Twitch is almost the go-to platform for anyone who wants to stream video games. And while for creators it’s the platform with the largest audience, subscribing to your favourite streamer costs US$4.99 per month. At least for the lowest tier. It took awhile, but the Amazon subsidiary finally realised this can be expensive to fans outside of the US. Which leads to the introduction of localised pricing that’s coming in a couple of days.
The good news is that Malaysia is in the list of countries getting localised subscription pricing. The not-so-good news, if you’re subscribed to anyone, is that it will take awhile before we see our localised prices. Twitch says that it will start with Mexico and Turkey first, on 20 May. This will then be followed by “most countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe starting in Q3 2021”.
Twitch says that the lowered prices for affected countries will increase subscriber count, resulting in better long-term revenue. But for streamers that don’t see that reflected in the short term, the company will subsidise losses over 12 months. The first three months will see the company covering 100% of a channel’s average subscription revenue. This is then lowered by 25% every three months for the following nine months.
In the short term, this could hurt Twitch’s bottom line a little, especially for subscriptions from countries with smaller currencies. After all, the platform takes half of all subscription revenue. But the company is betting on more subscribers joining in to support their favourite creators, and by extension, the company as well.
(Source: Twitch)
