According to VentureBeat the company is anxious about the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat – and how YouTube users direct fans to subscribe to them on other platforms. Unlike the mobile messaging feature, Backstage content would be available on both desktop and mobile.
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Updates in Backstage will allegedly appear in a timeline similar to that now offered by Facebook, and those using the service will be able to offer Backstage-only videos that will offer a way for YouTubers to share exclusive content with fans.
Popular video platform YouTube is reportedly seeking to greatly expand its social features with a new section called “Backstage”, where users can share photos, polls, links, text posts, and videos to anyone subscribed to their channel (via VentureBeat). The initial soft launch will only be for “select popular YouTube accounts” and include “limited features”, however. All the posts would appear in a twitter-timeline like reverse chronological order. Backstage posts will also be pushed to every subscription box, similar to any time a new video is posted, “making them highly visible to fans”.
Subscribers of the channels would also be able to comment in any format such as a text, a photo or a video. VentureBeat also notes that Backstage will eventually enable users to post regular YouTube videos and videos that are exclusively available to watch on Backstage. Which means even services like YouTube need to evolve and offer more than they now do. The video sharing site attempted to provide social feature by integrating Google+, but that never really caught on with most users.
YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing service, is looking beyond video to keep its homegrown stars – and their fans – from departing to competing platforms.
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By adding more social features, Google is likely hoping to incentivize content creators and their fan bases to remain on YouTube for all their needs.
