Amazon buys video game site

In a surprise move, Amazon has bought video-game streaming service Twitch for $970m (£585m), BBC News reports.

Earlier in the year, Google's YouTube had been reported to be in late-stage acquisition talks for a similar amount.

Founded in 2011, Twitch - formerly known as Twitch.tv - allows users to watch other people play video games.

As of July of this year, the service had over 55 million unique monthly viewers.

"Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month," said Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos in a statement.

"We look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community," he added.