Taking on other live-video apps, Instagram is now inviting users to broadcast streams of themselves for audiences of their choosing. The Facebook unit has been testing the “Go Live
With” feature since the summer, with promising results.
“This is one of several new features we’ve introduced to live video this year, in addition to the ability to save your
live video to your phone or share it to your story,” a company spokeswoman recently told Digital News Daily.
Trying to distinguish the new feature from rival services, “Go
Live With” users can add and remove guests at any time during their broadcasts, or they can also choose to exit on their own.
Expanding live video to Instagram is a no-brainer for
Facebook.
“Facebook’s users are captivated by videos on the platform,” eMarketer analyst Monica Peart noted in a recent report. “Video, both live and recorded, is a key
driver of growing user engagement and advertiser enthusiasm.”
More broadly, Facebook is increasingly relying on Instagram to drive revenue growth.
In fact, the picture-based
network will make up 20% of Facebook’s domestic mobile revenue this year -- up from 15%, last year -- according to eMarketer.
Instagram recently surpassed 700
million monthly active users, while the network is adding MAUs at a record rate. As Facebook’s CFO David Wehner told analysts: “We’re seeing great growth there.”