YouNow

Last updated
YouNow
YouNow logo.png
Type of site
Broadcasting, Podcasting
Available in15 languages
Founder(s) Adi Sideman
CEOJon Brodsky
URL www.younow.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedSeptember 12, 2011;11 years ago (2011-09-12)

YouNow is an American [1] live streaming broadcasting service where users stream their own live video content or interact with the video streams of other users in real time. [2] The service is available on its website and on Android and iOS apps.

Contents

As of August 2015, the service handles 150,000 broadcasts each day. [1]

The majority of the users of YouNow are under 24 years old. [3] [ needs update ] Many users perform music, game, engage with their fans or dance, [4] others talk or make jokes. A tag-based topic system enables viewers to browse content of their choice, while trending streams enable users to locate more popular webcasters.

It competes with apps like TikTok, Twitch and Instagram Live.

YouNow was founded by Adi Sideman [3] on September 12, 2011 [5] [6] but significantly grew in popularity during 2014 and 2015 [7] following significant changes to the service. [4] A round of funding in 2015 raised $15 million from venture capitalists. [1]

YouNow bought live streaming company BlogTV.com in 2013, [8] with user accounts being merged into YouNow.

MTV partnered with YouNow for the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards. [3] The Huffington Post has started streaming a live show on YouNow weekly since August 2015. [9]

The Shorty Awards featured a "YouNower of the Year" category in 2016 and 2017. [10]

America's Got Talent partnered with YouNow to hold auditions for Season 11 with the final auditions on YouNow held live in YouNow HQ on Times Square, on March 1, 2016.

In 2017, YouNow began losing user broadcasters, including many partnered users and their fans, to other social media apps including Live.me and Twitch. Many of the young social media influencers that made the app popular, began leaving and YouNow's audience began shrinking and trending much older.

In 2019, in an attempt to bring user broadcasters and fans back, YouNow developed and implemented similar features that Live.me and Twitch already had on their social media platforms. These similar features included high definition resolution broadcasting, the ability to assign chat moderators and the ability to have multiple guest broadcasters (up to 3) at the same time with the broadcaster. Gold bars replaced likes as the in-app currency on the lower priced YouNow gifts at time of this redesign. YouNow also introduced a new platform rewards system in the form of Props. [11] [ dead link ]

On the 11th January 2021, YouNow changed over from the Prop system, introducing Diamonds a new way for non-partner users to earn.

Safety features and moderation

In order to improve online safety within the community, YouNow uses a combination of automated systems and manual monitoring. YouNow continuously monitors broadcasts for violations to the community standards and site rules or the terms of service.

YouNow offers a variety of safety features, including the ability to block other users, silence users within the chat feature, and flag inappropriate conduct to alert YouNow's moderation team. YouNow can suspend or remove an account for conduct that is determined to be inappropriate or harmful.

YouNow has stricter rules for those under 18 and adults interacting with minors on the platform and reports all incidents related to child victimization to the NCMEC.

Features

Partnership

YouNow has a partner program that allows popular broadcasters to earn money. [7] Virtual goods bought by viewers are used to acclaim videos; the resulting revenue is split between YouNow and the video creator, [4] with about 60% going to the latter. [10]

Partnership is offered to accounts in good standing at YouNow's discretion.

Broadcasting Features

Related Research Articles

Justin.tv was a website created by Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt in 2007 to allow anyone to broadcast video online. Justin.tv user accounts were called "channels", like those on YouTube, and users were encouraged to broadcast a wide variety of user-generated live video content, called "broadcasts".

Justin Kan is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder of live video platforms Justin.tv and Twitch, as well as the mobile social video application Socialcam. He is also the cofounder and former CEO of law-tech company Atrium.

Social television is the union of television and social media. Millions of people now share their TV experience with other viewers on social media such as Twitter and Facebook using smartphones and tablets. TV networks and rights holders are increasingly sharing video clips on social platforms to monetise engagement and drive tune-in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bebo</span> American social networking website

Bebo was an American social networking website that originally operated from 2005 until its bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunched in February 2021. The site relaunched several times after its bankruptcy with a number of short-lived offerings, including instant messaging and video streaming, until its acquisition by Amazon in July 2019 when it was shut down. It was announced in January 2021 that it would be returning as a new social media site the month after. By May 2022, it had once again been shut down, without having ever left beta testing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Livestreaming</span> Live broadcasting via the Internet

Live Streaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast over the internet in real-time or near real-time. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but not live-streamed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raptr</span> Social-networking website and instant messenger

Raptr was a social-networking website and instant messenger developed by Raptr, Inc. intended for use by video game players. Dennis Fong, co-founder of Xfire, founded the company Raptr, Inc. in 2007; it is located in Mountain View, California. The company raised 12 million dollars in funding from investors including Accel Partners and Founders Fund. The service was shut down on September 30, 2017.

Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 551 million monthly active users, including 220 million paying subscribers, as of June 2023. Spotify is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.

Clicker was an Internet video directory and search company based in Los Angeles, California. Their website aimed to be the TV Guide for all full episodes of programs available to watch on the Web. It is owned by CBS Interactive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinterest</span> American photo sharing and saving website

Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information on the internet using images and, on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboards. The site was created by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp; it had 463 million global monthly active users as of April 2023. It is operated by Pinterest, Inc., based in San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">8tracks.com</span> 2008 Internet radio and social networking website

8tracks.com is an internet radio and social networking website revolving around the concept of streaming user-curated playlists consisting of at least 8 tracks. Users create free accounts and can browse the site and listen to other user-created mixes, as well as create their mixes. The site also has a subscription-based service, 8tracks Plus, although this is currently only available to listeners based in the United States and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twitch (service)</span> American live-streaming platform

Twitch is an American video live streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions, in addition to offering music broadcasts, creative content, and "in real life" streams. Twitch is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv. Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand. The games shown on Twitch's current homepage are listed according to audience preference and include genres such as real-time strategy games (RTS), fighting games, racing games, and first-person shooters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messenger (software)</span> American instant messaging app

Messenger is an American proprietary instant messaging app and platform developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, released standalone iOS and Android apps in 2011, and released standalone Facebook Portal hardware for Messenger calling in 2018. In April 2015, Facebook launched a dedicated website interface, Messenger.com, and separated the messaging functionality from the main Facebook app, allowing users to use the web interface or download one of the standalone apps. In April 2020, Facebook released a Messenger desktop app for Windows and macOS.

Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to store photos in a password-protected area called "my eyes only". It has also reportedly incorporated limited use of end-to-end encryption, with plans to broaden its use in the future.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Periscope (service)</span> American live video streaming app

Periscope was an American live video streaming app for Android and iOS developed by Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein and acquired by Twitter, Inc. before its launch in March 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curse LLC</span> Network of gaming websites

Curse was a gaming company that managed the video game mod host CurseForge, wiki host Gamepedia, and the Curse Network of gaming community websites.

Kamcord was a social media platform where users post and interact through video content from their mobile devices. Kamcord has pioneered a new content format called "shots," short videos or stills of a user's phone screen annotated with facecam, voice commentary, text, highlighting/drawing, animations, and other tools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NewsON</span> Television channel

NewsON is a local news service that enables users to see live and on demand local news broadcasts and video clips from TV stations across the United States in one app. As of February 2021, NewsON includes over 275 TV stations from over 160 markets covering more than 75% of the US population.

Hitbox was a live-streaming esports video game website launched in October 2013. It was a competitor to Twitch. It was acquired by Azubu, and then became Smashcast.

Mixer was an American video game live streaming platform. The service launched on January 5, 2016, as Beam, under the ownership of co-founders Matthew Salsamendi and James Boehm. The service placed an emphasis on interactivity, with low stream latency and a platform for allowing viewers to perform actions that can influence a stream.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "YouNow, A "Live" Social Network, Raises Million in Fresh Funding". TechCrunch. 2015-10-05. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  2. ↑ Tynan, Dan (April 13, 2015). "Meet YouNow, the Live-Casting App that Teens Love and Parents Fear". Yahoo! Tech. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  3. 1 2 3 Maya Kosoff (2015-04-29). "Teens are going crazy for YouNow, a livestreaming app with 100 million monthly user sessions". Business Insider . Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  4. 1 2 3 Peter Kafka (2014-10-29). "YouNow Is the Live Video Amateur Hour That Nearly Died. Now It's Booming. Here's How". recode.net. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  5. ↑ "Take YouTube, Add The Gong Show, Get YouNow". TechCrunch. 2011-09-12. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  6. ↑ "Cheer and jeer broadcasters (until you boot them off) with YouNow". VentureBeat. 2011-09-12. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  7. 1 2 Natalie Jarvey (2015-10-13). "Live-Streaming Startup YouNow Taps Fullscreen Veteran (Exclusive)". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  8. ↑ Peter Kafka (2013-03-14). "YouNow, Web Video's Live Amateur Hour, Bulks Up by Buying Blog TV". All Things D. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  9. ↑ Mike Shields (2015-08-18). "Huffington Post Teams Up With Live Streaming Service YouNow on Weekly Show". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  10. 1 2 Kerry Flynn (2016-01-19). "Shorty Awards 2016 Nominees Brings Periscope, YouNow Stars Legitimacy In Media Industry". International Business Times. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  11. ↑ "Props Rewards". YouNow Support.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.