Why Google Want to Deal with twitch

(CNN ) - If YouTube is really about to buy video games streaming web Twitch , there is at least one reason behind the move is as old as business itself : the elimination of competition .

Little known outside the world of video games , Twitch has soared in silence, claiming 43 #million users a month just three years after its launch. As it turns out , watching people play video games is a big thing on the Web. On YouTube, owned by Google , some players have accumulated fan base of more than 1 million people by posting videos of themselves playing .

So when an upstart like Twitch coming , analysts said , it makes sense for Google to act.

" For #Google , this is a defensive measure as much as it is anything else ," said James #McQuivey , an analyst at Forrester Research technology . " Google was found early on with YouTube that play -through video games were a big draw traffic . If you do not watch the videos, you do not even know exist on YouTube. But for people who see them , that's all what to do . "

On Sunday, both the Wall Street Journal and Variety reported that YouTube is in talks to buy Twitch for more than $ 1 billion. Neither company was commenting publicly on Monday . Microsoft and Amazon are among several other companies reported they were trying to buy the site .

More than a place to stream video , Twitch has also managed to become a social network of sorts, McQuivey said . Comments are integrated with web videos , allowing viewers to talk to each other , or even the players themselves , you see .

"We do not just want to see someone defeated the boss on level 5 , " he said. " It's about having the social experience and the camaraderie of other players. Twitch has nailed it and if you are Google , you realize that the people watching stale old videos ... that will dry. "

And on the Internet , traffic means money . Advertisers and live events by the level of excitement they create and the fact that they can reach a target audience at once, McQuivey said.

In February, Twitch made ​​headlines in a version of "Pokémon Red / Blue ," a 1990 game for the Nintendo Game Boy , broadcast video platform online for days , allowing more than 80,000 people to play simultaneously .

For Twitch , the appeal of a cast of eight digits (other than the eight digits) would possibly gain resources without rival Google to support and expand your site. In a way, the massive growth in Twitch quickly has been a blessing and a curse.

Twitch generates more traffic than HBO Go in the U.S. and has tripled the amount of bandwidth they use in the last year , according to Sandvine , a network company - team .

Add to Google to the mix, and the problem disappears .

" I think the whole concept began as a social experiment, McQuivey stated. It became a commercial business so quickly that they were not prepared and did not have the resources .... When Google wants to worry about the outcome of your business ... it ends up being a very good deal . "

Thus, it is not unlike the recent acquisition of Facebook Oculus VR , which gave the upstart manufacturer of virtual reality headsets Facebook access to vast resources and user base.

Whatever the outcome of this agreement , McQuivey says live stream is something that YouTube will have to find out . Increasingly, the entertainment industry is using the events live TV - from " The Sound of Music" to live the vote on "The Voice " - to attract viewers who have become increasingly damaged by an overabundance digital media at your disposal.

" The next thing you will have to go online transmits football game is your high school or try to conquer a new rail with his skateboard ," McQuivey said. " If you can get in a world where someone wants to show that they are better in the half-pipe that no one in the world , you could have a couple thousand people watching live to see if you can get the back flip. "