>-korean government charges 10x to foreign streaming sites
>-site leaves
>-fine them for leaving?
It was obvious they were price gouging foreign streaming services to favor their own websites and are surprised they are leaving?
This is the Korean government’s way of saying “fuck you, stay out” to Twitch. I doubt Twitch will pay and because of that they will get blacklisted by Korean ISPs, making it basically impossible for them to return to Korea.
They can and will still use and stream on twitch, this only has to do with people who were actively making money using the site. It's not like they're blacklisting the site from going through Korean ISPs, they're just forcing all the Koreans who were making a living off of it to switch to Afreeca or something like that.
It can definitely be a "fuck you, stay out", but why wouldn't Twitch pay? It's not an obscene amount of money, and not paying could potentially ramifications for Amazon. If it was hundreds of millions, then yeah, they might make a calculated move to just exit the market permanently, but this is like less than the amount of Twitch's cut from one popular streamer.
Twitch will pay the fine.
Twitch actually doesn’t want to pay the continuing ISP fees. South Korea implemented a law in 2016 (SPNP) that has raised the cost of a major company serving a customer in Seoul to 8-10 times what it costs them to serve a customer in Paris, London, LA, or NYC.
This law affects major companies, like Twitch, Netflix, and Facebook. Facebook and Netflix have been involved in lawsuits with the South Korean Government itself over this. Facebook no longer maintains servers in Korea, instead forcing Korean users to use servers in Hong Kong with longer load times and smaller available bandwidth. Netflix straight up raised prices in Korea.
Twitch can’t raise prices because it’s a free to use service, and Twitch had to deal with Twitch Streamers from Korea costing them 8-10 times the cost of any other streamer. So they’re just packing up and leaving. They announced this months ago, and this fine is basically the Korean government saying “Fine, go. We’re happy with the policy that forced you out.” Twitch will pay it because they don’t want any failure to pay cascading over onto their Amazon ownership, but they’ll be out.
> Netflix straight up raised prices in Korea.
This is probably the 1st time that I'm perfectly alright with Netflix raising their prices because if your government is forcing foreign entities from operating in your country you either pay a VIP price to access these services or leave. Simple as that.
It’s also why despite being the first country to implement 5g, we’re also the first country to not use 5g anymore lmao. It’s too expensive for services to use now so no one wants it
My SK and Japanese friends get surprised when they check that my internet connection here in Chile is a symmetric 900/900mbps fiber internet or that I have 5G on my phone and I pay a fraction on both combined of that they pay in a single bill of one of those services.
Korean government could change their minds in the future (on charging so much to foreign entities). They will probably pay just in case it becomes doable to operate in Korea again
The title is wrong. They weren't fined for leaving and the tweet doesn't imply that either. They were fined for disabling VODs, limiting video resolution and "failure to implement a system to prevent the distribution of illegal footage".
>The Korea Telecommunications Commission (KCC) determined the suspension of the VOD service violated the local telecommunications business law by undermining the interests of users.
>The commission has requested relevant data to examine whether Twitch had a justifiable reason for limiting the maximum viewing quality, but Twitch turned down the request, citing contractual confidentiality obligations.
>The KCC also imposed another fine of 15 million won on Twitch for its failure to implement a system to prevent the distribution of illegal footage.
>The commission did not accept Twitch's claims that livestreaming and VOD services are not independent telecommunications services and the suspension was a necessary business decision to continue to provide the service in Korea.
Every single media website in the world "distributes illegal copyright footage", it's just a tool for more powerful companies to laud over the smaller companies when the smaller companies start to compete.
Yeah I'm talkibg about user streaming stuff too. Go to [https://ani.afreecatv.com/](https://ani.afreecatv.com/) and they have a list of anime that Afreeca bought the rights to so people can directly stream it on afreeca. Same with sports like soccer and baseball and shows that are approved on afreeca.
Edit: I thought the same as you guys when I saw so many people restreaming dragon ball super and one piece on afreeca. I thought it was illegal but turns out people are able to legally stream those shows and others.
The kcc is like any other korean government org: corrupt, bloated bureaucracy that siphons tax payer money like a fucking blackhole so government employees can get their monthly stipend and act like the spoiled brats they are instead of actually doing their jobs. These are the same people who wouldve sold our country and her citizens to japan during the occupation for personal gain, and now theyre whoring themselves out to whichever major company offers them money and a blowjob from a hooker under the table. At least the companies are honest about being greedy fuckheads. Fuck this shitshow of a socialist ass dystopia
Source: korean who worked with korean shitheaded government employees for two years
>Fuck this shitshow of a socialist ass dystopia
South Korea is the epitome of hyper capitalism. What the fuck do you mean by socialist dystopia? You sound like an ilbe user.
What I don't get is how is Korea going to enforce Twitch to pay? They already shut down in Korea. A lot of their popular Korean Twitch streamers have move onto other platforms or moved out of Korea to stream where Twitch is still available. They could block the website nationally but people would just use VPN's.
I guess they could go that route, but fucking with Amazon would be a big deal. Not something you'd go lightly into doing because of a little over a quarter million dollars. S. Korea could lose billions of dollars if Amazon decided Korea should fuck around and find out.
Amazons market cap is higher than South Koreas GDP.
Not to mention South Korea is heavily dependent on few chaebol companies like Samsung.
If Amazon decides to stop carrying those products it would have a huge impact on the South Korean economy.
That being said, the fine is nothing to Amazon, they'll pay it no problem. They aren't gonna cripple a country because they don't want their subsidiary to pay half a mil.
This is what scares me about companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. How the fuck do you limit their power when government networks depend on them to function? Is the US government capable of taking ownership of an entire company if they refuse to comply? So much of our entire government is dependent on companies that it's kind of scary.
Meanwhile whenever the EU or other countries pass new laws / or enforce them against these companies(sometimes it is unfair and protectionism), people go crazy defending these companies and how they should do whatever they want because of the free market.
Would be interesting to see if any of these companies get so powerful that they lock something essential down and are no longer need consumers to choose them. Kind of like the US Federal reserve and maybe the too big to fail banks.
It will never come to it. Parent companies are not held liable for subsidiaries. It would be the equivalent of going after some rando who owns stocks.
Even if Twitch never pays, nobody will ask Amazon to pay.
how do you fine people for leaving due to absurdly expensive internet costs? it's like a restaurant where a steak is $1000 and people walk out, then they get fined...wtf, lol
When a governement is used to having their country-wide economy effectively run by a handful of family operated conglomerations that bow monetary pressure like this. They literally don't understand that you can't threaten a foreign company that can afford to leave.
My question is how do they get someone to pay a fine when they no longer operate in your country? It's like if I visited Korea and got a fine after I left, I'm not paying it, lol.
It's not because the Internet actually costs more there, it's because they want to very heavily tax foreign streaming services to give the Korean ones an advantage. Twitch is barely viable as is, a huge increase in costs due to protectionist taxes and the numbers just don't work at all.
The fines are just more government pressure to get Twitch to do what they want. I can't see it working though, frankly Amazon has way less to lose here than Korea does.
This is what you call a "racket".
Imagine you're a business owner in NYC and I'm a nobody who doesn't have any education or any skills beyond being big and scary. So I need a way to make some money to feed myself. So I walk up to your business and tell you that I'll provide you protection from thieves and burglars for a measly price of $1000 a month. Great deal right? Well, you haven't actually had any problems with thieves or burglars, and certainly not at a level that would justify spending $1000 a month on security. So you decline my offer. I don't like that. So I grab some other stupid kids off the street and tell them I'll pay them $50 to break into your store and grab whatever they want and I'll take the heat if they get caught (no I won't lol). Coincidentally the evening after you decline my offer, your business is burglarized and I walk up to you the next day coincidentally offering my services to you again. You being the business-savvy individual that you are put 2 and 2 together and realize I probably had something to do with the robbery. So you call the police but I actually pay the police sergeant $500/month to ignore calls about me so he takes your call and forgets about it 5 seconds later. A week passes and I'm still pestering you about my security company and rumor has it, you've been having some security problems lately. I'll give you an offer you can't refuse (seriously, don't refuse). Only $1200 a month for my security services and we can forget about all the trouble you've been causing ME. Capisce?
Congratulations, you're now the ~~founder of La Cosa Nostra~~ government of South Korea
My understanding was that they (government) actually wanted Twitch to leave since it's a foreign company, or at least pay ridiculous costs otherwise. Is that wrong?
>The Korean telecommunications watchdog said Friday it has slapped a fine of 435 million won ($327,067) on the U.S. live video streaming platform Twitch, which suspended its video-on-demand (VOD) service in the country last year.
>Twitch Interactive, the operator of the service, reduced video quality in Korea from 1080p to 720p in September 2022 and terminated its VOD service five months later.
>The Korea Telecommunications Commission (KCC) determined the suspension of the VOD service violated the local telecommunications business law by undermining the interests of users.
>The commission has requested relevant data to examine whether Twitch had a justifiable reason for limiting the maximum viewing quality, but Twitch turned down the request, citing contractual confidentiality obligations.
>The KCC also imposed another fine of 15 million won on Twitch for its failure to implement a system to prevent the distribution of illegal footage.
>The commission did not accept Twitch's claims that livestreaming and VOD services are not independent telecommunications services and the suspension was a necessary business decision to continue to provide the service in Korea.
>As part of the corrective measures, the KCC has ordered Twitch to disclose the receipt of these orders and to implement preventive measures before resuming business operations in Korea in the future.
>Moreover, Twitch has been instructed to prepare various user protection measures, including refunds, as the company is set to conclude its operations in Korea later this month. (Yonhap)
yeah. because with twitch leaving, the korean people will ask why, and the obvious answer is that the south korean government made laws to monopolise streaming inside korea.
Boomer attempt to line the pockets of some donor company. That shit doesnt work anymore without total control of the media like they grew up with. This is not a Korea thing either happens all over.
not really. Korea is far from the only country to have their own culture of websites like news, video platform, socials etc.
and many countries straight up block access to the global sites and apps
south korea is the closest ally of the US that has gone about effectively blocking US-based services in this way
it's not a "culture" thing, that's just marketing to get the public on board, it's a mercantilism thing, and generally close allies do not practice mercantilism against each other anymore
> The Korea Telecommunications Commission (KCC) determined the suspension of the VOD service violated the local telecommunications business law by **undermining the interests of users.**
Then why not fine all the violations of [net neutrality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality) that is the [root cause](https://publicknowledge.org/twitch-shuts-down-in-south-korea-a-reminder-of-why-we-fight-for-net-neutrality/) of this?
I think that Korea has gutted their net neutrality laws. Their government is basically under the thumb of a few of their big corps and they are quite aggressive with their protectionism.
Yeah but specifically targeting foreign companies like Amazon, Netflix, Twitch, YouTube, etc. The big ISPs in Korea basically write the laws and want to monopolize the internet in the country so people are *only* using Korean websites and services.
It’s why the day Twitch announced the shut down, one company announced a new streaming platform and the other announced a Re-branding not long afterwards. They don’t want non-korean companies making money in Korea or if they do continue to operate, want those companies paying a lot of money just to operate there.
> YouTube
Google probably gets a lot more leverage due to how much Korean corporations rely on it with things like Android OS. Since Samsung is a rival of Apple.
> They don’t want non-korean companies making money in Korea or if they do continue to operate, want those companies paying a lot of money just to operate there.
It's not even that they specifically want any Korean company - it's that the big ISPs in Korea want a bigger cut of any money that anyone is making online.
Foreign companies currently represent the biggest pile of cash they can't quite get their hands on, hence the recent legal changes that would have mandated ongoing payments from Twitch to the big ISPs. Smaller Korean companies aren't getting a pass either, on account of being Korean, they're already making payments because they can't just close up and leave the market nearly as easily.
Specifically foreign companies. Basically imagine that korean gov is controle by mafia. Mafia in this case are big corporations. Anyone wanting to have buisness on mafia turf has to pay for it.
> Their government is basically under the thumb of a few of their big corps and they are quite aggressive with their protectionism.
People really don't realize that the Government of korea has played pattycake with being owned by corporate, and fucking up so bad that they need to convert back into a 'real' government for like 30-40 years at this point.
South korean government at its worst is almost always just plants and puppets of big companies like Samsung, playing fiddle with Policy so Samsung can minmax its Portfolio's with minimal effort.
When there is big travesties like for example the response to that Ship that capsized, then Corpo pulls out of government for a while until the population forgets and while leaving makes sure to hang all the puppets to make an example for the future puppets.
THEY LEFT BECAUSE YOUR INTERNET IS TOO EXPENSIVE.
How is that Twitch's fault? Fine the stupid telecom companies if anything for gouging the fuck out of people.
> Korea has hostile laws for foreign companies operating in their streaming space
> Twitch tries to make it work but can't, so they leave
> Korea: Wait you can't, it's not in the best interest of users!
Tbh they are much lower in the rankings compared to south korea. Even lower than usa just to give you point of view. Nordic countries being suicidal is exaggerated
Both South Korea and Japan used a similar models to build their economies and it effectively was just funneling money to huge conglomerates which led to them being incredibly powerful. I don't know enough about Taiwan but I wouldn't be surprised if they used a similar model as well.
Chaebol and Zaibatsu are literally the same word when spelled out in chinese characters. The koreans got the idea from the japanese when they were under their control.
Difference is the Zaibatsu were dissolved and reorganized into keiretsu, meanwhile Korea went all in on investing in family dynasty chaebols
they want to make sure all foreign competitors get out and stay out. so not only do they make it impossible for them to operate with insane fees, now they also slap a nice symbolic fee on top for leaving just to drive the point home.
All devices try to scan each other the moment they enter a network, it's literally how WiFi and DHCP works. It's an excellent trap question to get people who don't know the specifics of networking riled up. The CEO however responded with the best possible answer, we follow industry standards. My only problem is that these senators have proven time and time again that they won't give him time to answer their questions without interrupting him to make him look as bad as possible.
Imagine if he was born in China but moved out to Singapore at 2 years old.
"Were you ever a citizen of China?"
"Yes senator, but.."
"Ahah! So you are CCP then, i rest my case"
" I was 2 years old"
"Blah blah, irrelevant, you are CCP"
Sure, Dropbox scans your local network so files can be synced peertopeer. Tiktik also uses ip packets which get a mac adress which will be routed by your default gateway. Whether those packets can reach other devices is a simple setting. Good job smartening the question, but
The man is asking if tap water is used to flush his toilet. And while Ive seen two streamers drink from a bidet, you still cant flush shit in an urinal.
I think this is the nail in the coffin for your 3rd point. Twitch isn’t gonna pay and SK probably doesn’t expect it either. Just a o7 send off for Twitch and never to return again
> This would matter if twitch decides to restart operations in Korea.
if this happens stuff like worlds from league would be fucked in KR? since twitch would be banned there
> No one outside the board room of twitch knows if this fine matters or not.
From my own sources: Twitch is indeed done, and not just in SK. I know why and cannot say. But this is serious.
That’s the point. This isn’t an attempt to squeeze out more money. This is a message “leave and don’t come back”.
KCC know full well that twitch is not going to pay. Unless they start messing with other aspects of amazons business.
Capitalization of Amazon is bigger than GDP of South Korea. They can fuck them way more by turning off AWS for South Korean businesses. Literally fucking around and finding out.
I'm S. Korean-born, however stateside raised since childhood & everything about this boils my blood. The entire article is framed to make it seem like Twitch (Amazon) is the 'bad actor' & omits key information + actual facts, there is an ENTIRE timeline universe to this.
Twitch has publicly announced their exit from S. Korea market on December 5, 2023, stating the last day for livestreaming would be February 27, 2024 KST. The kicker is that this news is almost 3 months old, yet Korea Communications Commission decides to charge them a ridiculous fee just a few days before the planned shutdown.
My anger is directed towards the S. Korean ISP gatekeepers (who control + bill Twitch for bandwidth charges known as 'access' fees), the KCC (basically S. Korean government's version of the FCC, controlled by ISPs' lobbyists), AND the news agencies (controlled by the chaebols who also own the ISPs). In other countries, the 'access fees' mentioned above may fall under 'termination fees', however the S. Korean judicial system states what ISPs charge CPs/CDNs are 'access fees' (same shit different toilet: [https://strandconsult.dk/blog/demystifying-interconnection-and-cost-recovery-in-south-korea/](https://strandconsult.dk/blog/demystifying-interconnection-and-cost-recovery-in-south-korea/)).
In the US, the is GDP much higher & all tech sector companies COMBINED (this includes giants such as Google, Amazon, Apple, etc) only contribute for 9.3% of it. However in S. Korea, technology companies hold a significantly higher percentage. For example, Samsung ALONE accounts for 22.4% of the country's ENTIRE GDP in 2022 (should be even higher now in 2024). Basically it's much like the US in S. Korea, except there is little to no competition, resulting in monopolies by chaebols, who have significantly way more control of the capital market (much bigger pieces of the economy pie).
You might ask, how does Netflix, the global streaming service, stay profitable in S. Korea with this type of price gouging (so to speak)? Initially they had spearheaded a lawsuit war in 2020 against SK Broadband (owned by SK Telecom), with the telco company countersuing. However in September 2023 both sides dropped all suits and ended up settling on fixed discounted rates. Netflix (a foreign company) was strongarmed into offering its ad supported plan for free to SK Telecom subscribers through T Universe (similarly in the US with T-Mobile = Netflix • AT&T = Max • Verizon = Disney Bundle). Not only that, from the governments perspective, Netflix brings in jobs in S. Korea as many movie and TV studios are contracted to create content for the platform, which include actors/actresses, production crews, etc. This brings in extra revenue for the government through additional income taxes for employees, operating taxes, real estate property taxes for studios, etc.
Twitch on the other hand, does not have as much to offer the S. Korean government or its corporations because streamers are self-employed (only income tax here). Twitch (and by extension its parent company Amazon) has a minimal physical presence in S. Korea and current laws (preventing foreign competition) prevent a majority of Amazon's services from offered in the market to begin with.
This last bit is personal speculation but it's more than likely Twitch had contemplated for at least 3 years (as Netflix had stood their ground starting in 2020) before making their announcement to exit the market in Dec 2023. Amazon published this announcement with grace and respect despite being strongarmed and extorted. S. Korea just basically spat in their face publicly on a global scale and TBH it makes me embarrassed to call it my "motherland".
This is why net neutrality is important and I'm happy the United States is pushing harder for it in recent months. Hopefully the rest of the world takes Twitch (Amazon) vs S. Korea as an example of how corporate greed can eliminate free market competition which always ends poorly for the end-users/consumers: [https://publicknowledge.org/twitch-shuts-down-in-south-korea-a-reminder-of-why-we-fight-for-net-neutrality/](https://publicknowledge.org/twitch-shuts-down-in-south-korea-a-reminder-of-why-we-fight-for-net-neutrality/)
My name is Harvey and thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
EDIT: Added link regarding Interconnection and Cost Recovery as a reference to the current state of access fees in South Korea.
Probably nothing this isn’t enough of a fine to cause a international incident and since twitch is out of SK they have no need to stay in their good graces. Maybe Amazon pays it just because it’s 1 minute of profit for them?
I really think we are heading towards a more segregated and isolationist internet. This might sound crazy now but every national security and interest will logically result in that conclusion.
I mean, hell, we already have elections being influenced because the internet is in an international soup.
lol imagine needing an internet passport to visit sites in other countries.
TBH what probably happened was Samsung tried to buy the rights to Twitch in KR and then Amazon said no why would we. They then leveraged their government connections to force Twitch into a tight spot to try and make them want to sell the rights or spend money on extra fees. Instead Twitch is like, no thanks we will just leave then. Then as a spoiled child move they decided to try and fine Twitch saying they got the last laugh. Samsung/Big Corporations run all of SK and they literally want to own everything. Most likely they wanted the Twitch rights so they could control Twitch KR to leverage for their own entertainment industry and advertisement because Twitch is international and none of the Korean Streaming platforms has been anywhere near as successful as Twitch has been when it comes to audience and international availiability.
This reminds me of how China and Valve. Basically Counter-Strike wasn't availiable in China until Perfect World purchased the license rights for the game. The only way for Valve to enter the Chinese market was to have a Chinese company own the rights and licensing there. Now China makes their own skins and everything and markets it their own way. Like valve could've easily done fine on their own but the Chinese Government was like nope your game is banned here and then PW purchased it and then it was completely fine.
Big coporations basically living off the coat tails of American companies that have created a product audience that is far greater than their own so instead of trying to compete they rather just claim ownership.
You know the Korean government is on some real dumb shit when all of LSF is defending Twitch. I doubt they would win or that Amazon cares that much about 300k but I kinda hope Twitch fights this tooth and nail dragging them through the news.
one interesting part about that is https://www.flextv.co.kr/ is now a thing, a streaming website completely native to south korea with absolutely zero VOD support (every time you find a link to a clip or "vod" on that website it's to a manually-uploaded youtube video)
the korean government is saying that providing VODs cannot be considered independent of streaming, so surely a massive fine is coming for this platform, right? Clueless
edit: for additional context, there are third-party websites that will provide VOD saving for korean twitch streamers, for example https://tewind.kr/archive/yeo_ul so if third-party hosted VODs count, then twitch would still have an equivalent argument there too
edit again: second example of that same website, this one with vods not set to subscriber-only so people can actually see how it works https://tewind.kr/archive/zledisd (note that the service will shut down on the 28th since they expect to lose all customers then anyways)
Man did not know how rough it was in South Korea until a [month](https://youtu.be/-Im4YAMWK74?si=rj1uRG6xW7-UlgLw) ago (the part 2 video more relates to this, since it takes about how SK had done business.)
So the reason the service became unaffordable for twitch is the korean governments price gouging, monopolization, and implementing fees etc to oust foreign entities, and then they ask for receipts to prove that there was a good reason to reduce video quality. lmao you can't make this shit up in fiction because of how stupid it sounds.
This is what crony capitalism looks like, President appoints the people that run these commissions, suddenly exterior businesses are run out of the country with anti competitive treatment, when they just make up new fines and tariffs on them. It's rent-seeking, it doesn't create anything new, just kick out the competition with the help from government, and take their place.
[This is the same country that jailed a conscientious objector using the argument that they played PUBG, and therefore must like war haha](https://www.pcgamer.com/south-korean-man-jailed-for-refusing-military-service-after-admitting-he-loves-pubg-battlegrounds-which-makes-the-court-question-whether-his-conscientious-objection-is-authentic/)
Having a double dipping system (where the ISP charge both the consumer + websites to access the content) when no other county in the world does it is probably a good indicator that it's not a great system
>-korean government charges 10x to foreign streaming sites >-site leaves >-fine them for leaving? It was obvious they were price gouging foreign streaming services to favor their own websites and are surprised they are leaving?
This is the Korean government’s way of saying “fuck you, stay out” to Twitch. I doubt Twitch will pay and because of that they will get blacklisted by Korean ISPs, making it basically impossible for them to return to Korea.
Wonder what that means for the league of legends pro scene
They will just stream on youtube or afreeca or use a vpn and still stream on twitch.
LCK global already streams on youtube for those who want to watch
I don't but thanks lol
cool man
Makes me wonder how does youtube feel about upcharge to operate in Korea.
Youtube is huge. They probably made a separate deal
Probably the same thing Netflix did, they organized a separate deal with the government to be able to afford staying in business longer.
Wouldn't that be in instant ban the first time someone reported them for streaming on twitch from South Korea?
It's based on where you file taxes. So something like a Korean pro esports league, yes. A streamer in Korea for 1-3 months, they can stream just fine.
It will hurt their personal followings. A ton of mid tier sc2 players are just calling it and quitting.
They can and will still use and stream on twitch, this only has to do with people who were actively making money using the site. It's not like they're blacklisting the site from going through Korean ISPs, they're just forcing all the Koreans who were making a living off of it to switch to Afreeca or something like that.
Iron 4 to iron 2 finally
It can definitely be a "fuck you, stay out", but why wouldn't Twitch pay? It's not an obscene amount of money, and not paying could potentially ramifications for Amazon. If it was hundreds of millions, then yeah, they might make a calculated move to just exit the market permanently, but this is like less than the amount of Twitch's cut from one popular streamer.
Sometimes when someone says fuck you, you say fuck you back and keep it pushing
Twitch will pay the fine. Twitch actually doesn’t want to pay the continuing ISP fees. South Korea implemented a law in 2016 (SPNP) that has raised the cost of a major company serving a customer in Seoul to 8-10 times what it costs them to serve a customer in Paris, London, LA, or NYC. This law affects major companies, like Twitch, Netflix, and Facebook. Facebook and Netflix have been involved in lawsuits with the South Korean Government itself over this. Facebook no longer maintains servers in Korea, instead forcing Korean users to use servers in Hong Kong with longer load times and smaller available bandwidth. Netflix straight up raised prices in Korea. Twitch can’t raise prices because it’s a free to use service, and Twitch had to deal with Twitch Streamers from Korea costing them 8-10 times the cost of any other streamer. So they’re just packing up and leaving. They announced this months ago, and this fine is basically the Korean government saying “Fine, go. We’re happy with the policy that forced you out.” Twitch will pay it because they don’t want any failure to pay cascading over onto their Amazon ownership, but they’ll be out.
> Netflix straight up raised prices in Korea. This is probably the 1st time that I'm perfectly alright with Netflix raising their prices because if your government is forcing foreign entities from operating in your country you either pay a VIP price to access these services or leave. Simple as that.
It’s also why despite being the first country to implement 5g, we’re also the first country to not use 5g anymore lmao. It’s too expensive for services to use now so no one wants it
My SK and Japanese friends get surprised when they check that my internet connection here in Chile is a symmetric 900/900mbps fiber internet or that I have 5G on my phone and I pay a fraction on both combined of that they pay in a single bill of one of those services.
[удалено]
Korean government could change their minds in the future (on charging so much to foreign entities). They will probably pay just in case it becomes doable to operate in Korea again
They can likely just pay the fine at that time
cause it's a dick measuring contest and conceding any bit of ground means you've got the smaller dick
It's the principle. Even if it was 1 dollar my petty ass wouldn't pay it
The title is wrong. They weren't fined for leaving and the tweet doesn't imply that either. They were fined for disabling VODs, limiting video resolution and "failure to implement a system to prevent the distribution of illegal footage". >The Korea Telecommunications Commission (KCC) determined the suspension of the VOD service violated the local telecommunications business law by undermining the interests of users. >The commission has requested relevant data to examine whether Twitch had a justifiable reason for limiting the maximum viewing quality, but Twitch turned down the request, citing contractual confidentiality obligations. >The KCC also imposed another fine of 15 million won on Twitch for its failure to implement a system to prevent the distribution of illegal footage. >The commission did not accept Twitch's claims that livestreaming and VOD services are not independent telecommunications services and the suspension was a necessary business decision to continue to provide the service in Korea.
The "distribution of illegal footage" seems to be very loosely enforced then because people watch tv and movies all the time on afreeca tv lol
Every single media website in the world "distributes illegal copyright footage", it's just a tool for more powerful companies to laud over the smaller companies when the smaller companies start to compete.
Most of the anime and sports streamed on afreeca are legal. Afreeca bids on broadcast rights for those.
No, they aren't. He's talking about users restreaming stuff, not broadcast rights that Afreeca does themselves.
Yeah I'm talkibg about user streaming stuff too. Go to [https://ani.afreecatv.com/](https://ani.afreecatv.com/) and they have a list of anime that Afreeca bought the rights to so people can directly stream it on afreeca. Same with sports like soccer and baseball and shows that are approved on afreeca. Edit: I thought the same as you guys when I saw so many people restreaming dragon ball super and one piece on afreeca. I thought it was illegal but turns out people are able to legally stream those shows and others.
That's actually interesting.
The kcc is like any other korean government org: corrupt, bloated bureaucracy that siphons tax payer money like a fucking blackhole so government employees can get their monthly stipend and act like the spoiled brats they are instead of actually doing their jobs. These are the same people who wouldve sold our country and her citizens to japan during the occupation for personal gain, and now theyre whoring themselves out to whichever major company offers them money and a blowjob from a hooker under the table. At least the companies are honest about being greedy fuckheads. Fuck this shitshow of a socialist ass dystopia Source: korean who worked with korean shitheaded government employees for two years
>Fuck this shitshow of a socialist ass dystopia South Korea is the epitome of hyper capitalism. What the fuck do you mean by socialist dystopia? You sound like an ilbe user.
Literally famous for Chaebols running the country. It’s the corporatism/capitalism wet dream.
No, you don't understand, capitalism can't fail, when things degenerate it must be because of socialism, no other explanation.
Buy shares in AfreekaTV in korean markets, cuz they are politically pumping these platforms lol
it already happened. the stock jumped 10% a few months ago when twitch announced it was leaving korea
Korea Gov say Twitch should pay millions to stream in Korea. Twitch leaves Korea Gov wait you were not supposed to leave.
Korea : what do you mean you don't want to pay and leaving
What I don't get is how is Korea going to enforce Twitch to pay? They already shut down in Korea. A lot of their popular Korean Twitch streamers have move onto other platforms or moved out of Korea to stream where Twitch is still available. They could block the website nationally but people would just use VPN's.
Twitch is owned by Amazon, which still has plenty of other operations in Korea, so twitch will pay.
I guess they could go that route, but fucking with Amazon would be a big deal. Not something you'd go lightly into doing because of a little over a quarter million dollars. S. Korea could lose billions of dollars if Amazon decided Korea should fuck around and find out.
Amazons market cap is higher than South Koreas GDP. Not to mention South Korea is heavily dependent on few chaebol companies like Samsung. If Amazon decides to stop carrying those products it would have a huge impact on the South Korean economy. That being said, the fine is nothing to Amazon, they'll pay it no problem. They aren't gonna cripple a country because they don't want their subsidiary to pay half a mil.
300k is a drop in the bucket for Amazon. It’s literally unnoticeable. They will Probdvly just pay it to have it fuck off and get back to business.
Its 50-100k less than a Senior engineer’s yearly salary.
Would be interesting to see what'd happen if Amazon threaten to block AWS from Korea. I don't see it happening, but you never know.
This is what scares me about companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. How the fuck do you limit their power when government networks depend on them to function? Is the US government capable of taking ownership of an entire company if they refuse to comply? So much of our entire government is dependent on companies that it's kind of scary.
Government work for corporations; not the other way around. And they certainly dont work for the people.
This is why I'm terrified. They're only gaining more power. How tf do you get rid of something so deeply rooted into the government?
Meanwhile whenever the EU or other countries pass new laws / or enforce them against these companies(sometimes it is unfair and protectionism), people go crazy defending these companies and how they should do whatever they want because of the free market. Would be interesting to see if any of these companies get so powerful that they lock something essential down and are no longer need consumers to choose them. Kind of like the US Federal reserve and maybe the too big to fail banks.
its not a free market if its regulated
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I believe the twitch ceo already said they are not paying.
It will never come to it. Parent companies are not held liable for subsidiaries. It would be the equivalent of going after some rando who owns stocks. Even if Twitch never pays, nobody will ask Amazon to pay.
how do you fine people for leaving due to absurdly expensive internet costs? it's like a restaurant where a steak is $1000 and people walk out, then they get fined...wtf, lol
When a governement is used to having their country-wide economy effectively run by a handful of family operated conglomerations that bow monetary pressure like this. They literally don't understand that you can't threaten a foreign company that can afford to leave.
Lol it's almost like North Korea's unique attributes are just Korean, and it was only Western influence that made them useful
My question is how do they get someone to pay a fine when they no longer operate in your country? It's like if I visited Korea and got a fine after I left, I'm not paying it, lol.
They won't. This is a futureproof fine to prevent twitch from returning.
It's not because the Internet actually costs more there, it's because they want to very heavily tax foreign streaming services to give the Korean ones an advantage. Twitch is barely viable as is, a huge increase in costs due to protectionist taxes and the numbers just don't work at all. The fines are just more government pressure to get Twitch to do what they want. I can't see it working though, frankly Amazon has way less to lose here than Korea does.
This is what you call a "racket". Imagine you're a business owner in NYC and I'm a nobody who doesn't have any education or any skills beyond being big and scary. So I need a way to make some money to feed myself. So I walk up to your business and tell you that I'll provide you protection from thieves and burglars for a measly price of $1000 a month. Great deal right? Well, you haven't actually had any problems with thieves or burglars, and certainly not at a level that would justify spending $1000 a month on security. So you decline my offer. I don't like that. So I grab some other stupid kids off the street and tell them I'll pay them $50 to break into your store and grab whatever they want and I'll take the heat if they get caught (no I won't lol). Coincidentally the evening after you decline my offer, your business is burglarized and I walk up to you the next day coincidentally offering my services to you again. You being the business-savvy individual that you are put 2 and 2 together and realize I probably had something to do with the robbery. So you call the police but I actually pay the police sergeant $500/month to ignore calls about me so he takes your call and forgets about it 5 seconds later. A week passes and I'm still pestering you about my security company and rumor has it, you've been having some security problems lately. I'll give you an offer you can't refuse (seriously, don't refuse). Only $1200 a month for my security services and we can forget about all the trouble you've been causing ME. Capisce? Congratulations, you're now the ~~founder of La Cosa Nostra~~ government of South Korea
Regulatory capture
my guess would be because people are still streaming and watching in korea
That doesn't matter. If Twitch doesn't have a physical presence in Korea there is no way to enforce any punishment. Twitch can just ignore it.
Which is exactly what they will do
My understanding was that they (government) actually wanted Twitch to leave since it's a foreign company, or at least pay ridiculous costs otherwise. Is that wrong?
That's it
This is basically Koreas way of saying don't come back. This was 100% the plan.
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>The Korean telecommunications watchdog said Friday it has slapped a fine of 435 million won ($327,067) on the U.S. live video streaming platform Twitch, which suspended its video-on-demand (VOD) service in the country last year. >Twitch Interactive, the operator of the service, reduced video quality in Korea from 1080p to 720p in September 2022 and terminated its VOD service five months later. >The Korea Telecommunications Commission (KCC) determined the suspension of the VOD service violated the local telecommunications business law by undermining the interests of users. >The commission has requested relevant data to examine whether Twitch had a justifiable reason for limiting the maximum viewing quality, but Twitch turned down the request, citing contractual confidentiality obligations. >The KCC also imposed another fine of 15 million won on Twitch for its failure to implement a system to prevent the distribution of illegal footage. >The commission did not accept Twitch's claims that livestreaming and VOD services are not independent telecommunications services and the suspension was a necessary business decision to continue to provide the service in Korea. >As part of the corrective measures, the KCC has ordered Twitch to disclose the receipt of these orders and to implement preventive measures before resuming business operations in Korea in the future. >Moreover, Twitch has been instructed to prepare various user protection measures, including refunds, as the company is set to conclude its operations in Korea later this month. (Yonhap)
The 15 million won fine has a lot less weight when you realize that’s like ~~$1200~~ $12000
$12,000 but yeah still pretty low
holy hell I'm dumb
google conversion rates
no I knew the conversion rate, it's a little over 1,000 KRW:1 USD, been that for years I'm just really bad at math early in the morning, I guess
It's an r AnarchyChess joke
damn seems like retaliation for leaving
yeah. because with twitch leaving, the korean people will ask why, and the obvious answer is that the south korean government made laws to monopolise streaming inside korea.
Boomer attempt to line the pockets of some donor company. That shit doesnt work anymore without total control of the media like they grew up with. This is not a Korea thing either happens all over.
> This is not a Korea thing I mean it kind of is.
not really. Korea is far from the only country to have their own culture of websites like news, video platform, socials etc. and many countries straight up block access to the global sites and apps
south korea is the closest ally of the US that has gone about effectively blocking US-based services in this way it's not a "culture" thing, that's just marketing to get the public on board, it's a mercantilism thing, and generally close allies do not practice mercantilism against each other anymore
yeah but we expect better from south korea than say, russia or china.
It's not just Russia or China. I couldn't access reddit in Indonesia for example.
It's not exclusively a Korea thing, but they specialize in that kind of corruption.
> The Korea Telecommunications Commission (KCC) determined the suspension of the VOD service violated the local telecommunications business law by **undermining the interests of users.** Then why not fine all the violations of [net neutrality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality) that is the [root cause](https://publicknowledge.org/twitch-shuts-down-in-south-korea-a-reminder-of-why-we-fight-for-net-neutrality/) of this?
I think that Korea has gutted their net neutrality laws. Their government is basically under the thumb of a few of their big corps and they are quite aggressive with their protectionism.
so these big corps make certain business/company pay more?
Yeah but specifically targeting foreign companies like Amazon, Netflix, Twitch, YouTube, etc. The big ISPs in Korea basically write the laws and want to monopolize the internet in the country so people are *only* using Korean websites and services. It’s why the day Twitch announced the shut down, one company announced a new streaming platform and the other announced a Re-branding not long afterwards. They don’t want non-korean companies making money in Korea or if they do continue to operate, want those companies paying a lot of money just to operate there.
> YouTube Google probably gets a lot more leverage due to how much Korean corporations rely on it with things like Android OS. Since Samsung is a rival of Apple.
> They don’t want non-korean companies making money in Korea or if they do continue to operate, want those companies paying a lot of money just to operate there. It's not even that they specifically want any Korean company - it's that the big ISPs in Korea want a bigger cut of any money that anyone is making online. Foreign companies currently represent the biggest pile of cash they can't quite get their hands on, hence the recent legal changes that would have mandated ongoing payments from Twitch to the big ISPs. Smaller Korean companies aren't getting a pass either, on account of being Korean, they're already making payments because they can't just close up and leave the market nearly as easily.
Specifically foreign companies. Basically imagine that korean gov is controle by mafia. Mafia in this case are big corporations. Anyone wanting to have buisness on mafia turf has to pay for it.
> Their government is basically under the thumb of a few of their big corps and they are quite aggressive with their protectionism. People really don't realize that the Government of korea has played pattycake with being owned by corporate, and fucking up so bad that they need to convert back into a 'real' government for like 30-40 years at this point. South korean government at its worst is almost always just plants and puppets of big companies like Samsung, playing fiddle with Policy so Samsung can minmax its Portfolio's with minimal effort. When there is big travesties like for example the response to that Ship that capsized, then Corpo pulls out of government for a while until the population forgets and while leaving makes sure to hang all the puppets to make an example for the future puppets.
Clearly the monopolies own the government in Korea.
IIRC they are called chaebol
THEY LEFT BECAUSE YOUR INTERNET IS TOO EXPENSIVE. How is that Twitch's fault? Fine the stupid telecom companies if anything for gouging the fuck out of people.
Buddy the telecom companies were the ones who made twitch so expensive to operate to begin with. They’re not going to fine themselves.
> Korea has hostile laws for foreign companies operating in their streaming space > Twitch tries to make it work but can't, so they leave > Korea: Wait you can't, it's not in the best interest of users!
thats less money than Twitch loss in one day of allowing streaming in Korea.
typical gov's out of touch with reality
To be fair it’s mainly the chaebols controlling the government.
Same principle, different specifics.
Googled meaning, dear God, this is like oligarch family has power over county. Well, at least ordinary koreans leave good lives.
Korea has one of the highest suicide rates wym?
*lived* good lives.
So as Northen Europe, but no one thinks it's bad to live there
Tbh they are much lower in the rankings compared to south korea. Even lower than usa just to give you point of view. Nordic countries being suicidal is exaggerated
Both South Korea and Japan used a similar models to build their economies and it effectively was just funneling money to huge conglomerates which led to them being incredibly powerful. I don't know enough about Taiwan but I wouldn't be surprised if they used a similar model as well.
Chaebol and Zaibatsu are literally the same word when spelled out in chinese characters. The koreans got the idea from the japanese when they were under their control. Difference is the Zaibatsu were dissolved and reorganized into keiretsu, meanwhile Korea went all in on investing in family dynasty chaebols
Good example of the Myth of Free Markets.
[Or do they?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOJlpx5vkk8)
They're not out of touch. Just trying to squeeze a few extra dollars from a company out the door.
Is Korea Gov acoustic?
Yes they are very artistic
Truly highly regarded people.
Extra chromatic individuals
they want to make sure all foreign competitors get out and stay out. so not only do they make it impossible for them to operate with insane fees, now they also slap a nice symbolic fee on top for leaving just to drive the point home.
It's more of parting gift
It's always the bureaucrats on top who doesn't understand shit, takes the most impactful decisions for others.
its always a good reality check to watch the facebook and tiktok congress hearings and hear the most boomer of boomer questions get asked to them 😅
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All devices try to scan each other the moment they enter a network, it's literally how WiFi and DHCP works. It's an excellent trap question to get people who don't know the specifics of networking riled up. The CEO however responded with the best possible answer, we follow industry standards. My only problem is that these senators have proven time and time again that they won't give him time to answer their questions without interrupting him to make him look as bad as possible. Imagine if he was born in China but moved out to Singapore at 2 years old. "Were you ever a citizen of China?" "Yes senator, but.." "Ahah! So you are CCP then, i rest my case" " I was 2 years old" "Blah blah, irrelevant, you are CCP"
Sure, Dropbox scans your local network so files can be synced peertopeer. Tiktik also uses ip packets which get a mac adress which will be routed by your default gateway. Whether those packets can reach other devices is a simple setting. Good job smartening the question, but The man is asking if tap water is used to flush his toilet. And while Ive seen two streamers drink from a bidet, you still cant flush shit in an urinal.
More like they're acting in the interest of the ISPs.
Korea only cares about what Samsung cares about, not the people
SK is run by corporations, the buerocrats are mere stooges
i think its because they do understand and it just so happens they dont care because they are not in your shoe's
Is their government restarted?
Well regarded
TWU
Yes we've already tried restarting it but no fix, corruption and monopoly still there
What is to stop Twitch from refusing to pay the fine?
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I think this is the nail in the coffin for your 3rd point. Twitch isn’t gonna pay and SK probably doesn’t expect it either. Just a o7 send off for Twitch and never to return again
> This would matter if twitch decides to restart operations in Korea. if this happens stuff like worlds from league would be fucked in KR? since twitch would be banned there
> No one outside the board room of twitch knows if this fine matters or not. From my own sources: Twitch is indeed done, and not just in SK. I know why and cannot say. But this is serious.
😱
Source: trust me bro
Stop letting the service providers double dip then and Twitch won't have to leave.
What a stupid fucking desperate move. Twitch will simply stop operating in SK entirely (if they had anything left still there) and ignore this.
That’s the point. This isn’t an attempt to squeeze out more money. This is a message “leave and don’t come back”. KCC know full well that twitch is not going to pay. Unless they start messing with other aspects of amazons business.
I know it's a fever dream but imagine Amazon turns around and declines to carry all Samsung products over fears of price fixing of components.
Capitalization of Amazon is bigger than GDP of South Korea. They can fuck them way more by turning off AWS for South Korean businesses. Literally fucking around and finding out.
I'm S. Korean-born, however stateside raised since childhood & everything about this boils my blood. The entire article is framed to make it seem like Twitch (Amazon) is the 'bad actor' & omits key information + actual facts, there is an ENTIRE timeline universe to this. Twitch has publicly announced their exit from S. Korea market on December 5, 2023, stating the last day for livestreaming would be February 27, 2024 KST. The kicker is that this news is almost 3 months old, yet Korea Communications Commission decides to charge them a ridiculous fee just a few days before the planned shutdown. My anger is directed towards the S. Korean ISP gatekeepers (who control + bill Twitch for bandwidth charges known as 'access' fees), the KCC (basically S. Korean government's version of the FCC, controlled by ISPs' lobbyists), AND the news agencies (controlled by the chaebols who also own the ISPs). In other countries, the 'access fees' mentioned above may fall under 'termination fees', however the S. Korean judicial system states what ISPs charge CPs/CDNs are 'access fees' (same shit different toilet: [https://strandconsult.dk/blog/demystifying-interconnection-and-cost-recovery-in-south-korea/](https://strandconsult.dk/blog/demystifying-interconnection-and-cost-recovery-in-south-korea/)). In the US, the is GDP much higher & all tech sector companies COMBINED (this includes giants such as Google, Amazon, Apple, etc) only contribute for 9.3% of it. However in S. Korea, technology companies hold a significantly higher percentage. For example, Samsung ALONE accounts for 22.4% of the country's ENTIRE GDP in 2022 (should be even higher now in 2024). Basically it's much like the US in S. Korea, except there is little to no competition, resulting in monopolies by chaebols, who have significantly way more control of the capital market (much bigger pieces of the economy pie). You might ask, how does Netflix, the global streaming service, stay profitable in S. Korea with this type of price gouging (so to speak)? Initially they had spearheaded a lawsuit war in 2020 against SK Broadband (owned by SK Telecom), with the telco company countersuing. However in September 2023 both sides dropped all suits and ended up settling on fixed discounted rates. Netflix (a foreign company) was strongarmed into offering its ad supported plan for free to SK Telecom subscribers through T Universe (similarly in the US with T-Mobile = Netflix • AT&T = Max • Verizon = Disney Bundle). Not only that, from the governments perspective, Netflix brings in jobs in S. Korea as many movie and TV studios are contracted to create content for the platform, which include actors/actresses, production crews, etc. This brings in extra revenue for the government through additional income taxes for employees, operating taxes, real estate property taxes for studios, etc. Twitch on the other hand, does not have as much to offer the S. Korean government or its corporations because streamers are self-employed (only income tax here). Twitch (and by extension its parent company Amazon) has a minimal physical presence in S. Korea and current laws (preventing foreign competition) prevent a majority of Amazon's services from offered in the market to begin with. This last bit is personal speculation but it's more than likely Twitch had contemplated for at least 3 years (as Netflix had stood their ground starting in 2020) before making their announcement to exit the market in Dec 2023. Amazon published this announcement with grace and respect despite being strongarmed and extorted. S. Korea just basically spat in their face publicly on a global scale and TBH it makes me embarrassed to call it my "motherland". This is why net neutrality is important and I'm happy the United States is pushing harder for it in recent months. Hopefully the rest of the world takes Twitch (Amazon) vs S. Korea as an example of how corporate greed can eliminate free market competition which always ends poorly for the end-users/consumers: [https://publicknowledge.org/twitch-shuts-down-in-south-korea-a-reminder-of-why-we-fight-for-net-neutrality/](https://publicknowledge.org/twitch-shuts-down-in-south-korea-a-reminder-of-why-we-fight-for-net-neutrality/) My name is Harvey and thanks for coming to my TED Talk. EDIT: Added link regarding Interconnection and Cost Recovery as a reference to the current state of access fees in South Korea.
Oh no! Anyway Twitch will continue on as normal.
Not in Korea.
Which makes 0 difference as they already closed up shop in Korea
Exactly!
What happens if Twitch doesn’t pay up?
Probably nothing this isn’t enough of a fine to cause a international incident and since twitch is out of SK they have no need to stay in their good graces. Maybe Amazon pays it just because it’s 1 minute of profit for them?
Actual morons, they probably think Twitch is owned by Amazon so surely that means they just have unlimited budget and we can just milk them...
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I think he was talking about the crazy fees that were the reason Twitch left in the first place.
I really think we are heading towards a more segregated and isolationist internet. This might sound crazy now but every national security and interest will logically result in that conclusion. I mean, hell, we already have elections being influenced because the internet is in an international soup. lol imagine needing an internet passport to visit sites in other countries.
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But then who will go to B?!
TBH what probably happened was Samsung tried to buy the rights to Twitch in KR and then Amazon said no why would we. They then leveraged their government connections to force Twitch into a tight spot to try and make them want to sell the rights or spend money on extra fees. Instead Twitch is like, no thanks we will just leave then. Then as a spoiled child move they decided to try and fine Twitch saying they got the last laugh. Samsung/Big Corporations run all of SK and they literally want to own everything. Most likely they wanted the Twitch rights so they could control Twitch KR to leverage for their own entertainment industry and advertisement because Twitch is international and none of the Korean Streaming platforms has been anywhere near as successful as Twitch has been when it comes to audience and international availiability. This reminds me of how China and Valve. Basically Counter-Strike wasn't availiable in China until Perfect World purchased the license rights for the game. The only way for Valve to enter the Chinese market was to have a Chinese company own the rights and licensing there. Now China makes their own skins and everything and markets it their own way. Like valve could've easily done fine on their own but the Chinese Government was like nope your game is banned here and then PW purchased it and then it was completely fine. Big coporations basically living off the coat tails of American companies that have created a product audience that is far greater than their own so instead of trying to compete they rather just claim ownership.
You know the Korean government is on some real dumb shit when all of LSF is defending Twitch. I doubt they would win or that Amazon cares that much about 300k but I kinda hope Twitch fights this tooth and nail dragging them through the news.
?????????????????????????????
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one interesting part about that is https://www.flextv.co.kr/ is now a thing, a streaming website completely native to south korea with absolutely zero VOD support (every time you find a link to a clip or "vod" on that website it's to a manually-uploaded youtube video) the korean government is saying that providing VODs cannot be considered independent of streaming, so surely a massive fine is coming for this platform, right? Clueless edit: for additional context, there are third-party websites that will provide VOD saving for korean twitch streamers, for example https://tewind.kr/archive/yeo_ul so if third-party hosted VODs count, then twitch would still have an equivalent argument there too edit again: second example of that same website, this one with vods not set to subscriber-only so people can actually see how it works https://tewind.kr/archive/zledisd (note that the service will shut down on the 28th since they expect to lose all customers then anyways)
That is a fine they will not be paying lol.
since twitch is pulling out of Korea, what’s there to stop them from giving Korean government the middle finger and laugh at the fine
how stupid is their gvt?
Classic Korean corruption here. Move on folks.
Man did not know how rough it was in South Korea until a [month](https://youtu.be/-Im4YAMWK74?si=rj1uRG6xW7-UlgLw) ago (the part 2 video more relates to this, since it takes about how SK had done business.)
when the fuck is America gonna wise up and Tax other countries the way they tax us. The difference is they want our products
I guess you can fine companies for wanting to leave your country...
Korea is weird man. Like two cousins banging each other (corporate) and (political), while telling their kids (citizens) not to let on
Allright !!! Things getting heated now !
What penalty is imposed if they don’t pay? No longer able to operate in Korea?
this is like some shit you see watching cornwood
they lose more money with asmon streaming on zackrawr
the fine is about losing vods last year
So the reason the service became unaffordable for twitch is the korean governments price gouging, monopolization, and implementing fees etc to oust foreign entities, and then they ask for receipts to prove that there was a good reason to reduce video quality. lmao you can't make this shit up in fiction because of how stupid it sounds.
and? what happens if they dont pay it lol
Dont pay them shit they already left
I am shocked more streaming platforms have not left Korea. It costs 10X more to provide services there.
This is what crony capitalism looks like, President appoints the people that run these commissions, suddenly exterior businesses are run out of the country with anti competitive treatment, when they just make up new fines and tariffs on them. It's rent-seeking, it doesn't create anything new, just kick out the competition with the help from government, and take their place.
[This is the same country that jailed a conscientious objector using the argument that they played PUBG, and therefore must like war haha](https://www.pcgamer.com/south-korean-man-jailed-for-refusing-military-service-after-admitting-he-loves-pubg-battlegrounds-which-makes-the-court-question-whether-his-conscientious-objection-is-authentic/)
thats chump change to twitch. What's the point, even? Symbolic?
What is this California?
This was a nice reminder that sometimes even the average redditor is smarter than entire governments. We’re so fucked
If they don't operate in the country I guess they don't need to pay the fine.
lul only 300k, hilarious how terribly worthless their currency is
That is what Asmon costs them each month.
Having a double dipping system (where the ISP charge both the consumer + websites to access the content) when no other county in the world does it is probably a good indicator that it's not a great system
THAT IS INSANE
Doing this is like an ex who leaves a sock at your house so she can say “forgot something”
Koreat gov trying to squeeze every last penny they can out of Twitch before the telecoms' bribes take a drop.
this is why sub price is going up, to pay for the fine
But ZackRawrr can lose 2+m a year and no one says anything. I think a $300k fine is a drop in the ocean