Live streaming refers to users video broadcasting events live. And today it is one of the most convenient ways to reach a large audience. The phenomenon of live streams is hardly new. Many of you will probably remember the Periscope app, Twitter’s subsidiary platform, launched in 2015. The application allowed for live broadcasts directly from a smartphone and for some time enjoyed great popularity among users. However, soon live streams appeared on Instagram and all the fans of live broadcasts migrated there. Periscope has shut down, but the livestream format has not gone anywhere. Indeed, it has become more and more popular every year.
How the video game industry stimulated the development of live streams
Most modern people associate the word “stream” with video games. Streamers gather a multi-million dollar audience demonstrating gameplay in popular games and commenting on what is happening. For many, this is their main source of income, and it’s a very good one.
Some of the most popular streaming gaming platforms include:
- Twitch — a streaming service that has been owned by Amazon since 2014 and is considered the largest in the modern Internet space.
- YouTube Live — another popular platform, but tailored not just for game broadcasts, but also for other live streams. For example, live on-the-spot reports.
- Facebook Gaming — the official streaming service of Mark Zuckerberg’s corporation. As the name implies, the platform is tailored primarily for broadcasting video games.
In the wake of the popularity of Twitch, more and more developers have begun to look towards live streams and launched their own services. Interestingly, platforms that are not related to games at all have often become successful.
The Clubhouse phenomenon and how it changed the live streaming format
In April 2020, a voice-based social network, Clubhouse, was launched on iOS. For almost a year, no one paid much attention to it, but at the beginning of 2021, it sharply attracted public interest. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jared Leto, Kanye West and other popular media personalities performed at the Clubhouse. A real buzz formed around the application, and third-party developers began to hastily implement similar functionality.
In just a couple of months, dozens of Clubhouse copies appeared, based on audio live streaming:
- Swell from young developers in San Francisco
- Spaces audio chat service from Twitter
- internal platform Stereo from the Badoo dating app
- Mi Talk from Xiaomi — essentially a dying service that the developers decided to give a new life to
Similar functionality has appeared on Facebook, Telegram and other popular Internet platforms. Even the music service Spotify decided to keep up with the trends and launched Greenroom — its own alternative, but with an emphasis on music.
What’s interesting about all this hype is that the Clubhouse was forgotten as quickly as it first took off. And even the release of the application on Android did not cause much excitement. Now we have a huge selection of sites with audio live streams that are not proving very interesting to users. But with video streams, the situation is different.
Popular dating sites and apps are moving to live streaming in droves
Back in the summer of 2020, the developers of the Tinder app announced the start of testing video stream and video chat functions. And now they’re available to users in the United States and most European countries. It turned out that this was only the beginning of the popularization of live streaming platforms.
Soon, representatives of the Match Group, which owns Tinder, announced that they planned to add live streams to their other platforms in the near future. Remember that today, in addition to Tinder, the Match Group includes over ten high profile sites:
- Plenty of Fish
- Pairs
- OkCupid
- Hinge
- Meetic
- Hawaya
- Hakuna and others
So far, we do not know which services will receive live stream functionality. But we’re certainly talking about the most popular platforms with audiences of thousands.
It should be added that for dating sites, live streaming is a new format that has yet to be mastered, so in operation there will likely be failures and bugs. This is normal, but it can severely spoil the experience. If you don’t agree to be a “beta tester” of new features, but want to get the most out of live communication, we advise you to take your time and choose platforms that have been operating for more than a year.
Random video chat sites — the simplest and most usable live streaming platforms
It will be a long time before new live streaming platforms gather enough audience to create real competition to the leaders in this field — random chat sites.
The random video chat format has been around since 2009, when Omegle and Chatroulette were launched. In the period from 2009 to 2010, these two sites were leaders in their area, and more than a million people visited them per day. However, their audience decreased rapidly, and users began to switch to alternative sites, which appeared in great numbers.
Popular alternatives to Omegle and Chatroulette include Ome.tv, Chathub.cam, VideoChat.chat, Bazoocam.org, Chatrandom.com, and more. Many of the sites offer advanced tools for finding chat partners. For example, they allow you to find users only from your country, search for friends with the same interests, communicate in themed chat rooms for multiple participants, and so on. But the general principle remains unchanged. These are random video chat sites where communication takes place in real time. And this format is very popular among millions of users around the world.
Live streaming is the future
The live streaming boom can be explained in a number of ways:
- Firstly, it is a convenient and instant means of communication that has replaced text chats. Why type a message and wait a long time for an answer if you can discuss everything one-on-one and save just a lot of time?
- Secondly, Internet technology is developing more and more rapidly and offers completely new communication formats. Even ten years ago, many could not have imagined that they would be able to communicate with a person on the other side of the globe in one click. Today 3G, 4G and 5G networks cover ever larger territories. And there are almost no problems accessing the Internet.
- Third, modern users are increasingly concerned about their security and privacy on the web. Not everyone wants to share details about themselves and their lives on dating sites or social media. Random video chat sites are usually preferable in this regard. Many of them do not require registration or any personal data at all.
Live streaming has become an integral part of our lives for millions of us. And there’s no doubt that in the future, interest in this format of online communication will only increase. We advise you to choose a suitable platform right now and personally evaluate all the advantages of live streams for dating, chat and just being a pleasant pastime. You’ll enjoy yourself!