The company announced a new service called “Live” on Wednesday, a live streaming app for Facebook Mentions that is direct squarely at public figures. It’s a bit more interactive however, as it’ll alert you when your friends and other celebrities are watching.
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Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Serena Williams, Luke Bryan, Ricardo Kaká, Ashley Tisdale, Lester Holt, Martha Stewart, Michael Bublé are just some of the celebrities who plan to stream live video, Facebook said. Video sessions will also be archived on the celebrity’s page for viewing later.
Live is Facebook’s latest play in taking over the web video space, which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg considers to be the platform’s future. The product is an extension of Facebook Mentions – a tool for public figures to better manage and access their interactions with fans on Facebook. Additionally, celebrities will have more control over their videos on “Live” once the broadcast ends. Periscope and Meerkat were both launched earlier this year, and while Periscope stole much of the spotlight from Meerkat when it launched two months later, neither app has nailed down monetization.
It remains unclear whether the company wants live video streams from its billion plus Regular Joe’s clogging up the bandwidth.
You can argue that Facebook has created a self-fulfilling prophecy here, since it is showing people videos that play automatically, and says that if people watch those clips for at least three seconds, that counts as a view.
Get ready for some interactive TMZ-like videos on Facebook.
Tap on Post and then tap on the Live Video button. No word yet on when or if the new feature will ultimately become available to the general Facebook population.
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The business reason behind Facebook’s celebri-casting move is to drive up the time users spend on the service, thereby increasing the potential to serve up more ads. So here’s the answer: Facebook, following in the footsteps of Meerkat and Twitter’s Periscope, is today rolling out its own version of a livestreaming app.
