The way we interact has changed forever. How we connect, work, shop – with friends, loved ones, little ones.
Live video is everywhere. It can never replace the real bonds we create in real life, but it can come pretty close.
Interactive, engaging, entertaining live videos can help bring people closer. Our mission at BeLive Technology is to accelerate the inevitable adoption of live video. That statement is becoming increasingly relevant as the COVID-19-stricken world shows little signs of making a speedy full recovery.
But the path to grow the company and gain new clients hasn’t always been easy, and I faced challenges long before COVID-19 struck the world.
Navigating uncertainty
I was comfortably employed at DeNA Co., where I came across something revolutionary. It was a website where entertainers, influencers, and individuals could broadcast live video, singing, and “busking” online– and their fans could give them “virtual tips” directly.
The platform was Showroom, and it rapidly became the most popular live video platform in Japan. It was so simple yet so effective– a whole new “virtual busking” experience.
This got me thinking, why isn’t live video streaming being used by more people worldwide? The “virtual busking” use case is only the beginning.
People would eventually sell products directly on live stream (much akin to home-tv shopping), engage in teleconsultations with doctors, or even run military missions safely with high fidelity live video.
I decided to take a chance on what I felt was inevitably happening, the adoption of live video as an influential communication medium. I left DeNA in 2016 to start BeLive; explaining why I left my cushy corporate job to my family and friends was no fun!
Also Read: How FilmDoo pivoted to online learning by leveraging the power of films and video in the pandemic
I originally envisioned its flagship product as a social platform focused on live streaming video– a virtual environment where musicians, personalities, and friends could broadcast and connect with the tap of a button. BeLive was launched in 2017 on the iOS App and Google Play Stores.
It gained popularity quickly, amassing over one million downloads in a span of six months. BeLive even topped Singapore’s app download charts briefly and hosted shows for P&G, Shopee, Lazada, and even TED Talks on its app.
Despite its relatively modest success, the platform’s focus on live-commerce failed to monetise and quickly lost its top live streamers to rival platforms with better payouts, products, and funding. The rival platforms could monetise much better as they focused on a fan-tipping based model, where good-looking hosts and live streamers tend to dominate.
In early 2018, BeLive was left with only two months of cash in the bank. I desperately reached out to investors for help, but the weak performance of the platform meant no one was confident that I could turn the business around.
Then came a LinkedIn message in the middle of another failed fund-raising pitch.
The unexpected pivot
The message was from Alex Chan, COO of Rakuten Viki.
Rakuten searched for suitable partners to co-develop a live streaming platform for their customers, which spanned 100 million monthly users and 50,000 merchants in Japan.
Alex had seen how BeLive had set itself apart from the competition by focusing on live commerce. It was a match for Rakuten, who had rejected collaborations with other platforms due to their focus on good-looking, often scantily clad hosts.
Rakuten signed with BeLive in late 2018 and gave the business a new breath of life. Having one of the world’s largest online marketplaces license our technology gave me a new perspective on BeLive’s unexpected strength: our core, live streaming video technology.
Going from strength to strength
Rakuten’s decision to use BeLive’s live streaming solutions, despite having some of the best engineers in the world, added a layer of trust and enabled BeLive to subsequently sign some of the most influential enterprises in the world, including Zalora Group, Bukalapak, and even the Changi Airport Group in Singapore.
Also Read: Opportunities for the livestreaming industry in Asia
Our pivot to live streaming solutions was not without its obstacles, as its technology in 2018 was not ready to support Rakuten’s huge user base then. The launch of Rakuten Live was not entirely smooth, and tough challenges threatened to damage the relationship between the two companies permanently.
Fortunately, we progressively improved the solutions and retained Rakuten as customers, having fostered trust after growing together.
BeLive has since solidified its position as one of Asia’s leading live streaming solutions companies, with over 33 billion minutes of live video delivered.
Live streaming’s explosive growth
Live video adoption has become truly inevitable, as evidenced by the massive increase in live video content being produced. By 2025, 95 per cent of advertisers will use live video streaming as a promotional medium.
This means that BeLive has to constantly evolve its solutions and invest heavily in artificial intelligence and machine-learning powered insights to improve the live stream experience and eventually catalyse the world’s adoption of live video.
Live streaming video and live shopping will become some of the most influential, cost-effective, and trustworthy ways to engage online audiences.
Businesses will also use live video to engage audiences in every vertical imaginable, from property, mobility, education, telecommunications, and even pet feedings. Adoption has already begun –you most definitely have seen some cool use cases in the industries mentioned.
Real bonds will be more difficult to create. With more people opting to meet via Zoom or other live video communication platforms, face-to-face socialising slowly becomes optional. The world’s largest remote working experiment – COVID-19, has forced live video to become a norm.
Although live video cannot replace the bonds we create in real life, we hope what we’re building at BeLive Technology comes pretty damn close.
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