‘Naver CHZZK’ needs to fill the vacant spot on Twitch

 

Fire at the feet, Naver

Naver, which either merges most services to eliminate original services or imitates ideas and succeeds through the power of its platform, has been especially successful in OTT, VOD, and live broadcasting. A market that is not viable even though it has very good infrastructure. But now that Twitch is leaving, there is an opportunity to capture many stars. Twitch can't even compete with YouTube when it comes to game streaming. If we fail to capture this market this time, Naver TV division may go out of business.

Twitch fandom is the biggest influence in star marketing.

Amazon's Twitch costs too much to do business in Korea.

Twitch was already expanding into the music industry.

Twitch withdrawal causes tectonic shift in the game streaming market with Twitch, a global streaming platform, announcing its withdrawal from the Korean market, a tectonic shift is expected to occur in the domestic streaming platform market. Naver's strategy is to take Twitch's vacancy with its new game streaming service 'CHZZK'. Existing players Afreeca TV and YouTube are also looking for opportunities. Hyper Connect, famous for its video chat service ‘Azar’, has begun promoting its ‘Hakuna Live’ service.

Game streaming market rapidly growing trend

Expected to be $11.7 billion this year → $17.4 billion in 2027

Naver, ‘CHZZK’ pilot service on December 19th

Twitch recently announced that it would close its business in the Korean market. It is scheduled to operate in Korea only until February 27th next year. Twitch led the domestic game streaming market, but has shown signs of shrinking its business since last year. The video quality was lowered in September of last year and the replay service was discontinued in November of the same year. Twitch cited the increase in Korean service operating costs, including network usage fees, as the reason.

The company receiving the most attention at the moment is Naver, Korea's largest Internet platform. This is because Naver, which has been expanding its gaming and e-sports related services, announced that it will participate directly in the game streaming market.

Naver will launch CHZZK's open beta service on the 19th. A closed beta test was conducted for employees on the 5th to 8th. CHZZK supports full HD (1080p) resolution and plans to provide a user environment (UI), community, and sponsorship functions suitable for game broadcasting. This also includes the VOD service, which Twitch abolished. Like the function sponsored by Naver Pay, it is expected to find contact with the existing Naver ecosystem. Naver plans to launch an official service next year by reflecting feedback from streamers and users.

Kim Ha-jeong, a researcher at Daol Investment & Securities, said in a report titled ‘Naver could swallow up Korean Twitch’, “If we recruit domestic Twitch streamers and successfully secure user traffic, CHZZK’s business value will reach 1 trillion won. “It goes beyond,” he analyzed.

He said, “As major streamers on Twitch are actively using Naver communities such as Naver Cafe, we highly evaluate the possibility of success in securing traffic.” He added, “CHZZK will be linked to Naver Pay and existing Naver membership, so he will utilize the Naver platform.” “It is expected to be attractive to existing users as well,” he added.

It is known that Naver has been pushing to enter the market behind the scenes, including introducing the service to famous game streamers active on Twitch since the second half of this year. With the announcement of Twitch's withdrawal and the announcement of plans to launch Naver services, many famous streamers have expressed positive opinions about Naver services. Twitch also plans to cooperate with Naver. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said on the 6th, “If Naver provides a streaming service, it will be another option for broadcasters,” and “We are willing to cooperate with Naver if necessary.”

Companies targeting Twitch's vacant positions

Afreeca TV, a native platform, is also looking for opportunities. Afreeca TV has been evaluated as having relatively weak game content compared to Twitch. At a recent analyst meeting, Afreeca TV explained, “We plan to prioritize the influx of creators and users through platform improvement.”

HyperConnect, a domestic company acquired by Match Group, which services the dating app Tinder, also began promoting the name of its social live streaming service ‘Hakuna Live’. We are recruiting creators by offering the ability for viewers or other hosts to directly participate in conversations via video through chatting as well as ‘guest mode’.

The game streaming market is growing rapidly. According to market research firm Statista, the size of the game streaming market is expected to grow from $11.69 billion (about 15 trillion won) this year to $17.39 billion (about 23 trillion won) in 2027. The number of users is expected to reach 1 billion this year.

However, this market is not easy even for Big Tech. YouTube, the world's largest video service, is also struggling behind Twitch in the game streaming market. Many streamers simultaneously broadcast broadcasts on YouTube to expand their viewer base, but they use it as a supplementary tool rather than as a main platform. Microsoft also introduced an online game streaming service called ‘Mixer’ in 2016, but did not receive much response and closed down the business in 2020.

Twitch's beautiful and highly paid streamers have become refugees. Where are you going?

The biggest hurdle that a company called Naver must overcome. It must be tiring to manage the swearing and obscene comments. It's a company that pretends to be good and takes care of good image management.