Less than a week after launching its competitor for Periscope, ‘Live’, Facebook have announced they will be opening up the service to more than just celebrities.
This appears to be a bit of a u-turn on the social giants part. The company has now intimated Mentions (The app where ‘Live’ resides) will be rolled out to Verified Profiles ‘soon’.
‘Live’ allows a live video stream to be broadcast on Facebook. Users can watch in real-time and post comments on the broadcasters screen. The streams will be shown in News Feed to people who have liked the broadcasters Page. At the end of a broadcast live streams are saved as video and can be watched in the future. This differs from Periscope which can only be replayed for a day, and Meerkat which disappear immediately. The aim is to drive both real-time engagement but also add to Facebooks exclusive video content providing the company with further video ad opportunities.
Whilst Periscope have a head start on Live and already have 10 million registered users, Facebook’s dominance and ability to scale its platform, a new era of social media is looming and the race to be leader is underway.