In February, YouTube launched a mobile live-streaming service available to content creators who had more than 10,000 subscribers. After seeing a fair amount of success with this new feature, YouTube has lowered the original threshold to 1,000 subscribers.
After completing a one-time verification for their channel and being approved by YouTube, content creators will be able to live stream from the YouTube mobile app or the Creator Studio. This new streaming service also includes a Super Chat feature, which allows users to monetize their streams by having fans pay to pin their comments on live feeds.
With the introduction of YouTube Live, the prolific video service is joining the ranks of other major streaming platforms like Twitch, Facebook, and Periscope. But the real question is… will it be able to compete in such a cutthroat market?
According to a recent report from Streamlabs, YouTube Live has already seen notable growth since its inception. In the last six months alone, it’s outpaced Twitch in terms of growth and new users. It’s already grown to about 75,000 monthly active streamers, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down just yet. But even so, Twitch is still the dominant platform among streamers, with about 250,000 monthly actives — though its growth has slowed down considerably in recent months.
Streamlabs CEO Ali Moiz seems to think that YouTube Live has a real shot at running with the big dogs, but not necessarily for gamers and Let’s Players who want to make the jump to live streaming. Instead, he believes that YouTube’s new service will benefit most from growth in other industries that can use live-streaming to reach their audiences. In an interview with Tech Crunch, he said:
“In my view, the biggest chunk of growth is going to come from outside of gaming. Mobile broadcasting is just getting started. Travel, fashion, beauty, concerts, food (that’s big in Korea). Gaming is going to have nice incremental growth, but it’s not going to double or triple like it has in the past.”
Moiz’s comments highlight an important distinction between YouTube Live and other services like Twitch — it’s focused primarily on mobile usage. There’s still lots of room to grow in the mobile streaming market for sure, and YouTube Live seems to have a shot at growing with it.
Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more news on YouTube Live as the platform grows.
