(Newswire.net — April 25, 2016) — Facebook Live has only been around for nearly six months, but that hasn’t stopped the avalanche of expectation heading its way. Jon Steinberg, founder of a burgeoning finance-related video news service named Cheddar, has put his ultimate faith in the success of Facebook Live. “It’s going to replace live television,” Steinberg said to Mashable.com. “I think it’s the opportunity of a lifetime for new entrants.” And he’s not the only one on board. Cosmetics company Benefit, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and even Dunkin’ Donuts have all dabbled with Facebook Live streams for various promotions and tours, and are all slowly but surely raking up the views.
BuzzFeed also amazingly received around 800,000 live views for 44 minutes of two people attempting to explode a watermelon with rubber bands (spoiler alert: it explodes). The video now has over 10 million views since its release, but regardless of the content, it shows the full power of live streaming videos. “One of the benefits of using Live video is that it allows us to connect with our audience in real time, and creates a level of intimacy with our viewers,” says Jeremy Briggs, the head of BuzzFeed Video in New York. “[We thought the idea] would be great for a live video as it would give the audience a level of suspense and draw them in.”
Live streaming, it seems, is rapidly becoming the go-to medium for many kinds of events, not just exploding fruits. Concerts, sport, online gaming, and even stargazing are all getting their time in the sun, and can only see a huge rise in viewership with Facebook’s involvement. The takeaway? Live is the new black. In fact, it might not come as a surprise to see more top level domain names such as .live and .stream becoming available via hosting companies like this, as businesses may look to be a part of the live streaming buzz now that the technology is better than ever
However, along with the Twitter-backed Periscope, YouTube Connect is hot on Facebook’s tail to be king of the live stream. No official release date is forthcoming at time of writing, although the middle of May has been heavily rumored. It seemed hard to believe that a video-sharing giant like YouTube wouldn’t get involved with live streaming at some point, yet Connect will have to pull out all the stops to rival Facebook Live and Periscope. Statements that the streaming service doesn’t include a direct link to share on Facebook and Twitter seems somewhat justifiable given the nature of the competition, but could be a move that will hurt the viewership in the long run.
Still though, it would be hard to back against Facebook as a company aiming to take over essentially all forms of media, but the live streaming fight will become very interesting once YouTube enters the ring.