Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) bought Twitch.tv for $970 million about five years ago. And while the e-commerce titan's investments in video content and distribution have gained a lot of attention from investors, Twitch remains a bit under the radar.
But the ad-supported live-streaming platform could prove an extremely valuable asset as Amazon ramps up its digital video advertising business. While it's still considerably smaller than Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) YouTube by just about any measure, it's growing quickly. And considering the relative size of Amazon's advertising segment (outside of sponsored listings on its marketplace), Twitch could be as instrumental to its business as YouTube is to Google.
Some of the categories of content you can now find on Twitch. Image source: Twitch.tv.