Live streaming has seen a lot of progressive progress in a relatively short amount of time. Facebook Live too has been growing rapidly and most experts and marketers speculate that this is likely to be a big deal in the coming months and years.

But the scope of Facebook Live goes far beyond marketing. Facebook Live could well dictate the general direction that the company takes in the future… even changing the way that we interact with one another.

On the blog, Facebook representatives described the impact that Facebook Live has already had in a short space of time and how this has impacted their algorithms.

“We rolled out Facebook Live on iOS in December and last week we began rolling it out on Android in the US. Over the last three months Facebook Live video has become more and more popular and more and more people and Pages are creating and watching live videos.

“Now that more and more people are watching Live videos, we are considering Live Videos as a new content type – different from normal videos – and learning how to rank them for people in News Feed. As a first step, we are making a small update to News Feed so that Facebook Live videos are more likely to appear higher in News Feed when those videos are actually live, compared to after they are no longer live. People spend more than 3x more time watching a Facebook Live video on average compared to a video that’s no longer live. This is because Facebook Live videos are more interesting in the moment than after the fact.”

They also stated that Facebook could one day revolve much more around videos generally compared with pictures and written posts.

The Cultural Impact

But video streaming has applications beyond simply adding content. Imagine being able to enjoy concerts live by following a band’s page or watching a friend’s feed. Or imagine being able to get live reports on world events, filmed from numerous different angles simultaneously… almost like being omnipresent.

And if we consider this in the broader context of Facebook’s plans and acquisitions – and of Moor’s Law – then things get even more exciting.

For instance, Facebook recently made a very high profile investment in virtual reality technology when it bought Oculus. Imagine being able to stream 360 footage and have your friends experience that right next to you, as though they were there!

Or imagine when connections are powerful enough that you could see live previews of everything being filmed at any given time. This technology is just around the corner and if it is fully realised, then Facebook live could genuinely change the world!