Bonus: The Global Story - Is Twitch too big to fail?
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2024
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is a Bonus episode from The Global Story - Is Twitch too big to fail?
The world's largest live-streaming platform, Twitch, faces an uncertain future. Media reports suggest that parent company Amazon has become frustrated by its failure to make profit, and rumours are swirling of a third round of layoffs within a year. But does its loyal audience of 240 million active monthly users make it too big to fail? On this episode, Caitríona Perry is joined by BBC tech reporter Tom Gerken, and the BBC's former gaming correspondent Steffan Powell. They examine what makes Twitch unique, and discuss whether the platform is under threat from its rivals. This episode was made by Laurie Kalus and Tom Kavanagh. The technical producers were Ben Andrews and Jonny Baker. The assistant editor is Sergi Forcada Freixas and the senior news editor is Richard Fenton-Smith.
The Global Story brings you one big story every weekday, making sense of the news with our experts around the world. Insights you can trust, from the BBC World Service. For more, go to bbcworldservice.com/globalstory or search for The Global Story wherever you got this podcast.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello this is Oliver Conway from the Global News Podcast. I'm here to tell you about another |
| 0:05.2 | pod from the BBC World Service, the Global Story, which takes a deep dive into one big news story |
| 0:12.0 | every weekday. Let me hand over to Katrina Perry for a flavor |
| 0:16.0 | of what to expect when you subscribe. This episode looks at the uncertain future of the world's |
| 0:21.7 | biggest live streaming platform, |
| 0:23.6 | Twitch. |
| 0:24.3 | Boasting more than 240 million active monthly users, |
| 0:31.5 | Twitch hosts Superstar Gaming creators like Ninja and Kaisanat, |
| 0:36.2 | with audiences watching over 2 billion hours of content in June alone. |
| 0:41.6 | No, wait, we broke a record. |
| 0:44.0 | No way. |
| 0:45.0 | We just beat. |
| 0:47.0 | We just beat. |
| 0:48.0 | Minjers! |
| 0:50.0 | But despite these huge numbers, it's struggling to turn a profit and |
| 0:54.8 | their speculation that parent company Amazon which bought the platform for a |
| 0:59.8 | billion dollars a decade ago could be losing patience. |
| 1:04.3 | Now rumors are swirling that a third round of layoffs within a year |
| 1:08.2 | are on the horizon. |
| 1:10.2 | So today we're asking, what went wrong and is Twitch too big to fail? With me today our BBC Technology reporter Tom Gerkin, hi Tom |
| 1:27.2 | Tom, hi Tom, hi Tom, and Stephen Powell a presenter and journalist who was formerly |
| 1:32.0 | Gaming Correspondent for BBC News. |
... |
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