Rumor: YouTube is taking over gaming video community Twitch

According to the American Variety, Google is taking over Twitch, a service that allows gamers to stream gameplay images. Google is willing to pay more than a billion dollars in cash for the acquisition of the company, or more than 730 million euros.

The service is being acquired by YouTube, which was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, according to Variety. It is not known whether Google wants to keep Twitch as an independent platform, or whether it wants to make the service a part of YouTube.

Google will announce the acquisition within a short time, Variety expects. Sources of the American business newspaper The Wall Street Journal report that the takeover talks are still at an early stage. Variety further reports that Google expects the US antitrust authorities to critically consider the acquisition, as it could give Google a very large share of the online video market.

Twitch, which lets gamers stream gameplay footage from their console, has been around since 2011 and has grown significantly in that short time. A million people upload gameplay footage every month. Earlier this year, research found that Twitch accounts for 1.8 percent of US internet traffic at peak times; that’s more than what Facebook, Valve, and Amazon are responsible for.