Twitch (service)

Twitch is a place for live video.

People watch others play video games. They also watch music and art. It started from a site called Justin.tv.

Many people watch it every day. It is very popular in the United States.

A big company called Amazon owns it. They bought it in 2014.

People can watch shows live. They can also watch videos later.

It is a big part of the internet. It helps people share fun things.

Twitch is a popular site for live video.

People use it to watch others play video games. They also watch music and creative art. It also has "in real life" streams.

Twitch began in June 2011. It was a part of a site called Justin.tv. The gaming part grew very fast. This led to the birth of Twitch. In 2014, Amazon bought the company.

Twitch is now run by Twitch Interactive. This is a part of Amazon.

Many people use the site every day. It is a very big part of internet traffic. In 2015, over 100 million people watched every month. Some people watch live shows. Others watch videos on demand. This means they watch them later.

Viewers can also help the people making videos. They can use Bits to cheer. Bits are a special type of digital money. This helps support the people who broadcast. Twitch has many partner channels that use these tools.

Twitch is a famous American website for live video streaming.

Many people use it to watch video games being played live. It is also a big place for esports competitions. These are professional gaming contests. You can also find music, creative art, and "in real life" streams.

People can watch things as they happen live. They can also watch videos on demand, which means watching them later. This makes the site a huge part of how people use the internet.

Watching Twitch works by connecting viewers to broadcasters. Broadcasters send out a live video feed of their activities. Viewers can watch these feeds on their computers or phones. Some people even use a chat system to talk to the streamer. In 2014, a famous stream called Twitch Plays Pokémon showed how this works. In that stream, people typed commands into a chat. A system turned those chat words into game controls.

This allowed thousands of people to play one game together.

Twitch has an interesting history that started with a site called Justin.tv. Justin Kan and Emmett Shear launched Justin.tv in 2007. The gaming section of that site grew very quickly. Because of this growth, Twitch was created as a spin-off in June 2011. It officially launched in a public beta on June 6, 2011. By 2013, the company had about 100 employees. They were based in the Financial District of San Francisco. The site became so popular that it eventually eclipsed its original parent site.

Numbers show how much Twitch has grown over the years. In October 2013, the site had 45 million unique viewers. By 2015, that number grew to more than 100 million viewers every month. In February 2014, Twitch was the fourth-largest source of internet traffic in the United States. It sat behind only Netflix, Google, and Apple.

Today, the site has over 27,000 partner channels. It also has 15 million active users every single day. This shows how massive the community has become.

Twitch is now owned by the large company Amazon. Amazon bought Twitch Interactive in August 2014 for 970 million dollars.

This deal helped Twitch connect with Amazon Prime. Users with Prime can use special features like Twitch Prime. This includes things like extra content and ad-free streaming. You might also see people using "Bits" to cheer for their favorite streamers. Bits are a type of digital currency used for donations. These tools help make the platform a place for both fun and work.

Twitch is a major American live-streaming service used for video content.

While it is most famous for video games and esports competitions, it hosts many other types of media. Users can watch music broadcasts, creative content, and "in real life" streams. The service allows people to view content live as it happens. It also offers video on demand, which lets users watch recorded broadcasts later. Twitch is operated by Twitch Interactive, which is a subsidiary of the company Amazon.

The platform works by connecting broadcasters to a massive audience through a live video feed. Broadcasters can share their gameplay or activities in real-time. Viewers interact with these streams through a chat system. A famous example of this interaction was the "Twitch Plays Pokémon" stream in February 2014. In this event, a system translated chat commands from the audience into game controls.

This turned a single-player game into a massive, participatory experience. The channel reached over 6.5 million total views during this viral event.

Twitch has several distinct features and systems that support its community. One such system is the use of "Bits," which is an in-site currency.

Users purchase Bits through Amazon Payments to use for "Cheering." This acts as a way to donate to a specific channel. Channels also use automated chat moderation tools. These tools use natural language processing and machine learning to identify unwanted content for human review. This helps keep the massive amount of real-time chat organized and safe.

The history of Twitch began with a platform called Justin.tv. Justin Kan and Emmett Shear launched Justin.tv in 2007. The site originally had many different content categories. However, the gaming category grew much faster than the others. Because of this success, the company launched TwitchTV as a spin-off in June 2011.

By June 2013, the company had about 80 employees, growing to 100 by December of that year. The company was headquartered in the Financial District of San Francisco.

Twitch's growth led to significant changes in ownership and internet traffic. In August 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch Interactive for $970 million in an all-cash deal.

This happened after a rumored deal with Google fell through due to potential antitrust concerns. The scale of the service is massive. By 2015, Twitch had more than 100 million viewers per month. In February 2014, it was the fourth-largest source of peak internet traffic in the United States. At that time, it accounted for 1.8% of all total US internet traffic during peak periods.

Today, the service maintains a very high level of activity across the globe. Twitch is the 30th-most-visited website in the world. Much of its traffic comes from the United States, which provides 23.46% of all visits. Other major contributors include Russia at 8.87%, Germany at 7.08%, and France at 6.26%. The platform supports millions of people, with 15 million active users daily. It also features 3 million monthly broadcasters and over 27,000 partner channels.

Twitch connects to many broader digital systems and industries. Through its ownership by Amazon, it has created synergies with Amazon Prime. This includes services like Twitch Prime, which offers ad-free streaming and "Game Loot" for subscribers. The platform also connects to the esports industry, serving as an official streaming platform for events like the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Even as it faces challenges, such as leaving the South Korean market in 2024 due to network fee costs, Twitch remains a central hub for digital entertainment and interactive media.