Twitch To Disable Streaming In South Korea, Exiting Market

Twitch will be ceasing its operations in South Korea, citing rising costs to operate in the country.

In a statement on the Twitch website (translation via Zach Bussey), CEO Dan Clancy said that as of February 27th, 2024 the service would be formally exiting South Korea.

“Ultimately, the cost to operate Twitch in Korea is prohibitively expensive and we have spent significant effort working to reduce these costs so that we could find a way for the Twitch business to remain in Korea”, he says. “First, we experimented with a peer-to-peer model for source quality. Then, we adjusted source quality to a maximum of 720p”.

“While we have lowered costs from these efforts, our network fees in Korea are still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries. Twitch has been operating in Korea at a significant loss, and unfortunately there is no pathway forward for our business to run more sustainably in that country”, he adds.

This is obviously a terrifying thought for any streamer- the idea that your source of livelihood might disappear is enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine.

However, Clancy reassured that this situation was entirely unique- as a result of South Korea increasing taxes against foreign entities operating in the country.

“To all of our global communities, we want to make it clear that this is a unique situation. Operating costs in Korea are significantly higher than they are in other countries and we have been open about this challenge for some time”, he says.

Since its introduction during the pandemic, multiple companies have been dealing with South Korea’s SPNP tax by raising subscription costs in the country, such as with Netflix.

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