As we speak, the famous Twitch game streaming site is blocked in China, and its iOS app was deleted from the local App Store after it experienced a boost in popularity during August. Twitch confirmed the news to the folks from The Verge but did not offer details in this regard.
In August this year, Twitch positioned the third most popular app in China, among free apps, as the Chinese people downloaded the famous application to watch live the e-sports matches at the Asian Games. Also, according to The Verge, during the peak of the competition, 23 times more Chinese downloaded the Twitch app.
This ban against Amazon’s Twitch is in line with the recent policy followed by the Chinese Government to block Western apps that increase in popularity across China, as a measure of caution. Also, Facebook and Twitter remain banned indefinitely, while Google, which missed form the Chinese market for eight years, is now developing a censored search engine to regain this vast Asian market.
The Twitch game streaming site is now blocked in China
The Chinese decided to block Twitch after the app massively increased in popularity in August. However, the decision was not implemented consistently, and while the majority of China’s provinces doesn’t have access to the game streaming site, some region scattered in Northern and Southern China could still access the platform yesterday.
For the majority of the IT&C companies, the Chinese Government’s decision to ban the Twitch game streaming platform is just another proof of the Chinese censorship on the Western platforms and companies. However, for one firm, in particular, Steam, the situation is very upsetting as the renowned games platform has some significant plans for the Eastern markets, including China.
Valve planned to launch a Chinese version of Steam, but they went dark soon after the announcement was made. Most likely, the Chinese market is not the best option right now for Western companies to expand.
