Live streaming

Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as streaming, the real-time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non-live broadcast forms of streamed media such as video-on-demand, vlogs and video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and TikTok.

Livestreaming services encompass a wide variety of topics, including social media, video games, professional sports, and lifecasting. Platforms such as Facebook Live, Periscope, Kuaishou, Douyu, bilibili, YouTube, and 17 include the streaming of scheduled promotions and celebrity events as well as streaming between users, as in videotelephony. Livestreaming sites such as Twitch have become popular outlets for watching people play video games, such as in esports, Let's Play-style gaming, or speedrunning. Live coverage of sporting events is a common application.

Chat rooms are a key feature in livestreaming, allowing viewers to interact with the broadcaster and join ongoing conversations. These rooms often include emojis and emotes as additional communication tools.

In the field of social media, the term live media refers to new media that use streaming technologies for creating networks of live multimedia shared among people, companies and organizations. Social media marketer Bryan Kramer describes livestreaming as an inexpensive "key marketing and communications tool that helps brands reach their online audience." Users can follow their friends' live video "shares" as well as "shares" related to specific content or items. Live media can be shared through any Internet website or application; thus, when people browse a specific website, they may find live media streams relevant to them.

Live media can include coverage of various events such as concerts or live news coverage viewed using a web browser or apps such as Snapchat. James Harden and Trolli promoted an upcoming NBA All-Star Game through Snapchat. Many of LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner's performance art were livestreamed, such as a stream of Shia LaBeouf in a theater viewing all his movies.

However, live stream commerce today enables sellers to showcase products through streamers, mimicking in-store sales tactics to encourage customer purchases. Chinese live stream-based retailing has contributed significantly to the country’s e-commerce sector, with reports estimating revenues in the tens of billions of pounds. The McKinsey report also demonstrates that live stream commerce is expanding in China, the sales from live stream commerce were expected to achieve $423 billion by 2022,. It is expected the US live streaming industry will grow from $17 billion in 2022 to $55 billion by 2026.

Facebook introduced a video streaming service, Facebook Watch to select individuals in August 2017, and to the public in January 2018. Facebook watch is a video-on-demand service that allows users to share content live. It allows people to upload videos that cover a wide array of topics including original comedy, drama, and news programming. Facebook Live allows Facebook users to include their own "reactions" when someone is broadcasting. One of the reasons that Facebook Watch is so successful is because the content is recommended to users based on algorithms that determine what the user would most like to watch.

YouTube was purchased by Google in 2006, and the pair subsequently announced their livestreaming app. Like Periscope, users can comment during the broadcast. Unlike Periscope, livestreams on YouTube can be saved and any user can access them through the app. YouTube head of product for consumers, Manuel Bronstein, stated that live streaming gives creators the opportunity to "actually create a more intimate connection with their fans."