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Twitch plans to shut down its business in South Korea on February 27, it said, after finding that operating in one of the world\u2019s largest esports markets is \u201cprohibitively expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a blog post<\/a>, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said the firm undertook a \u201csignificant effort\u201d to reduce the network costs to operate in Korea, but ultimately the fees to operate in Korea was still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries. The ceasing of operations in Korea is a \u201cunique situation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, we experimented with a peer-to-peer model for source quality. Then, we adjusted source quality to a maximum of 720p. While we have lowered costs from these efforts, our network fees in Korea are still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n The Amazon-owned streaming service said it has been operating in Korea at a \u201csignificant loss,\u201d and there was \u201cno pathway forward\u201d to run the business sustainably in the country. It\u2019s unclear why network fees is so expensive in South Korea, though Clancy might be alluding to the recent controversial deliberation<\/a> in the country to require tech companies to pay for network costs.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to reiterate that this was a very difficult decision and one we are very disappointed we had to make. 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,\u201d wrote Clancy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n