers streaming in game footage and locking it down to non-gaming hardware would be beyond idiotic.
- gravity13 12y ago
  Yeah but drones, though.
- AustinScript 12y ago
  I agree. It would instantly block out the majority of the userbase.
- benologist 12y ago
  Yes I think this is critical. You just don't buy Kindle stuff for games or you're going to be not only disappointed but at a terrible disadvantage because of the artificial lock-in. The Amazon App Store is much smaller than Play and iTunes (though improving), and the Fire TV has a very small and stagnant selection of games (and not really improving).
- shawn-furyan 12y ago
  I agree. A big part of the valuation of twitch.tv is it's positioning in the market. It doesn't make sense to drastically shock that positioning while locking out a large contingent of users in the process. If Amazon wanted a similar service to make exclusive to the Kindle ecosystem, it would make much more sense to grow one themselves with deep integration into the kindle line of products. They've done this with a lot of other products and services, and certainly have the capability. With Twitch, it would seem to make more sense for them to continue to seek partnerships with gaming platforms so that the Twitch.tv brand is increasingly ubiquitous in gaming, and then use that as a relatively extrinsic source of growth. I could see them locking out strategic players (hint: Google), and making certain events or content exclusive to the Kindle ecosystem, but locking everything down to Kindle doesn't strike me as a viable move.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

tdicola 12y ago

How much longer does Amazon have before investors start beating the drum to become profitable? Would love to see where Twitch fits into their bottom line--I guess it might help sell Fire TVs?

azernik 12y ago
People have been asking this question since the mid-90s. Jeff Bezos will get back to you on that one of these years.
adventured 12y ago
Well they've been given a pass for approximately 18 out of their 20 year existence, split into two segments of time. There was a two year period of time after the dotcom crash was over where they were beaten on pretty heavily about the lack of profitability. It really doesn't matter if investors beat the drums frankly. Bezos controls enough of Amazon's stock - roughly three times the next largest investor - it would be difficult to spar with him, short of the stock truly plunging (something like a 75% drop from here might do it). The Bezos family controls roughly as much stock as the next five largest owners combined. The correct answer is: so long as Amazon's sales continue to grow at ... 15% to 25% per year, and the losses do not become life threatening again, the drums will never get loud enough to disrupt what Bezos wants to do. I expect with a $100b +/- market cap, Amazon can continue to function without much external concern for quite some time. $100b or so mostly keeps them out of range of someone trying to buy them, and will enable continued acquisitions as needed, while not bashing shareholders too much on the downside such that everyone turns against Bezos. I see no reason they can't maintain that perpetually with zero profits, if sales continue to grow, given the sales scale they're likely to reach in the next decade. They will be given a serious sales multiple so long as sales keep growing relatively quickly. Investors will focus on that and be placated by the kool-aid. When sales growth stops, investors will shift to demanding profits and dividends. There would have to be some catastrophic setbacks, big losses, and a pause in sales growth, to force Bezos into changing his approach. I suspect at that point he would step aside and become just chairman. However, keep in mind, Amazon would love to have a cash cow. They'd love nothing more than to print up $4 billion per year in profit from the fire phone, or from their new advertising initiative. So they can show profits, boom the stock, and perpetually run a tight margin business everywhere else.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

namityadav 12y ago

Can we please have a rule against posting paywall links? I know we can find a cached version or search on Google or whatever, but it's still frustrating! We're not talking about work-arounds. Imagine what our reaction will be if someone posts a link to their own blog which doesn't allow visitor to read the content without paying $1. Even if they have a work-around like you can inspect element and hide the paywall popup.

calcsam 12y ago
A simple way to get around this for the WSJ is to search the title on Google News. Click through and you just jumped the paywall.
- opendais 12y ago
  This actually isn't reliable. It doesn't work for me, for instance.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
malchow 12y ago
But what if it is news broken by WSJ proprietary investigation? Should there really be a rule on HN that dampens original reporting?
- johnward 12y ago
  It's not helpful, even if they break it first, if you cannot read the actual article.
  - ep103 12y ago
    The title alerted you to the news, you can search for coverage on other outlets after it breaks.
    - 12y ago

goeric 12y ago

Here's a short URL to the full WSJ article: http://bit.ly/wsjtwitch http://bit.ly/wsjtwitch

kudu 12y ago
Thanks, but it isn't working for me.

kudu 12y ago

In this case, linking to the WSJ article wasn't helpful or advisable, and isn't in the best interest of readers. First of all, it's paywalled, and requires a Google search as a workaround, and not every reader is aware of that. The main issue with it is that it doesn't bode well with the requirement for original reporting. In this case, there are 4 sources of which I'm aware (The Information, WSJ, Bloomberg and Recode) who reported on this, and all of them were original reports. Even if The Information was first to press, they all conducted their reporting indepedently and the fact that four sources have the same information is very relevant. By linking to only one original report, you're depriving the average HN reader of knowledge of this journalistic consensus. Even if the link had to be to an original report, it would make more sense to link to The Information, which is also paywalled, but was first to press. But really, I'd prefer the top HN link to be to a site like Ars Technica, which diligently compiled all the different reports.

paul7986 12y ago

I'm still bummed they closed my cable TV service, justin.tv. I have since found other TV/movie streaming sites, but none are as mature or reliable as JTV was.

paul7986 12y ago
Why does this get voted down? This what a lot of people used JTV for and it was a great service!
- Havvy 12y ago
  Because Justin.tv wasn't for cable TV broadcasting. It was for generic streaming. Those who were streaming TV and whatnot were doing so illegally.
- Crito 12y ago
  The reason they closed down your "cable TV service" was largely because it was your "cable TV service". Compared to twitch that website must have been an absolute nightmare to run. You may as well complain "I'm upset that the city bulldozed all of those crack houses; they were a really great place to buy crack."
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

funkyy 12y ago

Alternative link that does not require log in or sign up to WSJ: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/25/amazon-will-buy-twitch-for-over-1-billion/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/25/amazon-will-buy-twitch-for-...

antoncohen 12y ago

The acquisition has been confirmed by Twitch: http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/a-letter-from-the-ceo-august-25-2014/ http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/a-letter-from-the-ceo-august-2...

genericacct 12y ago

Please let me know when it's official so i can short AMZN ..

ig1 12y ago

Actual confirmation from BVP who are investors in Twitch: http://www.bvp.com/blog/twitch-time-wild-ride-start-finish http://www.bvp.com/blog/twitch-time-wild-ride-start-finish

imjk 12y ago

I think this makes sense for Amazon for two reasons: 1) One of the barriers to entry of live-streaming sites is the expensive hosting costs. With AWS infrastructure, Amazon could potentially have another competitive advantage over other live-streaming sites. They may even provide a better service through higher resolution streaming as they wouldn't be as constrained with bandwidth costs. 2) As Amazon enters the online advertising space to compete with Google Adwords and Adsense, they'll want to own web properties with high impressions for their display ads. User based video creation is great for that but comes with risk for copyright violations. Twitch solves both these issues as it'll give display ads high impressions without much concern about copyright violations as these will mostly be legit user-originated content.

drawkbox 12y ago
It is also good for the market to have two larger game channels (youtube and twitch, yes there are Everyplay, hitbox and there will be more now this deal happened). Amazon is really hands-off with acquisitions for the most part such as Zappos and Audible. They primarily add to the offerings by cheaper fulfillment or server/bandwidth/cpu costs and more. I think they will treat twitch better than if it was just integrated into youtube. Also, it shows a dedication to game developers and supporting marketing of games on their platforms and others. Amazon buying them is actually better for Twitch and the gaming/let's play type new marketing channels.
- SynchrotronZ 12y ago
  A streamer also mentioned that recently Twitch send out an enquiry to partners about what kind of affiliation programs they would be interested in. My bet would be that Amazons angle is going to be integration of their storefront and other services into Twitch in the form of affiliate programs ("Buy this game now"-buttons, adding Twitch Turbo to Amazon Prime and the likes). I wouldn't even be surprised if down the road they'd announce a Steam-like digital distribution thingymagick. Steam and it's competitors are rolling in cash and have been getting quite some flack recently so now might be the best time.
  - 12y ago

tehwebguy 12y ago

Twitch CEO just confirmed: https://twitter.com/Twitch/status/503996320349057024 https://twitter.com/Twitch/status/503996320349057024

LeicaLatte 12y ago

Given their recent track record in making products in house (looking at you 3d phone lol) this is good for amazon. They can never build a streaming community this cool.

chx 12y ago

How is $970 million more than $1B?

objclxt 12y ago
...depends how much of the $1 billion is in stock, or is subject to meeting certain targets, etc.
- chx 12y ago
  Said to be cash.

alexyes 12y ago

It is confirmed: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1960768&highlight= http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-ne...

dang 12y ago

We changed the url from http://online.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-buy-video-site-twitch-for-more-than-1-billion-1408988885 http://online.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-buy-video-site-twit... because everyone hates the paywall. In general, we want the best article out there on a given topic, where "not being behind a paywall" adds points toward "best".

namityadav 12y ago
Thank you!

rhspeer 12y ago

I just watched 4 guys get stuck in a dumpster and shout profanities at each other for 2 minutes. A questionable use of a billion dollars IMHO. Maybe this means I'm old now?

fletchowns 12y ago
What is the point you are trying to make here? That every stream on twitch may not appeal to everyone? We already know that. To use the obvious comparison: If I turn on the television and flip to a random channel and I'm not interested, does that mean TV as a whole is worthless?
- oldmanjay 12y ago
  I don't even own a random channel

fidotron 12y ago

Amazon really aren't on the radar round here nearly as much as they should be. As some in this thread have pointed out their strategy is to spend absolutely all income on slightly out there R&D, which in the case of things like their web services wildly over return. Just because they aren't based in the valley and make Apple look positively liberal when it comes to secrecy and working practices doesn't mean they should be ignored. Quite honestly I think they're the single most terrifying company in the US today, an idea Bezos would take as a compliment. The big picture is they are gunning to become the universal middle men for when people actually spend money on the net. Google only have the ad side of things together, but never really cracked getting end users to open their wallets, yet Amazon are in the position of starting in front of users, and slowly moving themselves into being the background glue between everything else, facilitating transactions between everyone while taking their cut and enforcing their rules. Terrifying, and brilliant.

iLoch 12y ago
I wish they'd try harder with their payments business - they could be in a position to compete with Stripe or Paypal but instead force users to pay with their Amazon accounts. That doesn't make sense as a business strategy to me.
- S4M 12y ago
  Wouldn't that be a blatant abuse of dominant position?
  - jamesaguilar 12y ago
    If they had any monopolies, as interpreted by the us government, that could be an issue.
- bellerocky 12y ago
  It's interesting you didn't mention Square, I think a sign of how much Square has fallen. Two years ago payment and Square were often mentioned in the same breath around here.

tzm 12y ago

I predict Twitch will become Amazon's Youtube.

oelmekki 12y ago

Could that be acqui-hire dodging ? As mentioned, twitch is a very central part of esport community. But in the same time, it might not have enough credibility on "mainstream" startup world. I wonder if google was interested in twitch service more than twitch team.

LeicaLatte 12y ago

Glad Twitch has some clout now to fight big intimidating movie studios whenever needed.

MarketingDevil 12y ago

In this rate it's just a matter of time until e-sports becomes more popular than some contact sports.