Youtube is going to buy Twitch for one billion of your earth dollars.

[Sky]

I don't log into Youtube, and I don't know why anybody would.

Some people actually create content rather than just bitch about what others do 

[tazelbain]

Upsides:
More resources to support/upgrade twitches straining infrastructure.

Downsides
G+ integration.
Aggressive copyright enforcement.
Google's tendency to discontinue/downgrade products that they can't advertise with.

Anything else?
I wonder about this from content producers perspective. Are Youtube's or twitch's deals generally more favorable?

[Paelos]

Alternatively, we'll just stop streaming; I like listening to music while playing.

Nothing is really lost with fewer people streaming games. Especially if it's self-inflicted over music.

[Numtini]

I don't log into Youtube, and I don't know why anybody would

I started to log in when I figured out I could push a video to the DVR or Roku straight from my Chromebook or tablet. Even with a small tablet, it's easier to type a search than it is with a remote control. Particularly as my partner and I are prone to Lum-esque nostalgia fests for 80s videos when we've had a few martinis--making the remote typing that much less coordinated.

And yeah, this is going to kill Twitch.

[Kail]

Alternatively, we'll just stop streaming; I like listening to music while playing.

Nothing is really lost with fewer people streaming games. Especially if it's self-inflicted over music.

Actually, about one billion of our earth dollars are lost if people stop streaming games on Twitch, for any reason.  We're not talking about, like, one or two channels which are going to be pissed off, literally 90 to 95% of them do this to some degree.

[tazelbain]

That's if Google actually wants Twitch, if they are just trying to kill off a competitor than Twitch dying is good thing.

[Paelos]

Alternatively, we'll just stop streaming; I like listening to music while playing.

Nothing is really lost with fewer people streaming games. Especially if it's self-inflicted over music.

Actually, about one billion of our earth dollars are lost if people stop streaming games on Twitch, for any reason.  We're not talking about, like, one or two channels which are going to be pissed off, literally 90 to 95% of them do this to some degree.

That will never happen. People streaming games are attention whores.

[Kail]

That will never happen. People streaming games are attention whores.

The question isn't "will they keep streaming" it's "will they keep streaming on Twitch."  I've already seen some people leaving Youtube after the "integrating comments with G+" bullshit went down, I'm not convinced that people will stick around on Twitch when years worth of their archives are napalmed for playing Darude - Sandstorm.  Most of the big channels have revenue streams that depend on streaming, if you start pushing them away they're going to find somewhere that's easier for them to do business with.  And most of the smaller streams are just a guy with one or two of his buddies hanging out with him or something.  It won't take a lot to make them decide "this isn't worth it".

[Bzalthek]

They'll keep streaming, and most will keep streaming on twitch.  Then they can be martyrs for the cause, and even more deserving of attention.

Most of the streams I watch is for the gameplay, usually with entertaining commentary.  Only of the few channels I subscribe to play music because I find it detracts from the main point of the stream.  Obviously people have different tastes, but those people are wrong (watch your step, chasm is steep).

[Paelos]

They'll keep streaming, and most will keep streaming on twitch.  Then they can be martyrs for the cause, and even more deserving of attention.

Pretty much. The sky is falling shit over not having music is pretty silly. Even if they go elsewhere, what's to stop the DMCA train following them to the next station?

If I'm watching the game, I want to hear the game.

[Goreschach]

Most channels would sound better if they switched to unlicensed artists anyway.

Trying not to sound hipsterish, but there it is.

[rk47]

I need Linkin Park to accompany Naruto duels, thanks.

[Yegolev]

Current pop songs always match any gameplay.  Or death metal if you wear black tee shirts.

[HaemishM]

Death metal goes with anything. 

[KallDrexx]

It's not just music.

Game developer (including Nintendo) have either taken down people's reviews for games over the idea that the game itself is copyrighted, or they have claimed ownership which caused Youtube to give ad revenue to the publisher instead of the reviewer until the reviewer fights it, in which case he'll never get back the revenue taken from him.

[Fabricated]

Incidentally; Nintendo has announced it wants to open a partnership to share ad revenue with Let's Players and other people who post video of Nintendo products on Youtube.

Lmao. Just gonna say it: Nintendo shouldn't have a right to ask for ad revenue from recorded game footage nor should they be able to DMCA game footage. It is not the same as uploading a movie as it is not the proper "content" of the game IMO. This is slippery slope shit which could potentially lead to publishers/devs DMCAing bad reviews out of existence for using non promo-kit game footage or images. If you can claim youtubers playing your game are violating your IP rights, you can do the same to anyone reviewing it.

[Kail]

Update on this in case anyone's not following, turns out it's Amazon that bought Twitch.  This is shortly after they implemented a big system wide content ID system on their VOD service, though it doesn't impact their live broadcasts.

[Numtini]

Amazon's Fire OS for their Kindle tablets, despite being based on Android, doesn't use the Google apps, including youtube. Wonder if they're looking to build a competitor.

[Speedy Cerviche]

yeah I saw analysis a few days ago that Amazon was gearing up for a big assault on Google's core advertising business. That's where the real money is on the internet, big fat margins compared to product retail which is very thin profits.

[Jeff Kelly]

You can't take Amazon's quaterly reports at face value. Generally I'd agree that the profit margins in retail are low. Except if you're Aldi or Wal Mart or Amazon. The fact that Amazon posts huge revenues yet no profits is more because of their accountants than because of actual low profit margins. A fact that makes their stock owners more and more aggravated. Bezos likes to make investors think that profit margins are low but a lot of people have done a lot of digging around and found out that it is pretty far from the truth.

Amazon reinvests all of its profits into other business segments and it does so much more cleverly than for example Google or Facebook. Google especially is a huge money sink since their investments seldom go anywhere. Google and Facebook also have another problem, they will only continue to get that advertising money for as long as they are relevant as a platform. If people don't use their services anymore then they will no longer have access to those advertising dollars.

Amazon acquiring Twitch and turning it into Amazon's version of youtube makes a lot of sense. Firstly because Google makes a lot of money from advertisements on youtube. Enough in fact, so that they can offer the service for free, so it makes sense to get a piece of that advertising pie. Secondly because Amazon actually has stuff to sell so it can use twitch not only as a general ad platform but also as a way to guide more revenue streams to its own retail business.

Imagine the ads for a twitch game stream telling you that you can buy that game for a low prize on amazon. If they turned it up to eleven they could do video analysis and even tell you what type of clothes the persons wear and what stuff they own and where to order it on Amazon's own store. 'People who watched that video also bought...'

[Signe]

Some day my day dreams will belong to Amazon, won't they?

[Yegolev]

Yes, especially if you work there.

[tazelbain]

Yep, Amazon's culture is to use people like a car uses oil and change them just as frequently.

[Nebu]

One billion dollars.  Cash money. 

[Fordel]

Literal forklift worth's of money.


That sentence makes less sense the more I read it to myself, but we're going with it anyways!

[schild]

Looks like 11.5 forklifts.

[schild]

In all seriousness though, this is one of the more bizarre choices to make for such a large purchase. Literally anyone can sink 200M into an online streaming service that would be better than Twitch's. In fact, they could probably also make a client in that amount and distribute it for free and have it be specialized for gaming and the particular service.

I'm not sure what Amazon is paying for here. Other than the eyes, which, frankly, doesn't make sense as all of the people who know and use twitch probably already have Amazon prime and shop there on the reg.

Google acquiring it made a tiny bit more sense because Youtube. But even then, nope.

[Trippy]

Rumor has it Amazon is building an ad network to compete with Google. Twitch has about 1/6 the traffic compared to YouTube (1 billion minutes viewed per month vs 6 billion). YouTube was estimated to gross almost $6 billion in ad revenue last year. 1/6 of 6 billion = 1 BEELLION dollars in ad revenue.

[KallDrexx]

In all seriousness though, this is one of the more bizarre choices to make for such a large purchase. Literally anyone can sink 200M into an online streaming service that would be better than Twitch's. In fact, they could probably also make a client in that amount and distribute it for free and have it be specialized for gaming and the particular service.

I think you underestimate Twitch's value and way under-estimate how much it takes to build a streaming network.

BusinessInsider has some good numbers to see why Twitch is actually a pretty huge powerhouse in the live streaming scene.

Also, rumors have it that Google was in the running but Google wouldn't have let Twitch have autonomy, but Amazon promised them that (and they usually deliver in that regard with past acquisitions). 

And yeah, beyond the ad network it makes a lot of sense what Amazon is doing in the long run.  Wheither they execute it well or not is a different story, but they are setting themselves up in a good way.

[Trippy]

Rumor has it Amazon is building an ad network to compete with Google. Twitch has about 1/6 the traffic compared to YouTube (1 billion minutes viewed per month vs 6 billion). YouTube was estimated to gross almost $6 billion in ad revenue last year. 1/6 of 6 billion = 1 BEELLION dollars in ad revenue.

Oops, I'm off by an order of magnitude. I thought it was 12 billion minutes for all of 2013, not 12 billion minutes per month.

So that's 10 BEELLION dollars in ad revenue a year (once the ad network is built up).

[ezrast]

They're probably paying for not having to compete with Twitch. There's no reason for more than one video streaming service to exist and Twitch already has its claws in. Anything else would be the rough equivalent of G+ competing with Facebook.

The only reason Twitch is relevant is because Own3d was presumably run by morons.

[schild]

Twitch is ran pretty poorly also. I'm just waiting for Valve to release their own streaming software.

[Yegolev]

I'm just waiting for Valve to release their own streaming software.

LOL

[Merusk]

That guy got bored/ wasn't popular enough to rally the troops and moved on to other projects.

[Numtini]

I don't think it matters who starts what service now or how good or bad twitch is. Twitch is the place for game streaming and it has a large enough userbase to be worth buying just for them.

Edit: whether the gaming streaming world is worth a billion is another question.