Report: YouTube to Buy Twitch For $1 Billion - Update

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Good news for Google, bad news for us. But for $1bill I'd sell them anything they wanted.

I don't use Twitch but understand how popular it is among the community. It makes sense that YT would want to acquire it since it is the market leader and a proven platform that would benefit YT, but sad since the monopoly will grow and as others have pointed out, the draconian policies on YT, even flagging Miracle of Sound for HIS OWN VIDEO, will kill the service. Companies won on YT and can shut down anyone at any time (though I still maintain they hold NO claim whatsoever to Let's Play videos) and those same policies will absolutely make their way across to Twitch too, giving companies the ability to challenge anything they wish.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

PLEASE DON'T.

OH GOD PLEASE.

I don't use Twitch that often, but when I do, I am immeasurably glad that I don't have to link a social media account to it or observe the effects of rampant bullshit copyright flagging. It'd be hard to refuse $1bn, but if it's true, I really hope they do.

 

[Eve Charm]

Honestly what is youtube thinking? It's not like youtube can't stream, your just pissing away your money, It's not like twitch owns the people that broadcast on twitch. I can see people running to ustream or something else already if it goes bad.

 

[DustyDrB]

Ruh roh. The only appropriate reaction, in my mind:

Spoiler

 

[Roxas1359]

Honestly what is youtube thinking? It's not like youtube can't stream, your just pissing away your money, It's not like twitch owns the people that broadcast on twitch. I can see people running to ustream or something else already if it goes bad.

It's the basic corporate thinking nowadays, why waste money improving your own service when you can just buyout an already successful one and then use that one instead. Facebook is the worst offender of this when they bought a lone app for $19 billion dollars, and honestly like how The Gentleman linked above, it's either gonna be Google or Facebook that cause another Dotcom bubble burst scenario like we had back in in the early 2000s. Seriously though, YouTube shouldn't be spending this money in the first place and what they should be doing is improving their own streaming services, as well as improving their terrible copyright management that caused people to leave YouTube in the first place because of how bullshit it is. If this goes through, there goes streaming Nintendo games... >.>

 

[vallorn]

Honestly what is youtube thinking? It's not like youtube can't stream, your just pissing away your money, It's not like twitch owns the people that broadcast on twitch. I can see people running to ustream or something else already if it goes bad.

Youtube doesn't want competition so they buy Twitch and get in on all of that sweet, sweet console gaming revenue that Twitch has now.

Youtube might be able to stream yes but Google had Google videos and then bought Youtube instead because it was terrible. This is essentially the same thing. Google has a sub par service so they buy out the leading competitor.

 

[Zeraki]

By saying "we don't comment on rumors" they pretty much confirmed that the rumor is true. If the rumor isn't true, then they only need to say one word when asked, "no". Making vague PR statements does nothing but confirm people's suspicions.

Google is really going all out trying to make sure they either eliminate or purchase all their competition.

 

[Grape_Nuts]

RIP Twitch. You shall be missed.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

Can't the owners of Twitch simply say "no"?

There has to be some kind of organization that stops monopolies from becoming too crazy. Google owns enough stuff.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I thought people moved to Twitch precisely to get away from Youtube's draconian policies. If so, this sucks for them.

Nah, it more has to do with YouTube's Streaming system being absolutely garbage. You can't just upload videos to Twitch so a lot of YouTube's abhorrent policies don't apply.

OP: This could go either way. I for one think that this is a sign that companies like Nintendo and Sega aren't going to be able to shit on gaming based YouTube channels with BS copyright claims for much longer. Not with Twitch's gaming focus.

Just in time for Google to capitalize on the MOBA streaming market.

 

[EndlessSporadic]

RIP Twitch.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

"Do no evil" my ass, Google. That motto no longer applies to you no more. This is just another nail in your coffin.

They might as well remove the 'no' part entirely. It'll be much more accurate for one.

 

[DeadProxy]

Well shit, I've only just started to use Twitch as a source of entertainment and now I got this looming over my head? Hell, I still don't have a google+ plus account because that shit is pointless when I still have and use my original youtube account. Does anyone know if it's actually safe for me to log out and log back in with the same youtube account, or should I just not risk it and stay logged in like I have been for the past 8 years?

The last thing Twitch needs is google pulling it's strings, cause there are only so many decent video sites out there. I cant think of any more english ones other than Daily Motion.

 

[MorganL4]

God...god dammit. No. Just...just no. In fact, can we have the supreme court check this one out? I mean seriously, at this point, is it not technically a monopoly on live streaming sites? How many others are out there? I know there's probably something I'm missing, but I'm just...god dammit.

lolz, You want the supreme court to get involved in this? I point you to the reason why you are wrong sir (ironically using Youtube):

 

[Weaver]

I can't wait until my stream gets shut down because the game music matched content ID or the game I was playing had some partial nudity.

 

[Candidus]

I thought people moved to Twitch precisely to get away from Youtube's draconian policies. If so, this sucks for them.

Nah, it more has to do with YouTube's Streaming system being absolutely garbage. You can't just upload videos to Twitch so a lot of YouTube's abhorrent policies don't apply.

You don't have to upload them to Twitch, they're saved in real time. Check "past broadcasts".

So you CAN save videos and the abhorrent policies STILL don't apply for now.

 

[Callate]

I hope it's not true. Given the recent partnerships Twitch has signed onto, I think some of their compatriots might have an unhappy word or two to say if they were to go this way.

Unlike, say, Youtube, though, I don't think this is quite so dangerous a monopoly. I mean, yeah, Youtube remains a dangerous monopoly- but I don't feel like there are quite the hurdles to surpass if someone wanted to create a competitor in livestreaming. If people want to find stored video content, they come to Youtube to look for a lot of it first. But if people want to watch, say, a game tournament or a live presentation- well, it's still possible to link from whatever site hosts the tournament or whoever sets up the webcam; it doesn't seem like quite the same level of insurmountable networking juju that has to be in place to make such a thing happen, nor that people will only expect to see such content on one service.

Don't get me wrong, it would still suck, and there would still be some headaches in trying to bring about a change-over. But I think if Twitch gets bought out and subsequently starts to stink up the place the way Youtube has been starting to, well, I think that will ultimately lead to the downfall of Twitch, not livestreaming.

 

[Strazdas]

RIAA and MPAA are the ones that are causing the problems with YouTube. If you want to starve them, stop buying anything from anyone that works with them. If your still complaining about having a Google+ account to comment on Youtube then you are just pathetic.

No. Copyright law is causing the problems. According to the law youtube must take down any content thats complained about BEFORE checking if the complaint is legit. thats very fucked up and you can thank Disney for it.

I could register a company and make a complaint about escapist video using my copyright complaint, they woudl be taken down and if proven that i am wrong (obviuosly) i would need to release the video within 30 days. after 30 days i can jsut file the complaint again. there is no legal repercussion for this for me. This is what Nintendo is doing on youtube actually.

God...god dammit. No. Just...just no. In fact, can we have the supreme court check this one out? I mean seriously, at this point, is it not technically a monopoly on live streaming sites? How many others are out there? I know there's probably something I'm missing, but I'm just...god dammit.

There is plenty, like Blip.tv for example. Most of them you have to pay to be able to provide content or proven your "worthy" beforehand. They kinda died when Twitch came around in terms of popularity.

I can so see it now, Twitch banning streamers for playing music without copyright permission. A lot of twitch streamers play music on their streams, some even have request lists from their viewers. If Youtube/Google enforces the same retarded DMCA mechanisms on Twitch, goodbye twitch.

well, that would be a good thing though. why must you stream your crappy music when i want to watch a game?

 

[The Great JT]

Well, there's always Justin.TV...

 

[ThunderCavalier]

No. Seriously, fuck no. What is possibly Twitch's biggest selling point right now to both creators and audiences is that it does not have to deal with Youtube's horribly broken "shoot first, ask questions later"-style copyright system where people have to fear false ContentID claims, getting videos easily removed by anyone with a keyboard (regardless of if the claimant actually owns the IP or not), and having to fight a difficult uphill battle to get everything restored afterwards. Youtube owning it would be one of the worst things that could happen to Twitch's userbase.

This. I personally wouldn't mind YouTube purchasing Twitch if YouTube didn't carry so much baggage with it. Twitch's content has been seen to be a bit more liberal and diverse than what YouTube can offer, and YouTube purchasing it... basically purges all of that.