Tencent moves into game streaming
Social and entertainment giant buys into Douyu
Tencent’s gaming division is growing steadily, and now it’s betting big on people watching games too.
The head of popular Chinese streaming website Douyu announced on social media that the company has received US$630 million from the company behind some of the biggest names in gaming. Along with its own Arena of Valor, Tencent either owns or has stakes in the companies behind Clash of Clans, League of Legends and Fortnite.
When you go to Douyu, you’ll find streams of popular games such as League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
So far, so Twitch. But the familiarity ends here. Once you hit play on a video, you’ll probably be surprised to see words flying across the screen.
While Twitch places the chatroom to one side, Douyu embraces chaos by splashing comments on top of gameplay. Users can also pay to highlight their comments in certain colors, which makes it even more overwhelming.
(If you’re wondering why people are posting strings of the number 6 -- in China, it’s used on the internet to show that something awesome has happened. And 23333 represents laughter.)
But it isn’t all games on Douyu. One of its top stars is Feng Timo, who broadcasts herself singing original songs and covers almost every day to more than 14 million followers.
Livestreaming is a big business in China, where the audience is huge: Nearly 400 million people regularly tune in to various forms of live broadcast on mobile devices, according to iResearch. That’s more than the population of the United States.
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