One of the most interesting stories that have emerged from world of Web 2.0 companies has been the evolution of livestreaming, with streaming site Justin.tv in particular. As of present, Justin.tv and its branch-off Twitch.tv have garnered billions of active viewers, generated millions in revenue, and positioned themselves on the forefront of the streaming phenomenon.
Justin Kan
Establishing some context requires one to start at Youtube.com. Justin Kan began Justin.tv as a Youtube channel. Sometime in 2007, Justin began live streaming his life through a webcam attached to his baseball cap, recording and broadcasting his daily routine to his viewers. The experiment attracted a frenzy of media coverage, and the concept of “lifecasting” began the subject of conversation for youtubers around the globe.
Through his experience “lifecasting,” Justin recognized that continuous, real-time streaming was a internet phenomenon that was attracting alot of interest and viewership. While social media had previously limited real-time internet interaction to text-based communication forms (e.g. Facebook status updates), the upsurge in the viewership of streaming video and advances in video streaming technology had set the stage for a exciting new business platform.
Later that year, Justin Kan collaborated with Emmet Shear, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt in starting up Justin.tv, a dedicated website/web company that hosted video streams that streamed a variety of content in realm time. Categories included Featured, People & Lifecasting, Sports, Music & Radio, Gaming, News & Tech, Animals, Entertainment, Divas & Dudes. The Gaming streaming section was later split off to Twitch.tv, and is now the company’s most profitable and widely visited category. Now Justin.tv and Twitch.tv are the two sites dominating the live streaming market, hosting millions of streamers and viewers every single day.
This is definitely an industry that is gaining a lot of popularity and with live streaming on bootleg sites being so popular, I wouldn’t be surprised if cheap subscription fees for live TV and sports would not be immensely popular. Rights for that kind of power is hard to get, but there is clearly a lot of potential in this type of market.
This story is… interesting. Lifecasting not only provides entertainment but opens up conversation about our current social and individual culture. Justin.tv seems to incorporate aspects from other sites such as Omegle. With talk of the government taking more control over the internet or individual companies cracking down more on piracy and copyright infringements, this story is one to watch.