Friday, September 21, 2018

Twitch is now blocked in China -- The Verge

Tangentially, see Inside Tencent's Gambit to Dominate a $13 Billion Esports Arena (Bloomberg -- from July)
"Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, has seen a big boost in viewership this past year, especially as Epic Games’ Fortnite has exploded in popularity and top streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has become a bonafide celebrity and the platform’s highest-earning and most-watched streamer. Twitch’s monthly active streamer count doubled in 2017 compared to 2016. But it didn’t have a lot of Chinese users, as its servers are based abroad, meaning that streams are delayed.

The latest censorship follows the Chinese government’s pattern of banning any Western media platform that seems to be growing in popularity, often as a cautionary measure before anything controversial has even occurred. Social media networks like Facebook and Twitter remain permanently banned, and Google, which has stayed out of China for eight years, is rumored to be developing a censored search engine to be allowed back in."
Twitch is now blocked in China -- The Verge

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