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The ability to live stream content from your mobile should be offered as a standard feature on all social apps. Below are our top 5 reasons why:
1. Social tech giants have already proven live video’s success
The usual running order is that Facebook (or one of the other tech giants) will set the scene for new and emerging media trends and features… and then everyone else will follow suit.
Currently, all big players like Facebook, Instagram, Periscope and YouTube are all heavily pushing the mobile live video agenda. They are injecting huge amounts of money into both developing live video technology for their platforms, and also promoting the feature and encouraging use. They have even commissioned celebrities and media companies to use their live video features to produce and share content with their audiences.
The main aim of this is to generate an influx of live video inventory on the social platforms, in order to familiarize the general public with the features and promote its use.
2. It will enhance your overall product offering and drive growth
We have seen apps from all genres start to integrate live video features and expand their overall product offering. One example is the Chinese app Momo. Momo recently transitioned from being a location-based dating app to an all-around social entertainment app, with the addition of live video features.
TechCrunch has even attributed Momo’s previous 524% YoY revenue jump to their introduction of live streaming. Now that’s impressive!
3. Increase incremental engagement and platform traffic
Mobile live video allows for real-time engagement with followers. The feature can be used to capture the undivided attention of the audience, who can watch the videos and actively engaging with the content via comments, shares and likes.
App engagement can increase from push notifications to followers when users start a live stream.
With this feature, followers get the chance to ask questions throughout a live video broadcast and get an immediate response. Few other online media channels offer that kind of real-time opportunity.
4. It is an expected feature these days
People have become accustomed to having live video capabilities at their fingertips. With so many of the world’s top apps and platforms having already integrated mobile live video into their product offering, it has become a baseline feature which people are beginning to expect as standard.
At this stage, as we move further into the golden age of mobile live video, the lack of such ‘standard’ features could seriously impact the future success of any app. This generation of media consumers tend to want things, and want them now… otherwise, they will simply move on and find it elsewhere.
5. Mobile Live Video is the Future
Live streaming is an evolution in the way people connect, engage, make purchase decisions and ultimately buy.
Given the improvements in internet speeds over the years and the ubiquity of mobile devices, mobile live video has fast become a trend which doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
With increasing numbers of apps and platforms offering “live streaming” in some shape or form, and the popularity and uptake of the features amongst the public… the trajectory of mobile live video for the coming years is estimated to be on the steep incline.
According to Cisco’s mobile VNI forecast, the growth of mobile live video is said to see 108% compound annual growth rate between now and 2021. That’s to be expected with the big players like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter all placing extraordinary focus and heavy investment on mobile live video. Cisco is predicting that this will ultimately become the catalyst for further integration of mobile live video features.
Now, with the availability of advanced SDKs, APIs and other developer tools, the barriers to entry have been removed. This means that integrating mobile live video into apps and online platforms can be an easy and pain-free process for all.
Forget building your own video infrastructure
The Bambuser Broadcast SDK allows users of your own social app to go live from their device, and the Bambuser Player SDK plays back live (and on-demand) video streams associated with app users thanks to our powerful API.
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