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YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion?

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Re: YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion?

#91
One summer night in 2007, I found myself playing poker with Justin Kan in a living room of the "Y-Combinator" building in San Francisco. Emmett Shear may have been there, but amongst the crowd in the living room was Steve Huffman, who was playing around with a new electric guitar, and Alexis Ohanian who was doodling on paper. I didn't know what reddit was at the time, nor did I know that the acquisition by Conde Nast had occurred -- I only connected the dots a several years later.

After seeing this headline, I can't help but think that the power of networks is real, as is the results of deliberate, focused dedication to one's direction and craft. Pretty awesome stuff, congratulations!

Re: YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion?

#92

It's worth noting that Twitch partially became popular because it wasn't YouTube , and gamers could stream without content restrictions (e.g. copyright and region) Miraculously, this could end up making YouTube comments even worse .

YouTube recently launched a new streaming platform. I don't think it has those restrictions anymore. Their problem has been that they haven't been able to compete with Twitch's community.

Re: YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion?

#93
post #8

> Reps for YouTube and Twitch declined to comment. Yeah. I call this just a rumor.

...a publicly traded company like Google is not going to comment on acquisition rumors, for many, many reasons. Variety normally has good sources - if they're reporting it, a deal is almost certainly being discussed. Maybe it won't complete, but this isn't some random posting on Secret here.

Your comment made me wonder. Is there any site where people (users or editors) track and check up on predictions like this made by various media outlets?

I'd find it really helpful if I could point to a database showing that Variety or WSJ had a 90%+ accuracy in predictions like this, whereas another site might have a 50% accuracy.

Re: YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion?

#97
post #88
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, looks like it's time to start another competitor :)

On a back of the napkin calculation, how much outgoing throughput would one need to be able to stream to ten clients directly on say 720p (~30 frames per second)? I was wondering if it would be possible to create a set up where people can stream from home without any third party in between. Is that even possible for larger audiences?

A decent quality 1080p stream is around 2Mbps minimum. Your pipe needs to be able to sustain that times the number of clients.

Re: YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion?

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget Kamcord, the other player in this space (and another YC company). Twitch isn't everything.

I'm an avid gamer and this is the first time I've heard about Kamcord, so that's must mean something.

Kamcord is Mobile Gaming focused first, whereas Twitch is on PC~

Re: YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion?

#99
post #20
post #9

If they do acquire Twitch I hope that they still let it run separately and just improve the back end (as while it has improved it still lags for a lot of people around the world). I worry if they tried to roll it into youtube that it would turn people away. Their numbers are pretty dependent on a small number of League/ Dota/ Hearthstone and a few other games casters and steamers.

I agree, Twitch livestreams is unwatchable for me most of the times I have tried to use it. Youtube on the other hand, while available, have worked quite good.

There's something wrong on your end because Twitch's streams haven't had problems since they introduced the 30 second delay last year.
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