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On December 6, 2023, Amazon-owned livestreaming platform Twitch dropped a bombshell by revealing that it will be shutting down operations in South Korea. The announcement came via CEO Dan Clancy, who stated that the platform will exit the country on February 27, 2023. According to him, the costs of running the website in South Korea were at "a serious level."
He elaborated:
"Currently, the cost of running Twitch in South Korea is at a serious level. We've been working hard to find ways to keep our operations in Korea down the drain. First, we tested the P2P model in terms of source quality and then adjusted the maximum quality to 720p.
"While these efforts have resulted in some cost savings, South Korea's network fees, which are ten times higher than in most other countries, made it impossible to operate any further."
Several well-known South Korean content creators have spoken out about the unexpected situation. Streamer yummy_2 stated that she had lost her job and exclaimed:
"I lost my job! My career, everything what I made in, like, as the partner streamer - just everything will be gone! Even, all of my viewers are English viewers, just like, there's only two options - moving platform or second, moving to the other country. But, even if I move to the other country, I need to make a new channel, and I need to get a partner again from that country!"
"This is an American way" - South Korean streamers chime in on Twitch's decision to exit the country, fans react
In addition to yummy_2, tyongeee also commented on Twitch's departure from the country. During a broadcast on December 6, 2023, she stated that the Amazon-owned platform "fired" Korean streamers in the "American way":
"This is an American firing then. Yeah, this is an American way. Like literally, 'Oh, so, like, if you're giving us, like, six months before, so, you're going to get lazy, and then not trying to take over another way. So, we give you two months before.' And then, what he said was, 'Okay, we're going to try to help the Korean streamers by letting them move to AfreecaTV and YouTube.' Seriously?!"
The streamer went on to say that Dan Clancy's "solution" for South Korean content creators, impacted by the platform's exit from the country, was unacceptable:
"Even non-sub Twitch chatter who only watched one month of Twitch under the basement can even say that. That's not a solution from a big company! What makes me mad (and) angry too, is how the Twitch CEO says, 'Oh, we're trying to find a way for Korean streamers by letting them move to YouTube...'"
The streamers' clips were a hot topic of conversation on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit. Here's what netizens had to say about it:
According to Redditor u/SlowMissiles, the livestreaming platform's decision was motivated by the South Korean government's policy of "making new rules every year." Meanwhile, user u/morts73 commented that the platform's exit was "devasting news" for all Korean streamers.
