Popular streaming platform, Twitch, is shutting down its operations in Korea on February 27, 2024 KST. The company made the announcement in a blog post, saying that the “cost to operate Twitch in Korea is prohibitively expensive.” Despite significant efforts to cut costs, including experimenting with peer-to-peer models and adjusting source quality, Twitch’s network fees in Korea remain 10 times higher than in most other countries. The company confirmed it has been operating at a significant loss in Korea with no sustainable path forward for the business there.
Twitch emphasized this shutdown as a unique situation, not reflective of its other business operations—the company has been transparent about its challenges in Korea for some time. With the news of the shutdown, Twitch is going to work on helping find its communities new homes, even if it’s not on Twitch. The platform will collaborate with Korean Twitch streamers to transition their communities to alternative services, reaching out to those services for assistance.
“I want to reiterate that this was a very difficult decision and one we are very disappointed we had to make,” said Dan Clancy, Twitch CEO. “Korea has always and will continue to play a special role in the international esports community and we are incredibly grateful for the communities they built on Twitch.”
