Ok, so this is rumor, but juicy rumor since it involves $1 billion, Google, YouTube and a little-known subscription site I told you about more than a year ago (Feb. 6, 2013, to be exact).Apparently, YouTube (owned by parent company Google) is looking to buy Twitch, a subscription site for live streaming of video game playing. That’s right, people are paying $8.99 a month to watch live streams of other people’s video game playing.Variety first reported the $1 billion deal, according to unnamed sources. And GigaOm added that the site is more popular than HBOGo in terms of traffic, and possibly because Twitch’s recent partnerships with Microsoft and Sony allow users to live stream their game play via their game consoles.If this deal goes through, it will be a big coup for YouTube, which has struggled to monetize its video streams through subscriptions. Twitch has about 45 million users (no word on the number of paying subscribers), and video gaming is a popular category on YouTube. Also, with Twitch’s access through gaming consoles, YouTube (and Google, by extension), would gain another foothold in households. I imagine YouTube will require a gmail address and/or Google+ account to login, and as we all know, there are two keys to digital monetization: email addresses and credit card numbers.Apple has been dominant in acquiring credit card numbers, but Google seems to be pursuing an aggressive strategy to catch up. For example, during the Christmas holiday, Google promoted a free download of the movie Elf in exchange for gmail users signing up for Google Wallet, which would require storing a credit card number. If Twitch players and Microsoft and Sony gaming consoles already come with credit card numbers, YouTube will have an easier time converting viewers to subscribers.