Here Was The Big Pivot That Turned Twitch Into A $970 Million Company

Amazon announced Monday that it was purchasing Twitch, the video game live-streaming site, for $970 million.

But before Twitch was its own nearly $1 billion business, it was part of another streaming site, called Justin.tv.

Justin.tv, which was founded in 2007, allowed people to broadcast live video streams online. It later opened up to allow people to register and broadcast their own videos, for free.

Twitch, though, was a runaway hit, amassing more 8 million unique users after its first month. The numbers kept growing. In fact, just this past April, Twitch accounted for more than 40% of live-streaming traffic by volume in the U.S.

Twitch became so big, that Justin.tv changed its name to Twitch Interactive in February. And earlier this month, Justin.tv announced that it was shutting its doors.

"Justin.tv was officially renamed Twitch Interactive Inc. in February of 2014 and Twitch is now the focus of the company's resources," it reads on its site.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.