The latest reports announce that live streaming is to take over Facebook. This a really big move by the social media giant, and it will soon rival the efforts of other existing mobile apps for video broadcasting. What uses could this have? When will it be more widely available? Let’s find out.
Periscope is one of the most widely known live streaming apps available. It was launched just about five months ago, and after a rough and rowdy start, it seems like it will eventually fit pretty well in the social media world.
At the beginning of the service, news and media outlets made quite the fuss about how it will revolutionize the way we use our mobile devices. But, sadly, it failed to do so. In the few days after its launch, the period when apps are expected to rise into the top ten, it only managed to barely enter the top 30 apps in the Apple App Store.
Still, Periscope did better than its rival Meerkat, which on March 20th was only in the underground level of the list, sitting worried at the 140th place. To respond to these dramatic flops in live video streaming, the WHY Group, of Horizon Media, wanted to find out, err… “Why” this was the case. So in May, they released a study which said that 79% of American adults couldn’t care less for live streaming on their phones.
Even more shocking was the number of millennials that did, just 50%. It does seem though that new apps are relatively unknown, 11% of those interviewed said that they had heard of Meerkat, and 13% said they knew of Periscope.
About a week ago, however, Facebook decided to take this mega risk of entering the video streaming business. It launched Facebook Mentions Live, and gave it to celebrities for testing. Women’s tennis number one Serena Williams, along with Dwayne Johnson, Michael Bublé and others were all given access to the new app, and made videos ranging from Q&As to rants, or announcement videos – probably at the insisting voice of their managers.
After the extremely successful start, that shows that Facebook knows how to do its own social media work, the Mentions Now will be made available to all of the people who have verified pages. So be prepared to see much more live feeds in your news feeds.
Can Facebook break this trend of flopping in the live video business? Maybe it will be so. Still, Periscope has itself gathered some support, with ten million clients as of August 2nd, and 40 years’ worth of video material being watched every day.
Image source: ibtimes.com
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