The hashtag #livestreaming is becoming more well-known on the Internet in recent times. The word “live streaming” also appeared in almost every article about social network trends in 2019 and 2020. These facts show that live streaming has held sway over the world. In this following article, Approud would like to reveal some secrets behind its rising popularity.

1. The history of live-streaming

Surprisingly, live streaming is not as new as it may seem. In fact, it has been around in one form or another since the 1990s. On September 4th, 1951, Harry Truman spoke at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco. It made the first live, coast-to-coast TV broadcast ever in history. Four months later, The Today Show became the first broadcast morning news program airing live in the U.S. Since then, people have started to be fascinated by streaming live videos.

The first company to “brand” live video streaming online is ‘Livestream’, consequently becoming a leader in the field. Sites like Livestream and Ustream have stayed around for years offering the original functions of live-streaming.

2. What is live-streaming?

Live streaming is one of the latest social media trends in many different industries. In general, it's more popular with the younger generation. Live streaming technology lets you watch, create and share videos in real-time, a bit like live TV. When people get used to interacting with any famous person or brand in real-time online without ever leaving their homes, one of the best ways to approach the most significant number of Internet users at the same time is live streaming.

The spread of the Covid 19 pandemic has impacted most of the world. Face-to-face conversations or meetings are no exception. Many different new solutions are created to adapt to adverse conditions. Many businesses carry out numerous digital and regular activities. Live-streaming is known as a new norm, because of the increasing use of live streaming features on social media platforms. Since that, it always keeps the rank at the top popularity trend and needs to be a part of your social media strategy.

Nowadays, more and more social platforms allow users to create live events and broadcast live videos. Simply, if you have an account on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, or Linkedin, and any device with an Internet connection, you can easily live broadcast on this account. After streaming, any viewer can watch this video and replay it on the Internet through different platforms.

3. The growth of live streaming in 2021

According to Dacast, some statistics about the development of live streaming:

• The video streaming market is predicted to be worth $124.6 billion by 2025. (Techjury, 2020).
• Live video grew by 93%, with an average viewing time of 26.4 minutes per session. (Streaming Media, 2019).
• The online live streaming industry has grown 99% between April 2019 and April 2020. (Tech Jury, 2020).
• The live streaming industry is expected to be valued at 184.27 billion USD by 2027. (Tech Jury, 2020).
• In 2020, Facebook Live became an important/essential part of marketing strategies where video content was already being used. This increase was about 32%.
• The live music event with the highest live viewership was 2019 Coachella at about 82.9 million live views. (Variety, 2020).
• Millennials are the largest group of consumers of live content. 63% of people ages 18-34 are watching live-streaming content regularly. (Neil Patel, 2018).

4. The wave of live-streaming into the social network

While live videos have been around for many years, the rise of social media now is taking it to the next level. You can now easily broadcast and stream live videos from any device, anywhere on the planet, with just basic technical skills. Everyone is already using social media as a hobby - which guarantees your audience and the discovery of your videos.

Live streaming video on social media was first brought into the limelight by Twitter’s Periscope in 2015. Since then, Twitter has featured many curated streams around the app. Now, it has also integrated the service into the native Twitter app so that users can go live anytime.

YouTube had initially launched the live streaming feature in 2011, but it began experimenting with mobile streaming-only recently, in 2017. Some years ago, YouTube enabled the live-stream option for smartphone users who have more than 10,000 subscribers. At a later stage, it plans to roll it out for all users. To monetize live streaming, in addition to the ads, YouTube also allows users to purchase access to premium comments that stay on top of the comment thread making it more likely for the creator to take notice.

Last but not least, one of the most popular competitors has entered the live streaming world - Facebook with Facebook Live. It sends out early notifications and allows people to invite friends and followers to watch and interact in real-time. Plus, it’s free! Facebook Live is the most impressive streaming platform via social networks that made a big impact. The launch of Facebook Live has been mainly responsible for the strong growth of the custom of live-streaming, especially among the youth.

5. Snowball effect

Live-streaming is becoming a global trend as 90% of the top media publishers of Facebook Live videos are non-U.S, and 70% do not publish in English. The hot trend is not cooling down within the last year. The number of streaming videos in June is six times as many as that in January. Young people (under age 35) are more likely to use online streaming than any other age group.

The snowball effect can explain this quick spreading. One person cannot make a successful live-streaming video if he has no viewers or interactions. Therefore, he must attract his community to be involved in the “stream”. And each member of his community would potentially be interested and do the same, which gains another group of people getting to know and doing live-streaming. In this way, the small snowball is getting bigger and bigger as it rolls continuously on its path.

Live streaming has taken one great leap by breaking out of the personal frame and stepping into the professional business. Companies started to realize the benefits and gradually implemented them into their publishing strategies. Half of all big media pages have published live videos, and the percentage of live videos posted on Facebook is increasing while the percentage of non-live videos stays even.

We have recently seen big brands use live videos in various ways, from Marc Jacobs using a live video to give a sneak peek of their 2016 fashion line. The Tonight Show provided live backstage footage before the show, and Madden video games live-streamed the behind-the-scenes coverage of players. Exciting info is that three recent historic live streams came from an unexpected source: NASA, including live streams of New Horizons passing Pluto, the supermoon (blood moon) and the announcement that Mars has the potential to become habitable.

6. What makes live-streaming videos quickly become so popular?

The perfect overlap of technology and the accessibility of social networking sites makes live streaming almost effortless nowadays. With any high-quality camera or mobile device, the Internet, and social platforms , you can quickly shoot, live stream, and watch lively videos anywhere at any time.

The advantage of modern technology is sure to help, but live-streaming must have had its benefits to make itself a hot topic in recent times, especially among youngsters.

Live streaming allows people to interact with the content in ways they couldn’t have if it were a pre-recorded video. It is easy to see the attraction live-streaming holds for everyone.

The first thing to mention is its ability to make viewers feel like they are ‘at the moment’. The live streaming video provides a taste of “behind the scenes” - something that feels unscripted, transparent, and more reliable. In the past, people only watched these events on videos after they had already happened. But it does feel more exciting and precious to take part in the precise moments as they are happening, doesn’t it?

As of 2019, 55% of enterprises are now using live video for their company or division-wide broadcasts. (Haivision, 2019). For businesses, engaging with your audience in real-time through videos is now becoming an unprecedented opportunity for their social media strategy. Live stream videos appeal to individuals to your brand in real-time, which is much more powerful than recorded content. It boosts your brand engagement in a much faster way with less time spent on the production process. Not to say it gives you many ways of promoting your business, such as behind-the-scenes videos, events live-broadcasting, tutorials, demonstrations, live Q&A sessions, breaking news, etc. Live streaming is a cost-effective and efficient solution, an important and necessary activity of business processes.

Pictures engage more than text alone in social media, videos engage more than pictures, and live videos engage more than standard videos. According to Forrester, 2017, live videos hold users’ attention and engagement 10-20x longer than pre-recorded, on-demand content. Even better, according to more research by Facebook, users watch live videos more than three times longer, in contrast to posted videos.

In marketing, two-thirds of marketers that target consumers use live streaming for marketing. (from Content Marketing Institute, 2020). Through live stream events or videos, each brand will have the opportunities to reach and connect with more and more audiences. From that, this live streaming helps consumers more closely approach products of any brand they are interested in. Thanks to livestream every relevant question has an answer clearly and quickly. So video marketers also use video content to reduce the necessity of support calls.

People doubt what is shared on social media is not as exact as it is in the real-life. It has been arranged. Live-streaming videos give a glimpse of reality because it doesn’t support editing or picking the best parts. It humanizes people and brands in the way that images and recorded videos can’t.

7. The opportunity and the challenge of live streaming

In fact, live streaming is going global. A promising new era of social networks with live, authentic content: Anyone can broadcast their show, get their viewers, and receive instantaneous feedback.

In every country, business, industry, live streaming is becoming a profitable and efficient solution to help individuals or organizations approach many potential customers to reach their goals quickly. Moreover, it’s predictable that live streaming is likely to be the new social network for the youth. It has already taken off and does not seem to be going down for the next few years.
Live streaming is a trendy way of creating and expanding a global community, fascinating the young generation. So the end-to-end process requires high creativity and interaction, and takes a lot of time and effort to succeed in. Some challenges live streamers face include: managing bandwidth in their facilities, creating exciting and high-quality content, and making a difference to attract customers.

If you consider conducting live stream activities, you need to do research specifically about the customer demand, the latest trends, the competitors of your industry or field. You can aslo find out how active and the policy of the most popular live stream platforms are now. Start streaming with Youtube, Facebook Live, or any platform. A comprehensive picture of the market and a little experience allows you to build a suitable strategic plan.

Conclusion

Live streaming is in its promising stage of creating the next revolution in social media. Approud’s advice is crucial to catch this trend early on and use it for your business marketing. Have you succeeded in turning this innovative trend into your achievement? If not, you would instead try it now!