Live streaming is touted to be one of the ‘big new deals’ when it comes to digital marketing. There has never been something quite like this and the rate at which it has grown in even the first few months is quite remarkable.

Experts speculate that live streaming is going to be massive but we don’t have to speculate. All you have to do is take a look at the statistics which make it rather clear just what a big deal live streaming is going to be!

Did you know for instance that Periscope has already managed to accrue a very impressive 10,000,000 user accounts?

And did you know that if you combined all the footage ever recorded on the platform, it would take you over 40 years to watch all of it? 2 million people log in every single day, distributed across 25 countries! And when you consider how big Facebook is (it has more users than the population of any country in the world), it’s easy to imagine that live streaming is about to explode in an even bigger way!

Where it All Began

But where did this all begin? It may surprise some to realize that Periscope actually wasn’t the first live streaming site to make it big. Instead, that accolade belongs to Meerkat which launched in March 2015. Back then it was known as ‘AIR’ and ‘Yevvo’ and it was immediately apparent that this was going to be a big game changer in social media marketing.

At first, Twitter helped this success and worked closely with Meerkat. Shortly after though, the company clearly decided they needed their own contender in this new space; which is when they bought the then-small Periscope for a sum of $100 million!

Facebook’s Entry

From there, Facebook decided to get involved and rolled out an experimental live service for its best-known members. In December 2015, this was extended across Android and iOS devices and later it made its way across the pond.

And Facebook is currently taking this movement very seriously, stating that live video enjoys much more engagement compared with other types of video and that they envisage a time where one day video is the primary form of content. The ranking algorithm that dictates what gets seen on the homefeed has been tweaked to prefer live video and marketers everywhere are getting excited.

More new features are coming to the service all the time and in short – this is a very good time to be involved with Facebook Live.