Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Naver takes on YouTube, AfreecaTV in game streaming
A screenshot shows Naver Game, which shows various kinds of content related to games on portal site Naver. The company said Wednesday that it launched a closed beta service of its game streaming service CHZZK on Tuesday and will soon officially launch the streaming service in the first half of 2024. Captured from Naver
By Baek Byung-yeul
Internet giant draws closer to public launch of CHZZK platform
Naver has joined the game streaming race as the local internet giant began a closed beta service of its video streaming service CHZZK in a bid to capture the growing market, the company said Wednesday.
Twitch, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. tech behemoth Amazon, which occupies the largest market share here, abruptly announced the same day that it would end its service in Korea on Feb. 27, 2024, citing higher operating costs. This leaves Naver to compete against YouTube and local AfreecaTV to build its presence.
Naver is testing the game streaming service over four days by broadcasting a game tournament among its employees ending Dec. 8. The tournament consists of StarCraft and League of Legends matches, with 380 employees participating as players.
“We are conducting a closed beta test targeting our employees for our game streaming service from Tuesday. And we have plans to launch the open beta test on Dec. 19. The official launch of this service is planned for the first half of next year,” a Naver spokesman said.
When asked why it is launching the new service, Naver said it is part of the company’s strategy to bring more people to the platform.
"Streaming services are an aspect of strengthening community functions. We also view this streaming service as a community feature. To provide a quality streaming service, we have already secured various video-related technologies,” the official said.
Naver's game streaming service is expected to be provided in high-definition (HD) resolution known as 1080p. It will offer a user-friendly interface and community communication features suitable for game broadcasting, as well as a creator sponsor feature. It will also include a video on demand service (VOD), which Twitch does not provide due to network usage fee issues.
The potential success of this new service will depend on how many star streamers choose to broadcast on this platform. It is known that Nokduro, a streamer who currently holds the fourth-largest viewer share among domestic game streamers on Twitch, is considering streaming on the upcoming platform.
Fans gather in Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul, Nov. 19 to watch the League of Legends World Championship final between Korea’s T1 and China’s Weibo Gaming on screens installed there. Courtesy of Riot Games Esports
The industry view is that Naver is expected to gradually increase its market share as Twitch announced its departure from the Korean market next year.
Twitch, which is known to have an over 70 percent share in the global game streaming market, has lowered the maximum video quality in Korea from 1080p to 720p and discontinued its VOD service due to increased operating costs last year.
On Wednesday, Twitch announced that it will completely shut down its business next year, considering high operating costs and other factors.
“This morning, I shared with our community in Korea that we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down the Twitch business in Korea on February 27, 2024 KST. We understand that this is extremely disappointing news, and we want to explain why we made this decision and how we are planning to support those impacted,” Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said in a statement.
The game streaming market appears to be growing steadily. According to market research firm Statista, the size of the game streaming market is projected to increase from $11.69 billion this year to $17.39 billion in 2027. The number of users is expected to reach one billion this year.