Twitch Shuts Down Business in Korea Due to High Operative Costs

On 5th December, renowned livestreaming platform Twitch announced that it shall permanently shut down its services in Korea on 27th February 2024. In an out-of-the-blue announcement, Twitch made it clear that it will be ending all its paid services in Korea due to high operating costs.

According to a statement written by Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, Korean content creators on the platform have almost two-and-a-half months to move to another service provider.

Korean Twitch Streamers Left High & Dry

Clancy wrote in the detailed blog post that Twitch reportedly suffered from the “prohibitively expensive” operating costs in the Korean market.

He noted, "We understand that this is extremely disappointing news, and we want to explain why we made this decision and how we are planning to support those impacted."

Explaining the decision further, Clancy said they took efforts to reduce the operating costs to keep the business afloat in Korea. He explained how Twitch experimented with a peer-to-peer model for source quality and later on, also adjusted the source quality to a maximum of 720p.

While Twitch managed to lowered costs from these efforts, its network fees in Korea is still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries, noted Clancy.

According to the CEO, Twitch Korea has been operating at a significant loss, and unfortunately, there is no way to move forward in a sustainable manner.

However, Clancy confidently stated that this is a unique situation, reassuring other creators.

Since many Twitch streamers in Korea have huge communities and have devoted resources into building a fanbase, Twitch is keen on finding the streamers other alternative livestreaming services.

Clancy added, "We will 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."

Dancy Clancy reiterated that shutting down business in Korea was a difficult decision and that Twitch is highly disappointed with this move.

He also took to Twitter to write, "I wanted to quickly send my thoughts out to the Korean streamers that are impacted by the decision we have announced today. As I stated in the blog and in the live stream, this was a very difficult decision that we delayed for some time. I just wanted to send out my thoughts to them as I am aware that this will have a real impact on them."

After this sudden announcement, many Korean streamers are voicing their disappointment and frustration online.