YouTube puts game face on as it pays $1bn for live-streaming site Twitch

YouTube has acquired videogame-streaming service Twitch for more than $1bn (€730m).

The all-cash deal is expected to be announced “imminently”.

San Francisco-based Twitch allows consumers to broadcast live streams of themselves playing videogames and includes social networking features that allow gamers to communicate with each other during the broadcasts. More than 45m people visit its site every month.

Videogames are among the most popular content on YouTube, the world’s No 1 video website, which Google purchased in 2006 for $1.65bn.

Live video has been a complicated subject for YouTube. The service started to dabble with live-streaming in 2010. But aside from a few marquee events, the quality of live content on the platform has been questionable. Earlier this year, YouTube removed any mention of live programming from its website — and barely anyone noticed.

YouTube does still produce the occasional high-profile live event. It live-streamed Felix Baumgartner’s 2012 space jump, watched by more than 8m viewers simultaneously.

Live-streaming doesn’t get big enough audiences to warrant high ad prices, and the fragmented nature of live streaming on YouTube hasn’t made it easier to win over big brands.

There is one notable exception to this move away from ad-supported live-streaming: Twitch. The site has managed to pull off huge growth by focusing on engaging content for a young audience that’s very desirable for advertisers, and reports by Variety magazine indicate that Twitch hopes to be profitable this year.