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Thought Twitch/Google getting together was a done deal? Originally speculated this morning by The Information, the Wall Street Journal now has confirmed that Twitch has been acquired by Amazon for "more than" $1 billion. If someone has access to WSJ and wants to post the particulars, that would be great. I don't really use Twitch that much, but in terms of acquirers, Amazon seems to me like a better company than Google... but I guess that is an argument for this very thread!
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Aug 25, 2014 19:43
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Done deal. http://www.twitch.tv/p/thankyou quote:SEATTLE—August 25, 2014—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Twitch Interactive, Inc., the leading live video platform for gamers. In July, more than 55 million unique visitors viewed more than 15 billion minutes of content on Twitch produced by more than 1 million broadcasters, including individual gamers, pro players, publishers, developers, media outlets, conventions and stadium-filling esports organizations. http://kotaku.com/reports-amazon-to-buy-twitch-for-over-1-billion-1626564744
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Aug 25, 2014 21:26
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So, is this better or worse than google owning twitch.
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Aug 25, 2014 21:35
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mabels big day posted:So, is this better or worse than google owning twitch. Better, easily.
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Aug 25, 2014 21:42
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mabels big day posted:So, is this better or worse than google owning twitch. Neither, really. The damage has already been done. They've stated that they're not going to make any more changes to their copyright control system, which was obviously a ploy to attract some kind of buyer, Google or not. Twitch's whole strategy seems to be to clean themselves up and make themselves look like professional businessmen, and not just like a group of tech-savvy gamer geeks. It's very likely that no changes are going to be made to Twitch as a result of this deal that haven't already been made.
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Aug 25, 2014 21:43
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cat doter posted:Better, easily. Twitch is worst for twitch so I'd say it's a wash regardless.
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Aug 25, 2014 21:49
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mabels big day posted:So, is this better or worse than google owning twitch. Better in the sense that it won't get altered as much as it likely would have with Google already having a livestreaming service with YouTube. Sure Amazon has streaming video, but not live streaming/broadcasting capabilities, so it's unlikely to severely gently caress with it in the near term.
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Aug 25, 2014 21:49
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mabels big day posted:So, is this better or worse than google owning twitch. Better in the sense that we know how Google would change things and people hated that. But it's actually worse since Amazon is going to do essentially all the changes that Google would and then some since they have even less experience with user provided video content. On top of that, they don't have any use for Twitch in their business so when the money pit problems become clear, Amazon is likely to gut and dump it.
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Aug 25, 2014 22:03
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If Google bought Twitch I fully expected them to dissolve it and move everyone to Youtube or further integrate Google+, so Amazon buying them is a rare moment where I can say a corporate buyout was not the worst thing (in general though I consider corporate buyouts to be the worst thing)
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Aug 25, 2014 22:05
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I dunno, I am pretty anti-Amazon on general principles, but I'll have to wait and see how this turns out. I hope twitch does more stupid poo poo and their monopoly is broken, their service is already pretty terrible. Maybe one day hitbox or a better company will be able to compete... 
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Aug 25, 2014 22:05
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Google should just buy amazon. Google should just buy me.
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Aug 25, 2014 22:05
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Maybe the servers won't be poo poo like they have been since own3d died and they had no competition.
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Aug 25, 2014 22:08
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This means no possible Google+ integration so by default this is better.
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Aug 25, 2014 22:08
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Endorph posted:Google should just buy amazon. Google should just buy me. Google already owns you.
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Aug 25, 2014 22:08
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Random Stranger posted:Better in the sense that we know how Google would change things and people hated that. But it's actually worse since Amazon is going to do essentially all the changes that Google would and then some since they have even less experience with user provided video content. On top of that, they don't have any use for Twitch in their business so when the money pit problems become clear, Amazon is likely to gut and dump it. Seriously, what is their angle here? Ad revenue companies picking them up make sense but what the hell is Amazon going to do with this?
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Aug 25, 2014 22:09
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Ice Fist posted:Google already owns you.
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Aug 25, 2014 22:10
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Finally, an Amazon droid drops a real life Kappa to my door.
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Aug 25, 2014 22:10
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Dizz posted:Finally, an Amazon droid drops a real life Kappa to my door. do you mean a kappa as in the mythical japanese creature, or in the "im gay - Cosmo 2012 Kappa" sense
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Aug 25, 2014 22:14
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Is there somewhere I can read the history of twitch emoticons? For example, where Kappa and FrankerZ come from. Also hitbox.tv is new to me. In what ways is it better or worse?
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Aug 25, 2014 22:17
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Heran Bago posted:Is there somewhere I can read the history of twitch emoticons? For example, where Kappa and FrankerZ come from. Kappa is an old twitch employee's face and FrankerZ is an employee's dog. Same with RalpherZ.
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Aug 25, 2014 22:20
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Raymn posted:Seriously, what is their angle here? Ad revenue companies picking them up make sense but what the hell is Amazon going to do with this? I imagine this to be on every stream page. "Twitch gamer xXx720noSc0pEhEaDsHoTzxXx is playing Call of Duty: Advanced warfare. Click here to buy a copy and join in."
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Aug 25, 2014 22:23
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Heran Bago posted:Is there somewhere I can read the history of twitch emoticons? For example, where Kappa and FrankerZ come from. You can click on the emotes for some backstory on each
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Aug 25, 2014 22:24
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Silento posted:do you mean a kappa as in the mythical japanese creature, or in the "im gay - Cosmo 2012 Kappa" sense Both. 
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Aug 25, 2014 22:58
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Raymn posted:Seriously, what is their angle here? Ad revenue companies picking them up make sense but what the hell is Amazon going to do with this? (Likewise, Google's potential angle wasn't really about bringing the ad revenue in house or Google+ or anything like that; it was augmenting YouTube with a live streaming product that people actually used.)
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Aug 25, 2014 23:01
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1 click buy wishlist links on everyone's stream page.
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Aug 25, 2014 23:03
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Incoherence posted:They've invested heavily in building out an online video platform with exclusive content. Live streaming is a natural outgrowth of that. Plus imagine browsing games at amazon and a little box is there that says,"Check out a live stream of this game?" One of the biggest factors, i imagine, in purchasing from amazon is their review system. Which may now feature live footage of the product in question being played by a sick nasty gamerboi
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Aug 25, 2014 23:04
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If a streamer has an Amazon prime sub, they should get to stream as much music from primes selection as they want with no muting Bad idea?
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Aug 25, 2014 23:04
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stringball posted:If a streamer has an Amazon prime sub, they should get to stream as much music from primes selection as they want with no muting
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Aug 25, 2014 23:09
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stringball posted:If a streamer has an Amazon prime sub, they should get to stream as much music from primes selection as they want with no muting Like the music from this stream? But it here! They'll be able to use the streams as commercials for the games, music, capture equipment, consoles and computer parts.
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Aug 25, 2014 23:10
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Tsietisin posted:I imagine this to be on every stream page. "You're watching League of Legends. If you're interested, we have t-shirts, mouse pads, downloadable soundtrack files, and collectibles here." I expect Twitch to end up integrating with Amazon in the same way as another of their affiliates, The Internet Movie Database. Small ads to the game or related games/merchandise off to the side and for the most part, being unobtrusive. Though a fellow I watch on Twitch suggested that they could try offering Twitch Turbo in conjunction with Amazon Prime. That wouldn't be bad. Overall, I see it as a good thing. Twitch was already being tight with copyrighted music, as an obvious act to make the service attractive to purchase. This is just a better choice of buyer.
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Aug 25, 2014 23:11
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Incoherence posted:They've invested heavily in building out an online video platform with exclusive content. Live streaming is a natural outgrowth of that. Except it isn't a natural outgrowth of that. It superficially seems that way, but it's completely the opposite of what they're doing. Amazon's video services are built on licensing content and then selling it, Twitch is about taking content (harmlessly, in
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Aug 25, 2014 23:28
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Random Stranger posted:Except it isn't a natural outgrowth of that. It superficially seems that way, but it's completely the opposite of what they're doing. Amazon's video services are built on licensing content and then selling it, Twitch is about taking content (harmlessly, in The closest thing to this is actually Amazon's investment in exclusive TV shows, which makes them a media producer, not just a media distributor, and certainly not just the physical goods distributor they once were. Twitch is a media production platform, and you really can't see how that fits into a strategy to make Amazon into a media company?
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Aug 26, 2014 00:26
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First off, I was worried for a bit this thread would get zero posts  I think Amazon is probably a great fit because the company isn't really run like a business, but more like a non-profit. For Amazon's size and revenue, profit is rather low, and it often actually loses money. Yet investors keep buying in, and the amount of things they provide keeps increasing. There is a pretty good article on Slate that sort of goes into how the company operates. Choice quote: quote:I once characterized Amazon as a “charitable institution being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers.” It is essentially how I've felt about the company for a long while: they really do provide an enormous amount of benefits and don't ever really seem to care that none of it drives profits. I don't think they will try and gently caress around with Twitch much, other than the natural and obligatory Amazon links for wish lists/games etc.
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Aug 26, 2014 01:39
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Amazon Twitch sounds like a disease
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Aug 26, 2014 01:46
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abagofcheetos posted:they really do provide an enormous amount of benefits Too bad the vast majority of their employees (oh right they're contracted out so not technically Amazon employees) see zilch.
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Aug 26, 2014 01:55
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Incoherence posted:This is a fairly restrictive view of what Amazon is and what it wants to be. For example, Amazon already has a cloud services business which has absolutely nothing to do with selling physical goods (aside from the fact that the cloud services were originally built for the software that powers the physical goods business). Actually, I thought Amazon's cloud services were kind of weird, but they seem to use it as an outgrowth of their own server services. Incoherence posted:The closest thing to this is actually Amazon's investment in exclusive TV shows, which makes them a media producer, not just a media distributor, and certainly not just the physical goods distributor they once were. Twitch is a media production platform, and you really can't see how that fits into a strategy to make Amazon into a media company? Twitch isn't a media production platform like that, though. That's like saying Amazon sells books, therefore they should buy Twitter. Why not? They're both text and pictures! It's superficially similar, but the business is radically different and runs counter to things. Consider Amazon's various media production arms. They work just like traditional media acquisitions, only Amazon is essentially fronting more of the money. That is a natural outgrowth of a company that sells media. Twitch is a fire hose of amateur-produced content that Amazon can't do anything with. They can't sell it since in almost every case it belongs to someone other than even the person creating the stream. They can't try to squeeze subscribers out of it because Twitch is supervulnerable to all of its content just moving somewhere else. And as big of a fish Twitch is in the world of streaming games, it's small potatoes outside of a very narrow group.
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Aug 26, 2014 02:49
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abagofcheetos posted:
Except for the fact amazon treats their employees like dirt. Oh, the warehouse is over 100 degrees? People are passing out? Keep filling the boxes, we will just park ambulances outside and pass out wet cloths. Read up on amazon employee satisfaction in the warehouses. Hint: it isn't very positive. They most definitely care about bottom lines.
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Aug 26, 2014 02:56
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also the book publisher thing going on atm
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Aug 26, 2014 03:52
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Amazon is ran by a literal psychopath but on the consumer end of things it's not too terrible.
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Aug 26, 2014 04:05
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Everything said is more than likely true (I'm no Amazonologist), but that doesn't mean they are a wildly profitable company. They are doing these things and still barely breaking even.
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Aug 26, 2014 04:09
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