Youtube announced Monday the official release its mobile live-streaming service. This announcement comes years after several tech companies presented the same service in their networks, as many experts wondered why Youtube took so long.
The hype regarding mobile live-streaming features in distinct applications has been around since 2015. Meerkat was the big sensation of South by Southwest and Twitter bought Periscope, which allows users to stream from Twitter itself. Back in the day, these features were innovative. However, in present times, live-streaming apps are everywhere to report any relevant news or just to show entertaining events.
Mobile live-streaming is only available for some users
According to an official statement from the Google-owned video platform, the YouTube creators that have more than 10,000 subscribers are the only ones able to stream live video footage. This represents a minimum percentage of the total YouTube users, as the company stated that they would introduce the feature to all people shortly.
Experts are worried that this posture of letting just a short number of YouTube users use the service might be too short, considering how late this release is coming. However, the company’s decision of trying the feature among smaller groups of users is common in large platforms like YouTube.
If any person scrolls down Periscope, they can find a large variety of videos that are filmed from basically any smartphone in the world. Some of the videos could be fun, entertaining or weird, but some of them could also force a person to shut down the app for bad reasons.
The ad business issue is a reason to understand the limited feature. The thing is that those YouTubers with +10,000 subscribers are more likely to stream for advertising share revenues, and this makes the feature more profitable in the very beginning. YouTube has already allowed several users to try live-streaming since summer, as they announced that they would release the feature entirely later this year.
One of the YouTubers that had the opportunity to try the feature was Clint Comer, also known as Clintus McGintus. This American dad living in Phoenix has amassed millions of views while reporting the routinary life of he and his family. He also shares gaming videos in his channel Clingus.tv.
“A lot more YouTubers are going to start doing more live streams now that it’s more available to them,” Clint Comer said. “If they can pull the phone out of their pocket and start going live, there is more potential for revenue. When this becomes your business, it drives a lot of the decisions you make.”
The rest of users will have to wait for more news from YouTube to be able to live-stream from the platform. Meanwhile, Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and Periscope are available, and since long time ago.
Source: Fast Company