Having first launched in June 2016 with a select group of creators, YouTube is extending mobile live streaming to every creator with over 10,000 followers, and soon, to all users.
Google’s online video division has also launched Super Chat, a monetisation feature for live streams enabling viewers to purchase highlighted messages within the chat feed and have them pinned for up to five hours to the top of the chat window. Super Chat is initially available to creators in more than 20 countries and viewers in more than 40 countries.“A huge focus for us here at YouTube is to find new ways to let creators and viewers interact with each other and the videos they watch,” said the company. And that's why we’ve supported live streaming since, well, before Beyoncé even had a baby – way back in 2011!. And in 2016, we witnessed the most-viewed political live streams of all time – the 2016 US presidential debates – and we launched the world’s first 360° live streaming support with full 4K video, at scale and for free.”
Streamed videos will have all the same features as regular YouTube videos. They can be searched for, found via recommendations or playlists, and protected from unauthorised use.
