Google Vs. Amazon: A Game Of War

YouTube are developing a Twitch…
An interesting phenomenon over the last few years has involved the convergence of digital platforms among an increasingly elite group of service providers. While Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp have allowed it to dominate the instant messaging market, Google has been concentrating its efforts on video. Having acquired YouTube in 2006 for what now looks like a bargain $1.65 billion, it has since purchased everything from video conferencing platforms to video compression specialists and editing programs.
However, Google doesn’t always get its own way. Its attempt to acquire gaming platform Twitch fell at the final hurdle last year when Amazon swooped in with a late $970 million bid. As one of the internet’s zeitgeist brands, Twitch is an interesting example of how success stories can’t always be predicted. It started life as a videocast platform (the now defunct Justin.tv) before metamorphosing into a website that hosts streams of people playing computer games, typically narrated by the person in control of the action.
Despite that relatively unpromising description, Twitch’s success is indisputable. Its most popular contributor has almost four million followers, while Twitch reports 100,000,000 viewers watching 20 billion minutes of content each month. Its core audience of male twentysomethings have considerable purchasing power, and collectively comprise a highly influential demographic. Little wonder that online game provider Valve launched a one-click sharing facility for their popular Steam platform last Christmas in an attempt to capitalise on this burgeoning market.
Having failed to buy Twitch last year, Google is now aiming to outdo it with a brand-new YouTube-based service. While there are many similarities between YouTube Gaming and Twitch, the latter has to censor much of its content due to copyright infringements. Given Google’s deeper pockets and greater cross-platform reach, YouTube Gaming could offer a more comprehensive passive gaming experience. For instance, Guitar Hero clips could potentially feature the actual musical soundtrack, rather than silence and an apologetic on-screen message about rights issues.
However, YouTube Gaming could also gradually evolve into something altogether more comprehensive. Twitch has already begun broadcasting live concerts and documentaries, which is clearly a deliberate shift towards YouTube territory. If YouTube Gaming allows users to add their own commentaries to live broadcasts, this would distinguish it from the unadulterated content broadcast by its parent. Television programmes like Gogglebox have proved that there’s a large audience for watching complete strangers ad-libbing a commentary over an existing broadcast. Technical issues shouldn’t figure either: live broadcasts on YouTube Gaming will automatically become videos once they’ve finished streaming, while 60fps stream rates will ensure picture quality is excellent.
Of course, advertising is the driving force underpinning digital media’s new-found enthusiasm for casters – the term for people whose gameplay is uploaded for others to admire/mock/replicate. The user figures quoted above for Twitch are strong enough to attract blue-chip advertisers, which in turn allows casters to earn increasingly large sums in exchange for generating new content. YouTube Gaming will also host dedicated channels where game publishers can preview and discuss their products, while curated searches will help direct people towards content chosen according to their history. This is one of many aspects that will feel extremely familiar to Twitch aficionados.
Google and Amazon are already fierce rivals in a number of areas, and the launch of YouTube Gaming is likely to further increase the levels of animosity. It remains to be seen whether watching other people playing games will become a mainstream form of entertainment, but it’s rather ironic that historic arguments about the merits of playing a game in real life (as opposed to passively watching it on TV) are now being repeated in an even more extreme capacity.