AfreecaTV looks to expand global communication through esports

AfreecaTV will aim to expand communication with global users through esports content, the Korean video streaming service said Wednesday.

According to the company, AfreecaTV currently operates a total of six firms in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the US, Thailand and Hong Kong to provide various streaming content in different languages so that overseas users can watch it without any communication barriers.

The Korean video streaming service has held a number of esports competitions abroad, with games that are popular within each country. In order for the gaming matches to be more enjoyable for overseas viewers, AfreecaTV also has collaborated with famous foreign broadcasters for the esports events.

The company said the competition events of StarCraft 2 attracted the most popularity in North America and Japan, while a women-only competition of Tekken 7 named All Females Amateur Rift gained attention in Thailand.

According to AfreecaTV, a growing number of global viewers have been watching not only games held overseas, but also esports league taking place in Korea. For instance, AfreecaTV’s Global StarCraft II League offers multilingual services in English, Spanish, Japanese and Russian.

The number of foreign viewers watching livestreaming shows on AfreecaTV continued to show an increasing trend in recent years, with an average annual growth rate of 20 to 30 percent since 2019, a company official told The Korea Herald.

AfreecaTV added that it plans to expand their global ecosystem of video streaming services for viewers around the world by setting up an esports league for the Asia region and discovering foreign streamers who can produce different content on the Korean platform.

By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com)