Twitch: Mining Indian Gold

WORDS BY DONNA AMO

Streaming has picked up in the last few years in India with many homegrown gamers and content creators using various platforms to stream their content to their viewers. This is especially true for the gaming community to which streaming is an important way of connecting and possibly generating revenue. The popularity of games like Garena Free Fire, CS:GO, DOTA 2, Call of Duty, and even PUBG before it’s ban, have opened doors for many Indian gamers to become known in the community through streaming.

Twitch is a video streaming platform launched in 2011 and operated by Twitch Interactive. The platform is mostly associated with video game streaming but is also used to promote creative content, broadcast esports events, and music. By 2013, it was reported that the site had over 45 million unique users. While it is a go-to site for many gamers around the world, the streaming platform has not been able to fully harvest the ripe gaming market in India.

It was in 2016 when Twitch first started picking up momentum in India but due to the lack of servers in the country, many gamers faced a lot of difficulties while using the platform. This resulted in the streaming site hitting a roadblock. While many Indian creators and gamers joined the platform during its initial entry into the gaming scene, a majority of them left due to its high latency which hampered viewing experience.

While Twitch’s foray into the Indian market came to an abrupt stop in 2018, it was recently reported that the Amazon-owned platform could be re-entering the Indian market. The addition of local servers in Mumbai and Chennai could be the start of the platform’s growth in Indian. However, other streaming platforms like YouTube Streaming and Facebook Gaming are already popular and they will be stiff competition for the platform.