Vortex Gaming

With Naver's new streaming platform 'Chzzk' slated for beta release on December 19th, Twitch officially announced its withdrawal from the Korean market on the 6th. Following the news of Twitch's withdrawal, AfreecaTV's stock price hit its upper limit.

According to Kim Ha-jung, a researcher at Daol Investment & Securities, AfreecaTV held an 'Analyst Day' for securities researchers on the 6th to announce its future strategy. AfreecaTV CEO Jung Chan-yong stated in his opening remarks and Q&A that, as before, "priority will be given to attracting creators and users through platform improvements, and aggressive creator recruitment policies will be relatively lower priority."

It was confirmed on the 6th through streamers' broadcasts that Naver had already been consistently holding meetings with streamers. Naver and AfreecaTV show differences in their aggressiveness in recruiting creators.

Researcher Kim analyzed the reason for the difference between AfreecaTV and Naver as "the difference in traffic leverage." He said, "Naver is a platform that can easily generate revenue by linking a large amount of traffic to businesses such as advertising/commerce/webtoons, but AfreecaTV is relatively lacking in this regard." He explained, "The fact that there are many users related to games or esports, but the ARPU related to the donation economy is low, has already been revealed through AfreecaTV's performance. AfreecaTV is wary of situations where creator recruitment leads to a bleeding competition."

He added, "The difference in platform scalability and capital strength has emerged as Naver's competitiveness."

AfreecaTV's competitiveness lies in its technology and know-how. AfreecaTV has streamlined network usage by more than 90% for the same number of viewers through P2P traffic distribution technology. Researcher Kim judged, "Twitch knew that it could reduce this through P2P technology, but failed to implement it due to a lack of technical know-how." AfreecaTV's business experience is the result of its technological competitive advantage. In addition, communication with creators and appropriate content planning, as well as business know-how targeting a special user group of internet broadcasting viewers, are also strengths of AfreecaTV that cannot be ignored.

As Naver's 'Chzzk' has not yet been released, most Twitch streamers are taking the position of checking its performance after its release and making a final decision. Researcher Kim said, "There was controversy over excessive regulations as the service guidelines for 'Chzzk' were leaked, making it difficult to even swear, but it was confirmed through meetings with streamers that the regulations are at a level that meets the needs of most Twitch streamers." He added, "It is necessary to check the platform's performance, but there are currently no major factors to worry about."

Researcher Kim said, "Naver has a clear advantage in the direction of streamers' transfer before the release, and the evaluation after the release of 'Chzzk' is key." He added, "The situation may change depending on the evaluation of the platform after its release, so we believe it is valid to respond to rapid fluctuations in the stock prices of related companies from a conservative perspective."

웹진 인벤이두현 기자
2023-12-07