SUMMARY
- Twitch's situation in South Korea is going from bad to worse.
- Twitch announced that they will be closing all operations in South Korea.
Twitch has always had a rocky road in the South Korean markets. Just ahead of the streaming platform nearing its closure in the country, it has now come across another huge hurdle.
Twitch is a global streaming platform that has its presence as well as users spread across geographically. It caters to audiences with varied cultures and languages. Although it’s great in terms of the scalability of the business, the challenge to keep the platform alive and compliant with the varied regional laws is always lingering.
Twitch being fined for $300,000 in South Korea
Twitch was recently slapped with a fine of over $300k for violating South Korean telecom law. This was due to removing the ability to view VODs. It is basically a repercussion of withdrawing from the country. And as they start their exit process, there is a possibility that more fines may be levied on the exiting company.
When Twitch, along with Kick were banned in Turkey on the grounds of people gambling on stream, the exit was pretty easy. In some regions, Twitch can pull out its support for streaming services out of nowhere.
However, that’s certainly not the case with South Korea. It is no news that the service is going to be discontinued in the country, however, the government is catching up with the services that the company has disabled over the past year or so. As a result, they are starting to slap the company with fines.
In the process of discontinuation, Twitch has been fined 435 million Korean won ($300K), and it is probably just the first of many more coming. This first one is related to South Korean users not being able to access VODs on the platform. According to Korea’s Telecommunications Commission (KCC), that is seen as a direct violation of South Korea’s telecom laws.
According to reports, the KCC decided that Twitch ceasing the ability for South Korean users to access VODs was not required to keep the service alive. Twitch declined to justify the claims due to contractual obligations regarding keeping user and site data private.
Additionally, to prove that their decision to slowly pull out features from South Korean users before eventually leaving the country was necessary, they would have to present evidence. This implies that Twitch is not likely to bring back the service to South Korea any time soon.
Why is Twitch shutting down in South Korea?
Twitch announced back in December 2023 that they would shut their operations in South Korea in February 2024. The Amazon-owned service is shutting down due to the high cost of operating. It is reported that the company found the South Korean market “prohibitively expensive.”
한국 시간 기준 2024년 2월 27일부로 한국 내 Twitch 운영이 종료됩니다. 어려운 결정에 이르게 된 자세한 내용은 Twitch 블로그를 통해 확인하실 수 있습니다.https://t.co/PnKbn6XoGA pic.twitter.com/0sPTofJYc2
— Twitch Korea (@TwitchKR) December 6, 2023
Dan Clancy, the CEO of Twitch, revealed the news via a blog post. He announced that the company has been operating in Korea at a “significant loss.” Besides he said there is “no pathway forward” to conduct the business more sustainably in that country.
As a result, Twitch will cease operations in South Korea on February 27, 2024. Dan said that it was a “tough call,” and that the company was dissatisfied about it. He wrote, “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.”