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Online gaming
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Streaming down the Amazon
流入亞馬遜
Why Amazon is buying a video-game streaming site
亞馬遜為何要購入一個流媒體視頻游戲網站
ON OCTOBER 4th 2013, tens of thousands of gamers packed the Staples Centre inLos Angelesto watch SK Telecom T1 triumph over Royal Club in the annual finals of “League of Legends”, a team-based video game; 32m people watched the games live at some point, about 50% more than watch “Sunday Night Football”. But they did not watch on television. They used Twitch.tv, a website founded in 2011 that streams live video directly to users' computers.
2013年10月4日，成千上萬的游戲玩家擠在洛杉磯的斯臺普斯中心圍觀SK Telecom T1在團隊視頻游戲“英雄聯盟”年度總決賽上擊敗了Royal Club；觀看這場游戲競賽直播的觀眾人數多達3200萬人，這比觀看“周日橄欖球之夜”的觀眾人數多了約50%。但他們沒有用電視觀看直播，而是使用Twitch.tv，一家在2011年建立的直接面向用戶電腦的流媒體視頻直播網站。
On August 25th Amazon announced that it would buy Twitch for $970m, an indication of the growing importance of video-streaming websites. Amazon was not the only one interested: a few months ago Google had been rumoured to be on the verge of offering $1 billion for the firm as well.
在8月25日，亞馬遜宣布其將花費9.7億美元收購Twitch，這顯示了流媒體視頻網站日益增長的重要性。亞馬遜并不是唯一一家對Twitch感興趣的公司；數月前，有傳聞說谷歌也差點想以10億美元收購這家公司。
Video-streaming websites are not new. Twitch.tv was spun out of Justin.tv, a site set up in 2007 to allow Justin Kan, one of its founders, to broadcast his life to anyone who was interested. Soon, everyone could use it, letting them make television shows with nothing more expensive than a webcam and a computer.
流媒體視頻網站并不是新事物。Twitch.tv是從Justin.tv獨立出來的，而Justin.tv是在2007創立的，其創建者之一Justin Kan可以通過其傳播他的生活點滴，任何對此感興趣的人都可以訂閱。不久后，每個人都可以使用這個網站制作發布他們各自的視頻節目，且只用一個攝像頭和一臺電腦就能完成。
It is the combination of streaming and video games that has attracted Amazon's interest. Gaming became the most popular genre on Justin.tv, and Twitch was created to appeal to players. Viewers watch people play competitively, give advice on how to improve, or simply discuss anything that takes their fancy. The best streamers earn a comfortable living from advertising revenue and donations from fans.
流媒體和視頻游戲的結合，是這一點引起了亞馬遜的興趣。游戲成了Justin.tv網站上最受歡迎的版塊，創建Twitch就是為了吸引玩家。觀眾們觀看這些玩家激烈的競賽，獲得如何提升游戲技巧的建議，或者只是談論他們感興趣的事。頂尖的視頻網站玩家因有廣告收入和粉絲的捐贈而可獲得舒適的生活。
In July Twitch attracted 55m viewers, who collectively watched 15 billion minutes of video. That was enough to make it the biggest consumer of bandwidth inAmericaafter Netflix, Google and Apple. The typical Twitch viewer spends almost two hours a day on the site, far more than on sites like Netflix or YouTube. That delights advertisers, as does Twitch's audience: mostly young men with plenty of disposable income.
在7月，Twitch吸引了5500萬訪問者，而這些訪問者累計共觀看了150億分鐘的視頻。這足以使其成為美國繼網飛、谷歌、蘋果之后最大的帶寬消費者。典型的Twitch訂閱者每天會在此網站上花費近2小時，遠遠超過他們在Netflix或YouTube上花費的時間。這使得廣告商們很是高興，同樣高興的還有Twitch的訂閱者—他們大都是有著大量可支配收入的年輕人。
Amazon's boss, Jeff Bezos, presumably thinks Twitch's breakneck growth will continue. He is paying nearly four times what he forked out for the Washington Post in 2013. But he will need to tread carefully. Twitch's users like the site's free-and-easy feel.Some worry that absorption into the Amazonian mother ship may not be compatible with a laid-back atmosphere. But if Amazon starts making changes, there is little to stop streamers and viewers defecting to rival sites such as Hitbox.
亞馬遜的總裁Jeff Bezos大概認為Twitch的高速增長將會持續。他收購Twitch的花費是2013年收購華盛頓郵報花費的近4倍。但是他需要謹慎行事。Twitch的用戶喜愛的是該網站自由與輕松的感覺。有些人擔心， Twitch與亞馬遜母艦兼并的過程可能不會太輕松。但是如果亞馬遜開始對Twitch的做出改變，就沒有什么能阻止Twitch的視頻發布者和訂閱者轉向Hitbox等競爭對手網站。
