Live streaming continues to play a larger and larger part in our everyday lives. In 2020 and 2021, people all over the world turned to platforms utilizing the tech to get real-time authentic experiences with others. While many tech applications that thrived over those years have since dropped off, live streaming has continued to be popular.
In fact, projects see the live streaming market continuing to grow through to 2027 and at a faster rate than video on demand. Given the viewing figures on Twitch of average concurrent viewers and average concurrent channels all showing increases on 2019, it’s fair to say that “going live” is here to stay.
Showcasing the reach and innovation in live tech
Modern live streaming extends far beyond chatting or watching online now, with the greatest mainstream leaps in the application of the tech being demonstrated at the casino online. In live casino games, not only can the viewers chat with the human croupiers, but they can also play the games in real time. Whether it’s a casino classic like live roulette or a new live gameshow like Crazy Time, bets and results are all done live.
To achieve this, the live casino studios developed specialist optical character recognition tech as well as game control units so that the game hosted for the online players could read the live game, take bets from anyone, and payout according to the results of the spin, cards, or other game instruments. It’s made live streaming more interactive than ever before.
Innovations like live casino gaming show how high the ceiling is for the technology, especially with the audience being so large now. Live streaming at scale presents the greatest opportunity for innovation, according to video developers in 2022, and its growth will greatly rely on inventive applications. As it stands, the next big live tech emergence looks to be in online shopping.
Bringing the live experience to eCommerce
Simply listing products online with their image tiles will continue to be less and less effective over the coming years, with online shoppers increasingly looking for their eCommerce experience to be entertaining. This desire has risen alongside influencer marketing and doesn’t look to be going anywhere. So, online platforms are looking to integrate live shopping events and services into their offerings.
Live shopping manages to tap into personalization, the driving force of “fear of missing out,” and entertainment value through charismatic hosts selling and answering questions in real time. Along with so-called “social commerce,” the UK and the rest of Europe have been relatively slow to embrace this new form of online shopping, but the UK’s adoption is still on the rise.
The keys to success in live commerce are to have limited-time offers or products sprinkled into live streams, have them hosted by very knowledgeable people who can answer questions, use software that gives direct links to buying the showcased products there and then, and hype up events before they go live. Combining all of these will encourage viewers and engagement during the streams, which also makes them entertaining.
Live streaming isn’t going anywhere, and with live casino games showing how immersive the tech can be, we can expect big things from the growing live commerce sector and beyond.
