Google isn't the buyer of Twitch, despite what everyone thought

Aug 25, 2014 20:38 GMT  ·  By

In what might be the most confusing news of the day, Amazon has purchased Twitch for $970 million (€735 million), the two companies announced.

The move comes as a surprise since rumor had it that Google was quite close to closing the deal with Twitch as the company hoped to use the video game streaming service to boost YouTube, a site that already has a high gaming community.

It seems, however, that Amazon has decided to swoop in and purchase the company right from under Google’s nose.

“Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by Amazon. We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch,” reads a message posted by Twitch CEO Emmett Shear.

Shear also talked about the journey the site’s been on and how it’s incredible to have reached this point, considering that the company has only been around for three years. He also thanked all the members of the Twitch community for what they managed to accomplish in this short period of time.

Twitch is a platform that allows users to broadcast live feeds of their gameplay. The service already comes with a tight integration with Google, which pushed the idea that Google would be the one to purchase the company in the end. Twitch has about 55 million unique visitors each month who watch content created by roughly 1 million broadcasters.

“Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month – from The International, to breaking the world record for Mario, to gaming conferences like E3. And, amazingly, Twitch is only three years old,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

“Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community,” Bezos added.

Although it came as a surprise, it’s good to know that the entire Twitch-acquisition sage has come to an end. It should be interesting to see where the two companies go from here on out.