With the continuous popularity of the Internet, live streaming is no longer exclusive to practitioners in a certain professional field. Now everyone can enter the industry and hopefully become an internet celebrity with his or her phone. The era of live streaming has already arrived, so let’s keep reading to get to know more.

What Is It?

Livestreaming, according to Wikipedia, is streaming media that is simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It can also be simply referred to as streaming. Live stream services involve a great number of topics, from professional sports events to video games, to simply chatting. Its platforms include bilibili, Facebook Live, Twitch, and the like.

The Brief History of It

Live streaming is actually not something new. But in recent years, the industry has once again gained public attention mainly for the following two reasons: on the one hand, the rapid development of technology has made it possible for everyone to get involved in it. On the other hand, people have to stay at home and many supposed-to-be offline events have to be held online instead because of COVID-19. Now, let’s briefly review its history.

This concept was first invented in 1993 and used in music performance. Back then, the guys from Xerox PARC broadcasted their usual gig over a niche network called Mbone. This was the very first example of live streaming both audio and video. 

In 1995, RealNetworks, an internet company, developed RealPlayer, the first media player capable of live streaming. It also hosted the first public live stream in which the New York Yankees played against the Seattle Mariners.

On November 8, 1999, the first presidential webcast was held at George Washington University in Washington DC, which was regarded as the true birth of live streaming as President Clinton participated in it.

About a decade later, Youtube hosted its first live event, YouTube Live, which truly blew up the industry. However, YouTube soon lost its steam in the market. However, Twitch.tv made full use of it by launching a new live streaming platform exclusive to video games, reaping 45 million viewers a month.

Since then, internet companies launched similar platforms one after another, thus leading to the thriving of the industry.

Why Is It So Popular?

When it comes to the reason for the success of live streaming, one thing that can not be ignored is the fact that we human beings are gregarious, which means that we tend to share our feelings and thoughts to others and listen to theirs as well.

In addition to that, one of the main features of live streaming is that it has the ability to engage with hundreds of people from all over the world at the same time. Therefore, it satisfies our needs to share and to be heard.

Secondly, the industry has a low threshold for beginners. With the development of technology, everyone can be an influential live-streamer on social media platforms as long as they have a phone and good live content. Live streaming is rather a cost-effective way to become an internet celebrity.

Finally, one outstanding feature of live streaming is its convenience. One can go live whenever and wherever he or she wants. It provides the opportunity for people to stay connected with others under COVID-19 lockdowns and helps stop coronavirus from spreading as well.

The Live Streaming Economy

Long before the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, Capstone Project revealed that “by December 2016, there were 344 million live streaming users in China, with an increase of 20 million users within 1 year.” In 2016, the whole industry was already worth over 30 billion dollars.

During the pandemic, this figure multiplied. Between April 2019 and April 2020, the live streaming market experienced a 99% growth in hours watched. The global market is expected to reach more than 180 billion dollars by 2027, according to Grand View Research.

In Conclusion

Considering the fact that there is no sign of the industry stopping growing in the foreseeable future, entrepreneurs should come up with detailed plans to leverage the great business opportunity offered by it.