This screenshot shows a music video of virtual girl group ISEGYE IDOL's new song "Kidding." The girl group recently announced it will begin streaming on local video streaming platform AfreecaTV. Captured from YouTube

AfreecaTV is outperforming local internet giants Naver and Kakao in the local video streaming market as high-profile streamers have announced their move to the domestic platform after the U.S. company Twitch announced its withdrawal from the Korean market, according to industry experts, Sunday.

When Twitch announced its withdrawal from the Korean market last month, the industry view was that Naver, which recently launched the new video streaming platform CHZZK, and Kakao, which owns KakaoTalk, the most popular instant messaging app in Korea, could fill that hole.

However, experts said that AfreecaTV has brightened its outlook by successfully attracting popular streamers to its platform with streamer-friendly revenue distribution policies and relatively less strict regulations.

After Twitch announced on Dec. 6 that it would end its service in Korea in February, AfreecaTV's stock price soared to close at 99,600 won on Jan. 12, an increase of more than 54 percent from Dec. 5 when it closed at 64,200 won.

AfreecaTV recently announced its platform renovation plan, stating that it plans to change the service's name to SOOP in the third quarter of this year as part of its strategy to expand into the global market and attract more users.

Experts pointed out that the biggest reason for the increased influence of AfreecaTV is that it has attracted streamers who gained a lot of popularity on Twitch to its platform.

On Jan. 5, Woowakgood, a game streamer, announced that he would stream on AfreecaTV. He was one of the streamers with the most followers in Korea on Twitch. The virtual girl group ISEGYE IDOL, which works with him, will also be active on AfreecaTV.

The video streaming channel of Lee Sang-hyeok, a popular professional esports gamer better known by his game ID Faker, on local streaming platform AfreecaTV. Screenshot from AfreecaTV

Woowakgood is a streamer who has surpassed 1 million Twitch followers in Korea following Lee Sang-hyeok, a popular professional esports gamer better known by his game ID Faker. Currently, Woowakgood has 1.04 million Twitch followers and more than 1.64 million YouTube subscribers.

"The average number of viewers for these streamers is around 150,000. That's a figure that surpasses the 140,000 average viewers of AfreecaTV's top broadcasts," Choi Seung-ho, a researcher at Sangsangin Investment & Securities, said.

The front page of AfreecaTV. The local video broadcasting platform provides streaming services in various genres, including gaming, talk shows and sports broadcasts. Captured from AfreecaTV

The researcher analyzed that as of January, 68 percent of the top 30 streamers in Korea are now on AfreecaTV.

AfreecaTV's streamer-friendly commission policy is also cited as a strength. Streamers active on AfreecaTV take 40 percent of the amount donated by their viewers as a fee for AfreecaTV, but this fee decreases between 20 percent and 30 percent for partner streamers on the platform.

In the future, whether AfreecaTV can further expand its influence in the domestic streaming platform market, will be determined by its competition with Naver's new platform, CHZZK. CHZZK is also actively recruiting streamers who were active on Twitch.

"If CHZZK successfully attracts domestic Twitch streamers and secures user traffic, the business value of CHZZK will exceed 1 trillion won ($761 million)," said Kim Ha-jeong, a researcher at Daol Investment & Securities.

CHZZK's strengths include its 1080p high-definition video capabilities and seamless integration with many of Naver's services. It is also highly convenient, offering easy support for video streamers through Naver's online payment system Naver Pay.