LinkedIn launches live broadcasts. Ukrainian Restream.io became a partner

LinkedIn, a social network for professionals announced the launch of a streaming service LinkedIn Live. With it, users will be able to broadcast live. So far, the function works only in the US and by invite. The timing of the public release is still unknown, but the company promises to open a form for receiving applications, says TechCrunch.

In LinkedIn, people plan to stream Q&A sessions, thematic events, conferences and public reports to investors, award ceremonies and product announcements.

The social network received video support only 1.5 years ago and claims that since then live broadcasts have become the most popular request from users. Now video is the fastest growing type of content on the platform.

To ensure the smooth operation of streams, Microsoft (owns LinkedIn from December 2016) has built playback on Azure Media Services without cloud computing. In turn, LinkedIn has arranged an agreement with the producers of software and services for broadcasts: Wirecast, Switcher Studio, Wowza Media Systems, Socialive and Brandlive. Among the partners there is the Ukrainian startup Restream, which allows you to broadcast recordings to several sites at once. The project CEO Alexander Huda spoke about the agreement between the companies.

LinkedIn’s monthly active audience as of the beginning of 2019 exceeds 600 million people. The social network of one of the last went into the segment of live broadcastsб previously niche was occupied by services from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch. LinkedIn is confident that they will be able to stand out due to the quality of the audience.

Nothing is known about the monetization of live broadcasts. Regular videos on the platform are making money by showing ads. This is a fast-growing segment – in the last quarter, LinkedIn’s revenue from advertising grew by 29%, and the average session duration increased by 30%. The new format will help to consolidate the results.