Variety explains the tool is meant to up the already four billion video views per day the site gets as well as drive up the time users spend on the site, which allow Facebook to earn more money from advertising.
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Luke Bryan and Jake Owen showed fans a new way to interact with their favorite stars Wednesday (Aug. 5), when they each took a turn on Facebook’s new live-streaming platform, Facebook Mentions Live.
Using this app, celebrities such as musicians, sportspersons, actors etc can interact live with their fans on video.
Shah Rukh even interacted with his fans on Thursday and took them via this app on the sets of his movie.
“We are excited to introduce a new way for you to connect and interact with your favourite public figures on Facebook through live video”, Facebook said in a statement. Facebook has said that over a thousand celebrities are active on Mentions.
Should users miss out on a live video, Facebook archives the same under the celebrities’ page and can be accessed by users at a later time unless the celebrity chooses to remove the video from her Mentions app. According to Facebook’s Live Products Manager Vadim Lavrusik, “Over 53% of Facebook video views constitute re-shares which happen much later than the post”. In addition, you can see when your friends or other VIPs drop by the broadcast.
This application is now available for top celebrities only, and this is Facebook’s way of making it possible for the fans to get closer to their idols.
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Users can also comment on the proceedings similar to Meerkat and Periscope, live streaming apps that are open to everyone. In the US, it has partnered with Dwayne Johnson. When a celebrity with the Mentions app starts a broadcast, a video with the Live tag goes out on the News Feed. That’s right, if you’re a regular Joe you’ll be able to watch the live streams, but not make any yourself.
