
Google’s $1B purchase of Twitch confirmed - owenwil
http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/24/googles-1b-purchase-of-twitch-confirmed-joins-youtube-for-new-video-empire/
======
jacquesm
Assuming this is all true (the article is sourced poorly): Justin and team
very much congratulated, that was a long road from justin.tv to twitch.tv and
now an exit of this magnitude.

Hard-won, _very_ much deserved, also a case study for a successful pivot.

" We do know that Twitch investors who participated in past rounds are pleased
that they will be getting significant returns that are multiple times the
amount they originally invested. "

Suggests that it was one of the investors that leaked the story to
venturebeat, pretty classless, and really not-done in those circles.

~~~
TomGullen
> very much deserved

Does anyone actually _deserve_ $1,000,000,000? (I know it's shared between
investors but assuming he got a chunk of that)

~~~
jacquesm
Good question. Ask the billionaires. Then ask the rest of the world.

Some country in Scandinavia (Denmark?) at some point had a 100%+ tax rate,
which meant that if you earned more than some ridiculous amount of money you
lost more than you made.

I think any amount of money over and beyond what you need to live in whatever
is considered luxury in the place where you live is probably wasted on you.
But I guess for people at that level it's a way to keep score.

As far as Justin and Co having deserved this, they worked harder than most
people ever will (especially in the early days), they have been diluted
substantially and they'll be paying a fair amount of their take in taxes.

For the longest time it looked like the whole thing could still fold up and
this deal is a gigantic pay-out compared to many other acquisitions. Even so,
I think they really did build something of actual value, as opposed to some
other recent acquisitions (far higher ones than this one) that I fail to see
any value at all in. So as far as I'm concerned they deserve _some_ kind of
pay-out, and since we're living in a capitalist society that is defined as
'what the market will bear'. In this case that appears to be $1B. So good for
them. Wished I had not banned those gamers ;).

~~~
TomGullen
> As far as Justin and Co having deserved this, they worked harder than most
> people ever will

When you say this, you mean harder than other people in western based office
work?

Sorry not trying to pick on you, you seem reasonable and decent! I just think
it's a shame that bestowing incomprehensible amounts of wealth on individuals
should be celebrated as a deserved reward. Hard work = lots of rewards is not
the reality for the majority of the world.

I agree they deserve a payout of course, that level of wealth just feels wrong
to me, like everything feels a bit out of whack. And I know myself I would of
course probably keep the majority of it as well.

~~~
sillysaurus3
_I agree they deserve a payout of course, that level of wealth just feels
wrong to me, like everything feels a bit out of whack._

[http://paulgraham.com/gap.html](http://paulgraham.com/gap.html)

------
demosam
The (forced) merge of my YouTube account with Google account was one of the
most painful experiences I've had to undergo and I still suffer from issues
and annoyances that has brought about.

I can't be excited about this acquisition because all I can think about is how
they are about to slowly and painfully destroy the Twitch experience. What can
we expect? Forced merge of Twitch accounts? A forced G+ page for every
channel? Some kind of horrible Hangouts integration? Real name policy and its
reversal in 3 years? Share this stream with your circles? Pervasive ad
infestation? Exceptionally annoying wiggling bell on top right that demands my
attention just to let me know that some person I've never heard of has invited
me to an event I've never heard of on Google+? A new
"clean/functional/consistent" interface that changes often and only gets
monotonically worse over time?

~~~
macspoofing
>The (forced) merge of my YouTube account with Google account was one of the
most painful experiences I've had to undergo and I still suffer from issues
and annoyances that has brought about.

I know people bitch(ed) about that but come on, it makes a ton of sense from
both Google's and end-user's perspective to standardize all Google services
under one account. Anybody (here or elsewhere) would have made the same
decision.. Their fault is that they waited as long as they did.

Google+ also makes some sense because it does tie services like GDrive, blogs,
photos, docs, videos (youtube), and chat together. The problem there was that
they got spooked by Facebook and tried to copy it exactly (e.g. the real name
policy, which was always stupid but they did it because facebook did it). It
was a typical Microsoft thing to do; look where the puck is, and not where
it's going.

~~~
res0nat0r
Please do any or all of the above. The idiotic Twitch chat spam and moronic
memes makes my iq drop every time I see it.

~~~
ScottHConner
If it integrates well it could be a nod to a different strategy to fight
Facebook.

------
pyrocat
"In March, Twitch represented 1.35 percent of all Internet traffic"

Wow, I didn't realize Twitch had that much traffic. That's something to be
proud of.

~~~
jonknee
That's slightly misleading because their traffic involves live HD video
streams for rather long periods of time. For example, 1000 Twitch users will
represent orders of magnitude more traffic than 1000 Facebook users. Another
impressive point is since the content is live it's not as easy to CDN like
Netflix/YouTube.

It's still a ton of bandwidth. I'm sure they'll be happy no longer having to
pay that bill.

------
Fuzzwah
Is this going to lead to a crack down on playing unlicensed, non-royalty free
music on streams?

~~~
sillysaurus3
Playing music on streams isn't stealing music. If the people listening to the
stream like the music they hear, they're likely to try to find out what it is
they're listening to and go listen to more of it. That means more music sales,
not less.

~~~
baddox
That's arguably true of a lot of music copyright infringement. I don't think
it will stop the lawyers.

------
sama
where the definition of confirmed = "an anonymous source says to a semi-
accurate publication".

~~~
minimaxir
That's an _improvement_ over most recent confirmations.

------
yulaow
I am surprised that others concurrents let Google buy it considering it was
the only "serious alternative" to some functionalities of youtube.

The monopoly of Google on video streaming is even stronger now

~~~
chatmasta
Monopoly? Do Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and iTunes all not offer streaming
products? Not to mention their Asian market equivalents (pptv, tudou, youkou).

~~~
PhasmaFelis
Try and get your cat videos on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or iTunes. Their
"streaming products" of those companies and Google have as much in common as
as, say, the "transport products" of Ford and Boeing.

The only site still competing directly with YouTube in the global market is
Vimeo, and, well, I doubt Google has much to fear from them.

~~~
dkns
What about dailymotion?

------
orik
What's going to happen to people streaming Nintendo Games? Are we going to
have another youtube situation?

~~~
ajross
What's a youtube situation?

~~~
kevingadd
Content takedowns without the DMCA or any sort of due process.

(though, IIRC, Twitch does those already for pre-release game titles through
agreements with various game publishers)

~~~
cscurmudgeon
Aka "being Googled by Google"

------
outericky
Congrats to team twitch. It was one of the first offices I walked into that
made me wish I worked in a place like that. So much energy. So much fun.

------
sharpneli
Let's imagine the worst case scenario:

Forced Google+ accounts with realnames. Because no-one uses an alias in gaming
scene ever.

Automatic Content ID. Oh you played a bit of music even accidentally on
background? Blocked.

Oh nintendo wanted to block your game stream
([http://www.zeldauniverse.net/2013/05/16/nintendo-cracks-
down...](http://www.zeldauniverse.net/2013/05/16/nintendo-cracks-down-on-
youtube-content-creators-with-new-content-id-policy/)).

This game is not available in your country!

I know these are exaggerations. But at least some of them will be eventually
implemented. That means it's time to switch services. Anyone know of any good
almost as easy to use one?

~~~
bergie
G+ ditched the real name policy recently:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymwars#Expired_Google_policy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymwars#Expired_Google_policy)

~~~
sharpneli
I am aware of that. But considering how google has acted in recent years it
wouldn't surprise me if they would reinstate that policy and try to force it
to everyone because it worked with facebook etc.

Google has this bad habit of deciding something and then forcing it. Real name
policy. OpenCL on mobile. The list goes on. If they don't get any traction
initially they will at the very least attempt to force it.

------
heed
Will ycombinator receive anything from this as they initially funded justin.tv
(where twitch spun off from)?

~~~
pa5tabear
I assume they will.

It seems like a similar situation to Soylent- a spinoff of a ycombinator
company, that is billed as a ycombinator company.

------
ntakasaki
I was hoping for a Windows Phone Twitch app soon. I guess this kills any
chances of it given how they refuse to make a Youtube App and even lawyered up
a took down a Microsoft made one over a year ago with no sign of an official
app still.

There is no place for Windows Phone in Google's ever expanding empire.

Google's Mission Statement: “To organize the world's information and make it
universally accessible and useful.”

They should tack on a ",except on Windows Phone" to that if they wanted to be
truthful.

~~~
timothya
Windows Phone's market share in the U.S. is at 3.4% (and apparently isn't
growing)[0]. Supporting your apps on another platform is expensive, so I
imagine that Google doesn't support it because the market and users aren't
there (relatively speaking). And, of course, Window's Phone users can still
visit the mobile YouTube site, which (while I haven't tested it) I imagine
supports Windows Phone fine.

If the market share increased significantly, I'd be surprised if they chose to
continue not to support it. But for the time being, their decision makes sense
to me.

[0]: [http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/03/windows-phones-market-
share...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/03/windows-phones-market-share-in-the-
united-states-isnt-growing/)

~~~
yulaow
Personally on my wp I ever used the youtube site and it works perfectly. I can
also have the controls of the streaming with the lockscreen on ( I usually
hear some music video from my phone while going to work )

------
jzelinskie
I hope at some point down the line this leads to the adoption of streaming
VP8/VP9 codecs and using an HTML5 player rather than the resource hog that is
Flash.

~~~
lmedinas
And I have my fingers crossed for Chromecast support.

~~~
myko
In the meantime Lakitu is a nice Twitch client with Chromecast support:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kwd.lakitu](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kwd.lakitu)

------
ChuckMcM
I'm tempted not to believe it since it makes sense to me :-) But more
seriously, back when I played WoW I spent many hours watching some of the
tougher boss fights on Youtube. Automating that process is a great way to
unify those page views. And its a fairly strong 'you are a gamer' signal so
probably a more valuable piece of advertising realestate.

------
crazypyro
"You must be logged into Google+ to view this comment" spam will be returning
to twitch chats....

Either way, congrats to the team. As a long time user, I can't help but feel
that this will only hurt the twitch.tv experience in the long run though.
Maybe the improved stability for other regions will be a large enough benefit
to offset any other changes.

~~~
gcb0
the new faux pas will be you streamning a game on twitch and it showing up on
your gplus status, which also shows up on your gmail address that your boss
happen to have.

~~~
timothya
Why would that happen? Google specifically opposes "frictionless sharing"[0]
(I think that's one of the reasons Google+ doesn't really have a write API -
they don't want apps posting "on behalf" of users). And Google+ emphasizes
sharing things with the right people using circles. Don't spread FUD.

[0]: [http://googleplusplatform.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/google-
plus...](http://googleplusplatform.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/google-plus-sign-
in.html)

~~~
gcb0
if you only agree to gplus account and does things in google owned services,
you are sharing everything without even knowing.

create a new account. agree to gplus. comment on youtube or use hangouts on
device X. pronto, it was so frictionless that you didn't even notice. not it
is public that you are using device X and that you commented on some youtube
video.

what you say may be true for non-google services, which twitch does not fall
under anymore.

~~~
timothya
When commenting on a YouTube video, there is a checkbox where you decide
whether to share that comment on Google+ as well [0]. Your choice is sticky -
if you uncheck the box and make a comment, then that setting will be
remembered and it will never post on Google+ unless you re-enable it. And you
can choose whether you want to share that comment with the public or with
particular people [1] (I can't think of any other commenting platform that
lets you choose specifically who you want to share your comments with on a
public page).

Where are you seeing which device you are using shared on Google+? The only
place I've seen something like that is if you have someone you've accepted as
a Hangouts chat buddy and you've opted into the "share which device I'm on" in
the Hangouts settings (all that shows though is if you're on a tablet, phone,
or desktop computer though, not specifically which device).

[0]: [http://i.imgur.com/H9nHctO.png](http://i.imgur.com/H9nHctO.png)

[1]: [http://i.imgur.com/YtnpjEb.png](http://i.imgur.com/YtnpjEb.png)

~~~
gcb0
yeah google employer, go check in your code repository history

1\. how long my mentioned comment on you tube (for example) is tied to gplus

2\. when that checkbox was added.

you will surely see its at least a six month difference or more. now some
doesnt even have that option yet... but hopefully you will get the point with
just example

------
nwh
Sweet. That's another website on which I'll be fighting Google Accounts.

~~~
gcb0
Also know as yet-another-google-account-for-spam.

google fought so well the spam on gmail, and then they become the spam
equivalent.

i have one gaccount for main gmail, one for gtalk (dead), one for commenting
on youtube annoymously, one for gvoice, one to have a different handle when on
the phone (because circles do not work as promissed and I want to restrict
people that can bug me while i'm mobile)...

all because they can't handle leaving the services work isolated by default.

of course that is good to them, because now they can say "7 new users for
gplus! our product is awesome!"

~~~
macspoofing
>all because they can't handle leaving the services work isolated by default.

... because that makes no sense. First, because they want to build a cohesive
and comprehensive service platform. Second, because a lot of users would
prefer to have these services tied together. So what's left, either try to
please everyone and complicate the service or provide a common vision for the
platform. I think it's obvious that they would go for the latter.

Having said that, they did fuck up in places. Real name policy was stupid.
Like I wrote in another post, their great sin was trying to make Google+ a
facebook clone, as opposed to a unifying system for gchat, search, youtube,
gdrive, gmail, photos, and blogs.

>i have one gaccount for main gmail, one for gtalk (dead), one for commenting
on youtube annoymously, one for gvoice, one to have a different handle when on
the phone (because circles do not work as promissed and I want to restrict
people that can bug me while i'm mobile).

There you go. This kind of insanity is always an option to the insane. What's
the difference between this, and 'services isolated by default'?

~~~
gcb0
if they didn't force me to post all my youtube comments, app downloads and
android game achievements under my real name googleplus I would probably only
have one convenient google account.

it is the same with amazon. I don't want to have the same account that i have
with 1-click purchase powers on every dumb and insecure TV (that even sends
back to LG my files names, who knows about what i type?) just so i can watch
amazon prime videos.

------
wldcordeiro
As expected there's a ton of negativity towards Google in the comments here.
Congrats to the Twitch team and I hope that Google and Twitch do some
interesting things with this acquisition.

------
ollerac
I'm imagining that within a few months Google will buy the twitch.com domain
name.

------
Finbarr
Congrats to the Twitch team!

------
0xisaac
Great, twitch is fucked.

------
pdknsk
Maybe Google can fix Twitch not working in 32-bit Chrome on Linux now. Or
better yet, introduce HTML5 video.

[https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=295984](https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=295984)

~~~
gcb0
that was probably to drive the price down.

oh, you want that in money and not stocks? sorry, it does not work on chrome
anymore.

:)

