Facebook watch out – YouTube mobile live streaming is here!
YouTube Mobile Live Streaming now available – but there’s a catch…
Most of us believe online live streaming only came about recently. If you think this, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Did you know: In 1993, the garage band Severe Tire-Damage became the first brand to broadcast live over the internet!
In the recent years, mobile live streaming has completely changed the way consumers interact with brands. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Live (Periscope) are all great examples of how large corporations capitalised on new technologies to enhance the consumption of content.
With that being said, YouTube are now allowing YouTubers stream from their mobile!
The announcement came last year at VidCon, but up until now, only a select few creators could use the feature. However, now that gateway has been opened to everyone! Well…almost everyone…
There’s always a catch…
You see, YouTube DID publicly release their mobile live streaming to the public, but only to channels with 10,000 or more subscribers.
So, there is still a relatively high barrier to entry, should you have any plans to live stream any time soon. There are plans to release this feature to every YouTuber in the future, but doesn’t seem like any time soon.
Just like Facebook and Instagram, it will be very easy to start a live stream. YouTube have said:
“You won’t need to open anything else, just hit the big red capture button right there in the corner, take or select a photo to use as a thumbnail, and you can broadcast live to your fans and chat in near real time…”
Super Chat – monetising Live Streaming for creators.
To encourage creators to push out this new live feature, YouTube found a way to monetise live streams.
Their idea to gain $$$ from the feature is to give fans the ability to purchase messages that are highlighted in a bright colour, standing out from all other messages! The message also gets pinned to the top of the chat for up to five hours.
YouTube have described this as:
“paying for that front-row seat in the digital age: it lets any fan watching a live stream stand out from the crowd and get a creator’s attention by purchasing chat messages”
Here’s exactly what Super Chat looks like:
Currently, Super Chat is only available on PCs and Android. Some say this has a lot to do with iOS’s 30% cut from all in-app purchases.
From the get go, this all seems like a win-win for all. Creators have access to yet another stream of income, YouTube keeps people on their site for longer, fans get to engage with their favourite creators in new ways; this was definitely well thought out.
Simply releasing a YouTube mobile live streaming feature for creators, in my opinion, would not have been as effective. This is due to (nearly) all major social media platforms already having done this. To jump ahead in the race, YouTube needs something like Super Chat, an experience unique to YouTube.
That’s what it’s about now, how unique each platform can make their experience. An important question, which was probably posed at the YouTube headquarters multiple times, must have been:
“If people can mobile live stream on multiple other platforms why would they choose YouTube”. Super Chat solves this issue and I’m very positive this is just the tip of the iceberg. With the video giant being the #1 video website on the internet, you can guarantee they have some sort of trick up their sleeve in the coming year and you can expect to see more YouTube updates in this space!
