Business

Amazon Has YouTube Envy

It wants to turn its Twitch online hangout for avid gamers into a broader video service.

CookingForNoobs host Christine invites Twitch viewers into her kitchen in real time. — *CookingForNoobs* host Christine invites Twitch viewers into her kitchen in real time.
Photographer: Jessica Chou for Bloomberg Businessweek

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By Lucas Shaw

August 15, 2018 at 10:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the August 20, 2018 issue of businessweek.

YouTube has become synonymous with online video and the lucrative advertising that it commands. Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch streaming site is the go-to place for the much smaller audience of video gaming enthusiasts. Now, in a bid to grab a larger slice of the online advertising pie, Amazon has decided to aggressively broaden the programming on Twitch to take on its video rival.

Amazon in recent months has been pursuing exclusive livestreaming deals with dozens of popular media companies and personalities, many with large followings on YouTube. Twitch is offering minimum guarantees of as much as a few million dollars a year, as well as a share of future advertising sales and subscription revenue, according to several people who’ve been contacted by Twitch.