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Tencent
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Tencent’s Twitch streaming rival is hiding in plain sight

  • Trovo Live, Tencent’s Twitch-like video game streaming service, will offer a US$30 million partnership programme to creators from July
  • Tencent, which runs the world’s biggest video games business and China’s largest social network, may be one of the few with the resources to challenge Twitch

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Tencent Holdings’ popular video games, such as Fortnite and PUBG Mobile, are featured in its mobile-focused streaming service Trovo Live, which is in beta testing in the United States. Photo: Bloomberg
Bloomberg

Tencent Holdings is rolling out a live-streaming service similar to Amazon.com’s Twitch in the United States, making a rare foray into American social media.

The Chinese internet giant has been quietly testing a mobile-focused streaming network via an affiliate in the US since at least March. Initially called Madcat and now branded Trovo Live, the new service closely resembles Twitch in its appearance and functionality.

Beyond Tencent’s own portfolio of popular video games like Fortnite and PUBG Mobile, Trovo also spotlights marquee titles like Grand Theft Auto and Destiny 2. This week, it detailed plans on its website to entice and reward creators with a US$30 million partnership programme starting in July.

Tencent dominates video gaming and social media at home and may be one of the few companies with the resources to challenge Twitch. But the WeChat operator has met with mixed results in its efforts to build online users abroad and Trovo for now is only an embryonic service.

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What makes Tencent such a tech goliath?

What makes Tencent such a tech goliath?
Still in beta testing, Trovo has gone largely unnoticed outside the gaming community. Its best-attended live streams have only a few dozen viewers at a time, though its Discord chat channel numbers more than 5,000 members. It has attracted some experienced creators from Twitch, YouTube and Microsoft Corp’s soon-to-be-defunct Mixer platform.
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