How can livestreaming platforms differentiate in a growing global market?

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What is fueling the rise of livestreaming?COVID-19 ushered in an era of virtual living: concerts, meetings, game nights with friends, and everything in between was brought into the digital sphere. This shift put all forms of social media on a rapid trajectory, with one segment growing the fastest: livestreaming.Led by video-game influencers and online personalities, virtual real-time streams have hyperscaled platforms such as Twitch and Facebook Gaming, which saw a 70 percent increase in viewership from the beginning of the pandemic (see figure 1). The growth gained during the lockdowns has remained sticky with users “turning in” to engage and interact with more than 50 million professional and amateur content creators.What can livestreaming platforms learn from their users’ viewing and broadcasting habits?As platforms race to attract talent and viewers, it is paramount that they understand their users’ habits to craft a strategy that will resonate. After analyzing about 1,000 livestreaming users around the world, we discovered a few powerful insights for forward-thinking platforms:Viewers and broadcasters are not two separate monoliths. About 40 percent of livestreaming users both view and broadcast content, challenging platforms’ propensity to consider viewers and broadcasters as two separate groups.Broadcasters value monetization and community support when selecting platforms. Content creators prioritize the evaluation of monetization tools and the strength of the creator community when selecting streaming platforms.Users want a diversity of content genres. Viewers favor platforms that offer a wide variety of content genres, with content preferences influenced by region, age group, and demographic (see figure 2).The propensity to spend on livestreaming is higher in developing markets. About 85 percent of viewers in India and Turkey have made a purchase on livestreaming apps, compared with only 40 percent of viewers in the United States.What must platforms do to develop and nurture a loyal user base?Focusing on four areas can help build a strong community of creators and viewers, positioning the platform to differentiate among livestreaming competitors and scale globally.Monetization.Enable content creators to be flexible with how they monetize their communities, allowing creators to adopt different monetization models such as micro-transactions and subscriptions, which can be tested with fans.Content diversity. Establish programs that promote diverse content, using innovative compensation models to incentivize niche content, such as cooking or art, and enable new creators to develop a following on the platform.Community.Proactively foster a community of content creators, providing support for new talent and increasing switching costs when changing platforms.Moderation.Take a balanced, pragmatic approach to moderation that doesn’t hinder the autonomy of content creators while limiting potential operational risk from non-compliant content or regulators.