Amazon acquires video game streaming site Twitch for near $1-billion

Amazon has just confirmed the acquisition of the popular video game streaming service, Twitch. The tech giant has also confirmed that it’s paying a massive US$970-million for the three-year-old company. The news comes after Google was rumoured to snatch up the fast-growing Twitch.

Twitch has a massive gaming community. Not only did it see over 55-million unique site visitors last month, these visitors watched over 15-billion minutes of content. Gamers can transmit games over Twitch using PCs or consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The live video streaming platform has also been responsible for over 1-million broadcasters made up of amateur gamers, publishers, developers, and popular esports events such as Dota 2 and League of Legends. The latter of which saw more than 32-million viewers in 2013.

In an official statement, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said, “Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community.”

On Amazon Instant, we’ve seen 350% user growth since it first launched in 2011 — making up three percent of the web’s video content.

“Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month – from The International, to breaking the world record for Mario, to gaming conferences like E3. And, amazingly, Twitch is only three years old,” said Bezos.

In a thank-you letter to the Twitch community, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear said that the company will retain its independence but that the it will have access to more resources to help it grow faster:

“We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch.”

As stated in the official announcement, Amazon will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Twitch for approximately US$970-million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2014.

Image via Kotaku