Twitch pulls out of Korea

E-sports streamer Twitch has pulled out of Korea because of the cost of operating in the country.

Source: Twitch

Twitch will shut down its Korean feed on February 27, 2024.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy blamed high network fees, which he said were 10 times as expensive as in most other countries, for the decision.

Clancy said that the streamer had experimented with peer-to-peer distribution and had cut its resolution to 720p to mitigate the costs, but that these efforts had proved insufficient to build a sustainable business.

“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,” he said.

Despite these efforts, said Clancy, “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.”

Clancy said that the Korean case was “a unique situation” about which the streamer had been open in the past.

He said Twitch hoped to be able to help local Twitch streamers “find new homes — even if it’s regrettably not on Twitch”, and would “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,” said Clancy.

“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.”