Two days ago it became known that Amazon, not Google, acted as the buyer of the Twitch video game broadcast service. In connection with this purchase, we asked the leading mobile video advertising companies about what the deal might turn out to be for the market.
Our questions were answered by Mika Kuusisto, Business Development Director of Everyplay, and Corey Weiner, CEO of HyprMX.
What do you think about the deal itself?Mika
At the very least, it was a surprise.
A very powerful move by Amazon. The company is obviously expanding its presence in the video sphere and positioning its ecosystem as a competitor to Apple, Google and Microsoft.
CoryAmazon continues its aggressive expansion into the advertising market.
For them, buying is an important, strategic step. Thanks to her, Amazon acquires a huge audience and a decent video inventory. Moreover, the deal hinders Google’s dominance in the gaming video market. Amazon is becoming a significant competitor for advertising budgets.
Why do you think Twitch was bought by Amazon after all, and not by the Brin search corporation? Mika
It seems to me that the whole industry was waiting for Google to close the deal.
What happened proves once again that a deal is not a deal until it is completed. You can speculate, but it’s always better to just ask those who know.
CoryIt’s hard to say exactly what happened, but perhaps Amazon offered Twitch more favorable terms (it’s not about money, but about how the service could develop further within the buyer) than Google.
Twitch has become successful due to the high level of service provided to users, so it is quite natural that its founders were worried about what level of autonomy they would receive upon completion of the transaction. We have witnessed more than once that freedom was one of the important factors in choosing a future owner (WhatsApp and Instagram are good examples), and we would not be surprised if we knew that this time it played an important role.
How will the deal affect the mobile video advertising market?Mika
Obviously, a MAU of 50 million is a great opportunity to increase Amazon’s advertising revenue, but most of them are far from mobile users.
But, as I have already noted, this is an important step for Amazon, so we can expect a powerful push from them in the mobile direction.
CoryTwitch is primarily a desktop platform with a very limited number of mobile users.
Unlike other services that have seen a significant shift towards mobile devices, hardcore players are a completely different audience. They use PCs as their main gaming devices. This means that Amazon will be able to get a high CPA on the desktop. But the acquisition of Twitch is unlikely to have a strong impact on the mobile market in the near future, but it must be understood that Amazon is not yet finished with the purchases of advertising companies.