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Saturday, June 27, 2020, 15:26
Tencent 'rolling out' Twitch game-streaming rival in US
By Bloomberg
Saturday, June 27, 2020, 15:26 By Bloomberg

Visitors stream online computer games on the Twitch Interactive Inc. stand at Gamescom video games trade fair in Cologne, Germany, on Aug 13, 2014. (KRISZTIAN BOCSI / BLOOMBERG)

Tencent Holdings Ltd is rolling out a live-streaming service similar to Amazon.com Inc’s Twitch in the US, making a rare foray into American social media.

China’s largest company has been quietly testing a mobile-focused streaming network via an affiliate in the US since at least March. Initially called Madcat and now branded Trovo Live, the new service closely resembles Twitch in its appearance and functionality. 

Beyond Tencent’s own portfolio of popular games like Fortnite and PUBG Mobile, Trovo also spotlights marquee titles like Grand Theft Auto and Destiny 2

Beyond Tencent’s own portfolio of popular games like Fortnite and PUBG Mobile, Trovo also spotlights marquee titles like Grand Theft Auto and Destiny 2. This week, it detailed plans on its website to entice and reward creators with a US$30 million partnership program starting in July.

Tencent dominates gaming and social media in its domestic market and may be one of the few companies with the resources to challenge Twitch. But the WeChat operator has met with mixed results in its efforts to build online users abroad and Trovo for now is only an embryonic service.

READ MORE: Tencent buys Malaysia streaming platform Iflix in SE Asia push

Still in beta testing, Trovo has gone largely unnoticed outside the gaming community. Its best-attended live streams have only a few dozen viewers at a time, though its Discord chat channel numbers more than 5,000 members. It has attracted some experienced creators from Twitch, YouTube and Microsoft Corp.’s soon-to-be-defunct Mixer platform.

“Tencent being a backer for Mobile creators is definitely a big upside as they run most of the biggest competitive mobile games in the world,” said Bobby Plays, a gaming content creator with close to 450,000 subscribers on YouTube who recently joined the nascent service. He’s “had nothing but good experiences so far” with Trovo, though the platform operators haven’t directly communicated their Tencent affiliation to him, he added.

Trovo says in the terms of service on its website that it’s an affiliate of Tencent’s, without elaborating. The document lists a contact address that matches that of the Chinese giant’s American headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Tencent declined to comment.

The WeChat operator has met with mixed results in its efforts to build online users abroad and Trovo for now is only an embryonic service

Tencent has been actively expanding its online streaming assets in recent months, having spent $263 million in April to buy control of China’s Twitch equivalent Huya Inc. and this week acquiring content and technology from struggling Southeast Asian outfit iFlix Ltd.

ALSO READ: Jack Ma dethroned as China's richest by Tencent's Pony Ma

Like Twitch, Trovo sports a carousel showcase of live channels, sidebars for chat with other viewers and channel recommendations highlighting the most popular active creators. It also has paid subscriptions and rewards that let viewers support their favored streamers. Another Twitch similarity is the tiered partnership program designed to encourage gamers to join and evangelize the service.

The imminent arrival of Trovo comes at a moment of upheaval on the US game-streaming scene. Microsoft this week announced it’s closing down its Mixer platform, which had poached high-profile streamer Ninja away from Twitch last summer in an expensive but ultimately unfruitful move. Twitch itself has been rocked by a series of allegations about turning a blind eye to sexual harassment and abuse by some of its popular users. The Amazon-owned service has said it will investigate and suspend offending accounts.

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