Commissar SFLUFAN Posted December 6, 2023 Share Posted December 6, 2023 An Update on Twitch in Korea Quote This morning, I shared with our community in Korea that we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down the Twitch business in Korea on February 27, 2024 KST. We understand that this is extremely disappointing news, and we want to explain why we made this decision and how we are planning to support those impacted. Ultimately, the cost to operate Twitch in Korea is prohibitively expensive and we have spent significant effort working to reduce these costs so that we could find a way for the Twitch business to remain in Korea. First, we experimented with a peer-to-peer model for source quality. Then, we adjusted source quality to a maximum of 720p. While we have lowered costs from these efforts, our network fees in Korea are still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries. 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. To all of our global communities, we want to make it clear that this is a unique situation. Operating costs in Korea are significantly higher than they are in other countries and we have been open about this challenge for some time. Twitch streamers in Korea have devoted significant time and effort into building their communities, and we plan to help these communities find new homes — even if it’s regrettably not on Twitch. We will work to help Twitch streamers in Korea move their communities to alternative livestreaming services in Korea. We are also reaching out to several of these services to help with the transition and will communicate with impacted streamers as those discussions progress. I want to reiterate that this was a very difficult decision and one we are very disappointed we had to make. Korea has always and will continue to play a special role in the international esports community and we are incredibly grateful for the communities they built on Twitch. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CitizenVectron Posted December 6, 2023 Share Posted December 6, 2023 Is this because Korea doesn't have net neutrality, and ISPs can charge exorbitant amounts to certain companies to carry their traffic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacon Posted December 6, 2023 Share Posted December 6, 2023 14 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said: Is this because Korea doesn't have net neutrality, and ISPs can charge exorbitant amounts to certain companies to carry their traffic? Seems like it. I see a lot of blame (from non-Koreans) placed on the SK government. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacon Posted December 6, 2023 Share Posted December 6, 2023 People are claiming that Netflix is/was thinking of leaving SK but I have no idea if that is/was true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jwheel86 Posted December 6, 2023 Share Posted December 6, 2023 I get pulling the Korean servers, but why not leave the office infrastructure in place so Korean Partners can still get paid but use say Japanese servers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted December 6, 2023 Share Posted December 6, 2023 RIP Korean booby streamers 🌹 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XxEvil AshxX Posted December 6, 2023 Share Posted December 6, 2023 8 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said: RIP Korean booby streamers 🌹 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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