Twitch is one of the biggest streaming platforms worldwide where streamers earn a living by doing things they're most passionate about. Oftentimes, it's video game streaming. The service, unfortunately, is leaving South Korea by February 2024. But don't fret, there's a Twitch alternative to use, and that is AfreecaTV.
Why is Twitch Leaving South Korea?
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy recently shared an open statement to the platform's community to notify streamers that the Twitch business is being pulled out of Korea, which you can check out in a blog post that Clancy wrote this week:
"We've made the difficult decision to shut down the Twitch business in Korea on February 27, 2024."
This means that Twitch users will be heavily affected by this new change and will likely have to find other means of streaming.
As much as Twitch was able to lower the cost to keep the platform up and running in the country, the streamer's network fees in Korea are still "10 times more expensive than in most other countries."
"We have spent significant effort working to reduce these costs so that we could find a way for the Twitch business to remain in Korea. Twitch has been operating in Korea at a significant loss and unfortunately, there is no pathway forward for our business to run sustainably in that country."
It is worth mentioning that Jung Sang-Wook, an official Korea Telecommunications Operators Association, stated they had no way of proving Clancy's claims about expensive networking fees to be true, considering that those discussions are negotiated between the companies under non-disclosure agreements.
However, there's an alternative platform that people residing in Korea can utilize if Twitch does get pulled out for good — AfreecaTV.
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Here's How AfreecaTV Can Replace the Streaming Giant
Twitch has always been more intuitive when it comes to reeling your target audiences in, but there are tons of alternatives to use for video streaming other than YouTube.
Did you know there's another Twitch-like platform? Apart from Naver, there's also the rising AfreecaTV, which has been around in Korea since 2005 and eventually landed a global audience in 2012.
AfreecaTV, which stands for 'Anybody can Freely Broadcast TV', has a similar website interface that has video-on-demand availability, as well as an Esports section.
The platform also happens to be South Korea's biggest live-streaming platform by sales. Not only does it provide streamers' original content, but even local variety shows and drama series.
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