
: 40Įspecially since the shutdown of its direct competitor in early 2013, Twitch has become the most popular e-sports streaming service by a large margin, leading some to conclude that the website has a "near monopoly on the market". : 40 In addition to the influx of venture funding, it was believed in 2013 that the company had become profitable.

Investors during three rounds of fund raising leading up to the end of 2013 included Draper Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners and Thrive Capital. Twitch has been supported by significant investments of venture capital, with US$15 million in 2012 (on top of US$7 million originally raised for ), and US$20 million in 2013. The company was headquartered in San Francisco's Financial District. Twitch had about 80 employees in June 2013, which increased to 100 by December 2013.

Since then, Twitch has attracted more than 35 million unique visitors a month. It launched officially in public beta on June 6, 2011. In June 2011, : 40 the company decided to spin off the gaming content as TwitchTV, inspired by the term twitch gameplay. The gaming category grew especially fast, and became the most popular content on the site. When was launched in 2007 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, the site was divided into several content categories. History Founding and initial growth (2007–2013)

At the same time, 's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the shift in focus – was shut down in August 2014. In October 2013, the website had 45 million unique viewers, and by February 2014, it was considered the fourth-largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. The popularity of Twitch eclipsed that of its general-interest counterpart. Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand. It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform. It is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of, Inc. Twitch is an American video live streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions, in addition to offering music broadcasts, creative content, and " in real life" streams.
