Facebook now has in excess of 500 million users. If it were a country it would be the third largest in the world.
But how best to keep such a huge userbase up-to-date on the site? With video of course, live streaming video in this case.
Live Streaming Video
video is now a big part of the overall online video sector. Sites such as Livestream, Ustream, and Justin.tv offer their users a way of broadcasting live to the Web, in essence allowing everyone to have their own Web TV channel.
Companies and websites are increasingly taking advantage of this medium to reach people, be they customer, users, or readers. TechCrunch TV is one such example, and now Facebook has joined the club with Facebook Live.
Facebook Live Launches
is now, well, live. But how exciting it is depends entirely on whether you’re interested in seeing behind the scenes at Facebook HQ. Because that’s all Facebook Live is about at this point in time.
Facebook Live in intended to be the portal whereby all official Facebook announcements, product launches, and press events will be broadcast. There will also be interviews with Facebook staff and live streaming coverage of Facebook’s f8 developers conference.
Facebook Live is powered by Livestream and features news feed, chat, and Ask A Question sections which add considerable interactivity to the whole thing. Even so, it’s not exactly thrilling at the moment.
Expect celebrities to pop up frequently on Facebook Live in order to promote whatever it is they’re contracted to promote. Starting the ball rolling was America Ferrera talking about her new film.
Conclusions
It’s good to see Facebook at least making an effort to converse with its users, and live streaming video is a great way of achieving that.
However, Facebook Live is very dull and is likely to be forgotten in a matter of weeks unless the celebrities keep passing by. Which they undoubtedly will.
