According to a The Wall Street Journal Report, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is believed to be negotiating for a probable acquisition of Twitch, a rapid growing, live video streaming service in the gaming arena.
Boost Video Content
Further, the report cites that while the offer price is yet undisclosed, the talks are in preliminary stages and so the chances of the deal making way is not imminent. By adding Twitch, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) would essentially be able to enhance its existing YouTube portfolio, which at present is yet another popular platform for live-streaming of music, sports, news, games and even events. Twitch made a debut in June 2011 and since then has become a popular destination for videogame lovers, who can watch and broadcast videogame play. The interesting fact is that YouTube trails behind Twitch in terms of traffic as it had accounted for approximately 44% of U.S. live-streaming traffic by volume during the early week of April, as per a report released by Qwilt.
Big Money, Real Business
In February, Twitch mentioned that it had over 45 million unique visitors on a monthly basis, which includes 1 million users who create and stream video content. While Twitch does not have on-demand content like that of Netflix and YouTube, but it has a strong engagement ratio. According to TubeMogul’s head, Seth Bardelas, Twitch offers hour-long live broadcasts of gameplays that renders it as a special platform to earn premium advertising prices. On the contrary, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s YouTube is viewed in a more bite-sized lengths that makes it hard for it to get higher paid advertisements.
Meanwhile, speaking about YouTube’s content, Jim Crammer at CNBC mentioned that the YouTube has not yet started monetizing this area and it could soon follow the Netflix’s path of pay-per-view. Cramer went on to state that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has lots of money and has a real business and could easily pay highest for bringing in a good content, like that from Twitch.
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