In what must have been like a bomb going off, many South Korean streamers who have managed to make a living streaming on the Twitch platform, are finding themselves suddenly having to find out what their options are after Twitch announced they are shutting down the service in Korea.
Twitch provided a carefully crafted PR regarding the closure which did not cover the actual more complex details with operating in South Korea (in short, the costs issues are a product of the system they are operating in). What it has to do is with this (article from 2016): Korea should not require companies to pay to deliver digital content – The Korea Times. More specifically, some of the countries huge telecommunication firms drive this stuff (SKT and KT).
Now EVERY country has their own spin on protectionalism where tariffs are levied, government regulations/limits are imposed, etc. Look at something simple like Japan restricting rice imports to produced product and subsidizing rice farmers as one example. The US does it in a large number of industries; you see it easily in the auto industry especially with how stringent safety regulations prevent a lot of models from Japanese car makers being able to imported into the country. Both Nissan and Toyota don’t even sell the Caravan and Hi-Ace (respectively) vans because they wouldn’t pass the US’ front end crash test due to their smaller “crumple” zone since both are cab-forward designs (the engine is inside the passenger compartment under the seats).
While they could work around that with reinforcements, all that does is add manufacturing costs (that would get passed on to the consumer). So they just don’t offer such models. Back in the 80’s, JDM enthusiasts wanted their hands on vehicles like the Nissan Skyline; those models weren’t available because they didn’t pass California’s strict emissions regulations. Yes, there is the 25 year rule that is still in existence (where you can import such vehicles yourself, but then need to make it has all the modifications to make them compliant with state AND federal standards). It should be noted that some of these regulations, were also created to put up restrictive barriers to make it unprofitable for Japanese auto makers to bring them in with those changes (unless they knew they could move the appropriate number of units; a chance they weren’t willing to make). But you get the point.
The digital realm is no different where many countries have their own domestic services whose executives, would prefer to see their own domestic population utilizing first. Japan’s equivalent of Twitch + YouTube is Nico Douga (post-2012, it has been known as Niconico). AfreecaTV is one of South Korea’s largest video streaming services for example (and as a domestic company, are “exempt” from this quagmire that affects foreign companies that try to operate in the country; they have no choice but to pay the required fees as part of the cost of doing business while foreign companies, need to figure out if they can remain profitable with all of the regulations/fees that foreign companies need to deal with, or like in Twitch’s case, having to make the difficult decision to terminate the service in the country). Globalism has never been about being 1:1 when it comes to international trade. The digital realm just tends to blur the line, but it’s clear that more countries are looking at ways of controlling the network as well as who pays for what (governments are the slowest to catch up in dealing with newer technology).
Now I’ve seen some bad takes on this (that these streamers need to get a real job). Content creation ISN’T easy (if it were, then anyone could get a huge number of followers, subscribers, massive engagement with that community, and getting a huge number of views of that content where it be streaming or video on demand. One could even extend that to blogs like this (like if you are trying to get page views), or even a social media presence (where you also have to get a large number of followers). The simple fact is that it takes hard work; if you want to make a living in this realm, it requires a lot of different skill sets and discipline; it’s a job (and one that doesn’t have key benefits like if you were working at a company). People often times see just the top percent pulling in huge numbers (including the amount of money they are making); the reality is that the larger majority, are far from that (trying to build to that point). It doesn’t help that it’s highly oversatuated (which makes it even more challenging for those starting out, to get that foothold). The demise of the platform many of these Korean streamers utilized to build their communities, is a huge blow to many of them.
The suggestions go all over the place including relocating to another country. Easier said than done when you have things like visas to consider. Yes, there is the more saner suggestions such as moving to YouTube or some of the other streaming platforms (like Kick). However, this is the biggest issue that I didn’t grok earlier myself when YouTube Gaming was first launched (where I was sure that it would dent Twitch). I was wrong on that; I underestimated the community aspect of Twitch. Twitch chat itself is its own phenomenon. The viewers ebb and flow between different content creators on the platform. That aspect, means that even huge streamers on the platform who moved to other platforms due to better deals, could never pull their entire community with them. The other issue is that some of these Korean streamers, also have a large following from outside Korea (and those folks would likely not find the same sort of engagement on AfreecaTV). Simply put, it’s going to be challenging for many of these folks.
I’ve personally never been a huge Twitch user (or even a fan of the service). However, this entire thing isn’t really their fault. Yes, I know they are owned by Amazon now, but they are still operating as their own subsidiary where they have a balance sheet with profit and loss on it. Video data is already demanding (bandwidth plus the costs associated with it). When you add on a countries regulatory practices, that is just another headache. I’m also not denying that Twitch could have their own internal business related problems that have caused balance sheet issues (they did have that round of layoffs recently).
NOTE: I’m personally not an actual content creator because I blog for fun. I was fortunate enough to early retire years ago (because that was a goal when I was in college where I worked/invested/made decisions and sacrifices to achieve that objective).
