Twitch, the streaming video platform owned by Amazon, has acquired Bebo. According to a TechCrunch report, a spokesperson from Twitch confirmed the acquisition, which includes employees and Intellectual Property. Twitch reportedly paid up to $25 million for the company. It also outbid two other competitors. This includes voice/text chat app Discord and social media platform Facebook, once a competitor to Bebo.
Creating Bebo
Bebo started as a social networking site in 2005 by Michael and Xochi Birch. It became the most popular platform in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Because of its growth and the newfound value in social media, Bebo was acquired by AOL for $850 million in 2008. At this time, Bebo had a greater audience than both MySpace and Facebook.
However, Bebo did not continue its success, and AOL wasn’t able to help out either. Two years later, it was sold to another company named Criterion Capital for $25 million. This new number was a full 34 times lower than its initial acquisition cost. Even this number was too high, however, because the original founders of the company later bought it back for a mere $1 million.
Acquisition by Twitch
Bebo later brought in a new team that tried a number of different ventures to revive its audience. In its most recent try, it changed the platform into an esports-oriented one. It started with a streaming service at first but then changed to tournaments for streamers.
Following this acquisition, the Bebo team has now been put to work in developing Twitch’s tournament program, Twitch Rivals. It doesn’t seem like Twitch will be applying any of the company’s other social media platform functions, though.
What do you think about Twitch’s acquisition of Bebo? Have you ever used the social media platform yourself? Are there any improvements that you think Twitch Rivals should implement to enhance the experience? Keep up with all of the latest Esports news and content here at Daily Esports.
