Streaming platform Twitch will close its South Korean operation in early 2024 due to high operating costs, says Twitch CEO Dan Clancy in a Blog post explaining the decision.
Clancy wrote, “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.
“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 goes on to reassure Twitch partners and users in its other communities that the move is only focused on South Korea, and not a sign of things to come globally by saying, “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 says network fees are 10 times more expensive than in most other countries and this is the major factor in the decision to pull out of the region.
Clancy indicated that Twitch would help Korean streamers to migrate to “alternative live streaming services”, but what that entails at this point is unclear.
Even though Twitch is keen to point out that the situation is unique, it does come at a time when the gaming industry in general is tightening its belts. Yesterday, Electronic Arts announced a round of layoffs at UK studio Codemasters, and this is a trend that has been growing throughout the latter half of 2023.
Twitch has over 33 million users in the US, and according to Statista clocked up a total worldwide viewing hours of 5.71 billion in the last quarter of 2022 alone.
Featured Image: Twitch
