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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Twitch, the popular video streaming service, plans to shut down its business in South Korea on February 27 after finding that operating in one of the world’s largest esports markets is “prohibitively expensive.”

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said the firm undertook a “significant effort” to reduce the network costs to operate in Korea, but ultimately the fees to operate in the East Asian nation was still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries. The ceasing of operations in Korea is a “unique situation,” he wrote in a blog post.

South Korea’s expensive internet fees have led to legal fights – streaming giant Netflix unsuccessfully sued a local broadband supplier last year to avoid paying usage charges, but Seoul’s court ruled that Netflix must contribute to the network costs enabling its half-billion-dollar Korean business.

Twitch attempted to lower its network costs by experimenting with a peer-to-peer model and then downgrading the streaming quality to 720p video resolution, Clancy said. While these efforts helped the firm lower its network costs, it wasn’t enough. The Amazon-owned streaming service said it has been operating in Korea at a “significant loss,” and there was “no pathway forward” to run the business sustainably in the country.

“I 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,” wrote Clancy.

Esports is huge in South Korea, with pro gaming a cultural phenomenon and top players enjoying celebrity status. Over half the country’s 50 million population are esports fans. South Korea dominates competitive gaming worldwide, especially in titles like Starcraft and League of Legends, hosting multiple major tournaments annually. Twitch had amassed million of users in South Korea, which was also one of the popular markets for the streaming service.

Like South Korea, telecom operators in many other markets are beginning to push for content providers to pay for network costs. Telecom operators in India, the second largest wireless market, recommended earlier this year that internet companies compensate them for using the networks. Network operators in India cited the regulatory changes in Korea as one of their inspirations.

Twitch to shut down in Korea over 'prohibitively expensive' network fees | TechCrunch

Twitch, the popular video streaming service, plans to shut down its business in South Korea on February 27 after finding that operating in one of the Twitch plans to shut down its business in South Korea after network costs became "prohibitively expensive" in the leading esports market.

techcrunch.com

 

[March Climber]

After a quick google search:

Top livestreaming apps in Korea​

• BIGO LIVE
• VLive
• Hakuna Live
• AfreecaTV
• Twitch

One of the top 4 are about to have a big boost in traffic.

 

[Pejo]

US next? Nah, it's not my birthday.

 

[WitchHunter]

Sweeping out the parasitic competition.

 

[Three]

The idea of content providers paying networking costs is kind of fucked up for net neutrality

 

[nowhat]

The idea of content providers paying networking costs is kind of fucked up for net neutrality

That, indeed, is fucked up. It should be up to the ISPs (and yes, ultimately the consumers).

 

[Sakura]

I don't understand why these companies would pay networking costs. Isn't the end user paying for the internet? Is internet free in Korea?

 

[gokurho]

omg...
I don't understand any Korean, but I loved her!

 

[WitchHunter]

omg...
I don't understand any Korean, but I loved her!

ab

I just don't understand how these girls look in the mirror. Okay, the money is certainly good for them, but putting up with these fucking retarded cretins and satisfying their insatiable and sickly appetites... There is one girl who even put a paper bag on her head... which had an advertisement on it... I mean feminists should shoot themselves in the head seeing these girls literally don't give a fuck and totally degrading themselves for money. Seriously fucked up world.

 

[GHG]

I just don't understand how these girls look in the mirror. Okay, the money is certainly good for them, but putting up with these fucking retarded cretins and satisfying their insatiable and sickly appetites... There is one girl who even put a paper bag on her head... which had an advertisement on it... I mean feminists should shoot themselves in the head seeing these girls literally don't give a fuck and totally degrading themselves for money. Seriously fucked up world.

Stop complaining and enjoy the tits ffs.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

in other words they can't make more money so they have to cut off an arm to keep moving forward.

 

[lh032]

Korea; No fun for you, please work 18 hours a day.

 

[Kerotan]

I just don't understand how these girls look in the mirror. Okay, the money is certainly good for them, but putting up with these fucking retarded cretins and satisfying their insatiable and sickly appetites... There is one girl who even put a paper bag on her head... which had an advertisement on it... I mean feminists should shoot themselves in the head seeing these girls literally don't give a fuck and totally degrading themselves for money. Seriously fucked up world.

Considering the amount of girls who physically have sex with cretins I guess the idea of being an eSlut is quite attractive.

 

[Gen.Grievous]

Guess Korean streamers with non Korean speaking audiences are mostly affected. If you speak Korean only you can move to afreeca no problem.

 

[Burger]

I don't really understand. I get it if Netflix/Twitch want to host caches in SK, then they would have to pay for networking costs. But if they say fuck that, and just have the end user in SK route to some sort of global CDN how can they be chased for costs?

If the ISP's end up blocking Netflix / Twitch then surely their customers start haranguing them?

 

[simpatico]

Why won't the tax payers make up the difference like they do in America? Twitch must have been unequipped to deal with that reality.

 

[Joramun]

omg...
I don't understand any Korean, but I loved her!

That's a trap

 

[crackajack]

The idea of content providers paying networking costs is kind of fucked up for net neutrality

I can see how the system coul be shifted to content providers, google, wiki, porn, news sites, facebook, X etc. pp. paying for the network but the customer does not pay anything then. That would make some sense.
I use youtube, google gets ad money (or I pay youtube premium), so that money also has to pay the net provider.
I use the PSN for downloads and streams, Sony gets my money, and that has to pay for the infrastructure.
etc
All depending on traffic. So mostly google and porn have to pay for the traffic their services cause. Currently we all kinda pay high prices for our providers and expect yt and porn to be kinda free, which is somewhat odd.
I think customers should pay for the actual products, which they partially already do, but not for the required infrastrucure, which costs have to be payed only in the end still by customers as well but should be loaded on the people who cause more traffic and unloaded from people that use it rather spartanic.
To make it sound stupid: It's like paying the weatherman for my then free groceries.

 

[killatopak]

They just want their own version of Bilibili to be the main platform of Korea. I think it was AfreecaTV iirc.

 

[Elysium44]

The idea of content providers paying networking costs is kind of fucked up for net neutrality

If it's being abused then it isn't fair that some content providers can generate a vastly disproportionate cost on ISPs and expect them or their customers to shoulder the cost burden. Why should I as a customer of an ISP pay to subsidise the likes of Netflix or Twitch if I personally don't use those services? Let Netflix or Twitch customers pay the true cost. If they don't want to then the business isn't viable, let the market decide.

 

[Bernoulli]

That's a trap

 

[Moonjt9]

Pretty typical of Korean policy to force outsiders out through these types of protectionary systems. Afreeca surely never has to deal with it.

Netflix is also doubling their monthly cost as well.

I’ve spoken to some friends who stream on twitch in Korea and they are pretty caught off guard by this. Everyone knows twitch was fighting for fair rates but didn’t think they’d give up like this.

I imagine most will stream on YouTube now. Afreeca is a relic of the past but they might see a boost from this too, hard to say.

My money is on Coupang starting their own streaming service and becoming the mainstream here. They are already muscling in streaming shows and movies through Coupang Play.

 

[Three]

I can see how the system coul be shifted to content providers, google, wiki, porn, news sites, facebook, X etc. pp. paying for the network but the customer does not pay anything then. That would make some sense.
I use youtube, google gets ad money (or I pay youtube premium), so that money also has to pay the net provider.
I use the PSN for downloads and streams, Sony gets my money, and that has to pay for the infrastructure.
etc
All depending on traffic. So mostly google and porn have to pay for the traffic their services cause. Currently we all kinda pay high prices for our providers and expect yt and porn to be kinda free, which is somewhat odd.
I think customers should pay for the actual products, which they partially already do, but not for the required infrastrucure, which costs have to be payed only in the end still by customers as well but should be loaded on the people who cause more traffic and unloaded from people that use it rather spartanic.
To make it sound stupid: It's like paying the weatherman for my then free groceries.

If it's being abused then it isn't fair that some content providers can generate a vastly disproportionate cost on ISPs and expect them or their customers to shoulder the cost burden. Why should I as a customer of an ISP pay to subsidise the likes of Netflix or Twitch if I personally don't use those services? Let Netflix or Twitch customers pay the true cost. If they don't want to then the business isn't viable, let the market decide.

The vastly disproportionate cost would be on the people using those services disproportionately and it already is, no?

For example if I'm watching youtube videos or porn all day I'm paying for however many gigabytes of traffic that requires already. If I plan to tax the network less as a customer I can pay for lower speeds or limited plans. Net neutrality means that the ISP can't decide what's more important, somebody watching porn, somebody using youtube to watch cat videos, somebody streaming a game, or somebody running a home server to stream family videos. With content providers paying for networking cost and the telecom companies taking the money it means preferential treatment based on deals and the quality of service being completely outside of the consumers hands. That would mean that company X who pays Y amount a year to the network provider can have low latency high bandwidth traffic to consumers but me using my home server to stream some family video, or stream a game from home could be throttled for being deemed a less important content provider. It's really going to mess up net neutrality in the long run.

 

[lh032]

That's a trap

you serious?

 

[mitch1971]

I just don't understand how these girls look in the mirror. Okay, the money is certainly good for them, but putting up with these fucking retarded cretins and satisfying their insatiable and sickly appetites... There is one girl who even put a paper bag on her head... which had an advertisement on it... I mean feminists should shoot themselves in the head seeing these girls literally don't give a fuck and totally degrading themselves for money. Seriously fucked up world.

Absolutely.

Now, her twitch name, please.

 

[Z O N E]

Also, unless I heard wrong from the Twitch CEO livestream yesterday, anyone who has "Country of residence" as South Korea, won't be able to stream outside of Korea. So you will need either residency in another country or move to a domestic streaming platform.

Also, coincidently, jsut as Twitch announced this... Naver, which is Koreas Google, announced their own live streaming platform:

네이버, 게임 스트리밍 시장 공략...19일부터 공개 테스트 돌입

[디지털투데이 이호정 기자] 네이버가 게임 스트리밍 서비스 사업을 본격화 한다. 오는 19일 공개 시험 서비스를 선보인 뒤 내년 정식 서비스를 출시한다는 계획이다. 6일 업계에 따르면 네이버는 전날 직원들을 대상으로 게임 스트리밍인 '치지직'(CHZZK·가칭)의 비공개 시험(CBT) 서비스를 시작했다. 네이버는 게임 스트리밍 서비스가 이상없이 작동하는지 테스트하기 위해 직원들을 대상으로 게임 대항전을 중계한다. 오는 8일까지 진행되는 게임 대항전은 스타크래프트와 리그오브레전드(LoL·롤) 경기로 구성됐으며 직원 380명이 플레이어로

www.digitaltoday.co.kr

 

[Laieon]

Also, unless I heard wrong from the Twitch CEO livestream yesterday, anyone who has "Country of residence" as South Korea, won't be able to stream outside of Korea. So you will need either residency in another country or move to a domestic streaming platform.

Also, coincidently, jsut as Twitch announced this... Naver, which is Koreas Google, announced their own live streaming platform:

네이버, 게임 스트리밍 시장 공략...19일부터 공개 테스트 돌입

[디지털투데이 이호정 기자] 네이버가 게임 스트리밍 서비스 사업을 본격화 한다. 오는 19일 공개 시험 서비스를 선보인 뒤 내년 정식 서비스를 출시한다는 계획이다. 6일 업계에 따르면 네이버는 전날 직원들을 대상으로 게임 스트리밍인 '치지직'(CHZZK·가칭)의 비공개 시험(CBT) 서비스를 시작했다. 네이버는 게임 스트리밍 서비스가 이상없이 작동하는지 테스트하기 위해 직원들을 대상으로 게임 대항전을 중계한다. 오는 8일까지 진행되는 게임 대항전은 스타크래프트와 리그오브레전드(LoL·롤) 경기로 구성됐으며 직원 380명이 플레이어로

www.digitaltoday.co.kr

I lived in Korea for a few years and came into this thread ready to say "This just tells me Naver has their own platform in the works".

Whelp.

 

[Elysium44]

The vastly disproportionate cost would be on the people using those services disproportionately and it already is, no?

For example if I'm watching youtube videos or porn all day I'm paying for however many gigabytes of traffic that requires already. If I plan to tax the network less as a customer I can pay for lower speeds or limited plans. Net neutrality means that the ISP can't decide what's more important, somebody watching porn, somebody using youtube to watch cat videos, somebody streaming a game, or somebody running a home server to stream family videos. With content providers paying for networking cost and the telecom companies taking the money it means preferential treatment based on deals and the quality of service being completely outside of the consumers hands. That would mean that company X who pays Y amount a year to the network provider can have low latency high bandwidth traffic to consumers but me using my home server to stream some family video, or stream a game from home could be throttled for being deemed a less important content provider. It's really going to mess up net neutrality in the long run.

Yes and no. At least here in the UK as far as home internet is concerned, everything is unlimited - but that is on the understanding you use the network like an average user. If you in fact were to run up well above average costs then the other users are subsidising you. There is no cheaper option where you can just pay for (say) 100GB a month and pay a lot less. The existing 'unlimited' plans already assume most people won't use more than that. But nonetheless you are allowed, in theory, to use as much as you want.

I understand net neutrality is appealing for those who benefit from it, but someone has to pay. Nothing is free. You don't pay a flat fee for your electricity regardless of whether you're a light or heavy user. It's basically socialism, always popular when you're the beneficiary of other people's money.

(edit - 100GB is low these days for an average I guess, but the number was just illustrative.)

 

[WitchHunter]

Absolutely.

Now, her twitch name, please.

You are knocking on wrong doors : DD. Ask the drooling ones.

 

[SmokedMeat]

The idea of content providers paying networking costs is kind of fucked up for net neutrality

Is this only content providers from outside South Korea that have to pay?

 

[old-parts]

A combination of the SK telecom monopoly combined with SK government desire for its own tech companies are forcing out Twitch.

The English speaking Korean streamers are especially screwed as they relied on the Twitch international audience, the Korean language only streamers will just go back to the local streaming platforms like Afreeca.

Other platforms like Kick or Trovo (Tencent Twitch clone) will face the same fate unless they are willing to pay the new license fees.

Its unclear if Twitch will be blocked entirely in SK or it will remain viewable but no means to make money.

 

[Spukc]

I just don't understand how these girls look in the mirror. Okay, the money is certainly good for them, but putting up with these fucking retarded cretins and satisfying their insatiable and sickly appetites... There is one girl who even put a paper bag on her head... which had an advertisement on it... I mean feminists should shoot themselves in the head seeing these girls literally don't give a fuck and totally degrading themselves for money. Seriously fucked up world.

Or you just like money
If i had tits i would whore myself out 24/7

No touchy

 

[CuNi]

Yes and no. At least here in the UK as far as home internet is concerned, everything is unlimited - but that is on the understanding you use the network like an average user. If you in fact were to run up well above average costs then the other users are subsidising you. There is no cheaper option where you can just pay for (say) 100GB a month and pay a lot less. The existing 'unlimited' plans already assume most people won't use more than that. But nonetheless you are allowed, in theory, to use as much as you want.

I understand net neutrality is appealing for those who benefit from it, but someone has to pay. Nothing is free. You don't pay a flat fee for your electricity regardless of whether you're a light or heavy user. It's basically socialism, always popular when you're the beneficiary of other people's money.

(edit - 100GB is low these days for an average I guess, but the number was just illustrative.)

With how horrendous prices are here in Gerrmany, I fully expect my plan to cover all costs I could generate with my maximum speed even if it runs 24/7 at max speeds.
This is just trashy and scummy ISPs trying to cash out twice, nothing else.
They are trying to pull this off here in the EU as well, and I wholeheartedly hope that bill will burn to the ground, because I already pay for the Line, so why should the content provider I chose to watch pay for my line a second time.
Also, you realize that Netflix and the likes will just move the cost onto the user, so you'll pay double, right? Netflix will never eat the increase because it's such a good friend to you, hell no. It'll be a perfect excuse to rise sub prices once more.

 

[WitchHunter]

Or you just like money
If i had tits i would whore myself out 24/7

No touchy

You would burn out quick. Btw, haven't you heard that the pussy of the future is the back pussy? : DDD

 

[Three]

Is this only content providers from outside South Korea that have to pay?

I'm not sure whether what they are asking of each content provider differs based on country of origin or not but the article seems to mention that the telecoms companies want it based on revenue of the content provider which could mean higher costs for twitch even if they are 5th in usage.

 

[Elysium44]

With how horrendous prices are here in Gerrmany, I fully expect my plan to cover all costs I could generate with my maximum speed even if it runs 24/7 at max speeds.
This is just trashy and scummy ISPs trying to cash out twice, nothing else.
They are trying to pull this off here in the EU as well, and I wholeheartedly hope that bill will burn to the ground, because I already pay for the Line, so why should the content provider I chose to watch pay for my line a second time.
Also, you realize that Netflix and the likes will just move the cost onto the user, so you'll pay double, right? Netflix will never eat the increase because it's such a good friend to you, hell no. It'll be a perfect excuse to rise sub prices once more.

As it should be. I don't use Netflix, why should I subsidise the network costs of those who do?

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I just don't understand how these girls look in the mirror. Okay, the money is certainly good for them, but putting up with these fucking retarded cretins and satisfying their insatiable and sickly appetites... There is one girl who even put a paper bag on her head... which had an advertisement on it... I mean feminists should shoot themselves in the head seeing these girls literally don't give a fuck and totally degrading themselves for money. Seriously fucked up world.

South Korea is incredibly harsh country to live in, it is brutal when it comes to employment and majority of career advancement is determined by you making endless reports and spreadsheets, which are all useless. Women have it way worse.
In Japan 30% of women indicated their preferred education is: 'housewife'.

Asia is hell for women, so no wonder some are willing to do a lot to make money.

 

[Hudo]

Based Korea, protecting its citizens from shit.

 

[Elysium44]

Asia is hell for women, so no wonder some are willing to do a lot to make money.

Bollocks, at least Asian women have that option, and have a vast number of men who would crawl over broken glass to have a chance to be with them, or even just look at them.

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

I just don't understand how these girls look in the mirror. Okay, the money is certainly good for them, but putting up with these fucking retarded cretins and satisfying their insatiable and sickly appetites... There is one girl who even put a paper bag on her head... which had an advertisement on it... I mean feminists should shoot themselves in the head seeing these girls literally don't give a fuck and totally degrading themselves for money. Seriously fucked up world.

You'd do it too if you could.

 

[Generic]

Damn, I follow a plenty of korean artists...

 

[Gen.Grievous]

Based Korea, protecting its citizens from shit.

You can basically control what people can watch on the internet by imposing heavy fees on content you do not like or is competition to national companies. I would not call that based at all.

 

[Skifi28]

Damn, I follow a plenty of korean artists...

""artists""

 

[Hudo]

You can basically control what people can watch on the internet by imposing heavy fees on content you do not like or is competition to national companies. I would not call that based at all.

Ultra based.

 

[crackajack]

It's really going to mess up net neutrality in the long run.

imho adhering to net neutrality and building the infrastructure itself should not be handled by a free market, if not done by the state at least regulated by the state, like I guess railway, electricity, water, frequency band license stuff (depending probably on our respective countries, I guess).
I possibly would pay more, since downloading some games per month, yt and streaming is quite much, even though my 5G contract is on the upper end for what is average for regular people stuff. So maybe I even overpay already. But others who might have a rather cheap isp plan but do not even really use that, maybe just want their mails, pay for my traffic. I guess netflix, watching some dumbass cutie all day, easily can top my traffic, so those certainly should pay more and not live of other people's fees.
not sorted by some arbitrary priority, even though I guess game streaming needs and should get higher priority with ping while other stuff does not really need a good ping (if that is even specifically controllable) but just the cost attached kinda more fairly.

I guess any ISP currently can have some shadow deals with some providers to let them have an edge on competition, as monopolistic we are in some areas I would not wonder, when there are no deals already in place that already prefer those services over some less demanding stuff and new/small competition.

So moving the costs to the cause should in theory not change a thing just make traffic and costs more directly correlated.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

 

[-Zelda-]

omg...
I don't understand any Korean, but I loved her!

Who is she and does she upload to youtube? I mean, maybe not THAT, but anything gaming related?

 

[thismeinteil]

Who is she and does she upload to youtube? I mean, maybe not THAT, but anything gaming related

Fuck YouTube. Does she have a pornhub?

 

[Ansphn]

I just don't understand how these girls look in the mirror. Okay, the money is certainly good for them, but putting up with these fucking retarded cretins and satisfying their insatiable and sickly appetites... There is one girl who even put a paper bag on her head... which had an advertisement on it... I mean feminists should shoot themselves in the head seeing these girls literally don't give a fuck and totally degrading themselves for money. Seriously fucked up world.

Easy. They love the attention, they love to be admired, they love being lusted, and they love the money. Women have it easy in the digital age.

NOTE : "They" does not mean all women.

 

[FalconPunch]

No offense but, get a real job...