Linkedin Live : A new live video broadcast service

Finally LinkedIn launches Video Live, giving people and organizations the ability to broadcast real-time video to select groups, or to the LinkedIn world at large

Launching in beta first in the United states, LinkedIn Live will be invite-only. In coming weeks, LinkedIn will also creat a contact form for others users who want to get in on the action. Until now, It’s not clear when and if LinkedIn will make it possible for everyone to create LinkedIn Live videos.

LinkedIn says it is serious about its efforts, despite being late. Microsoft ( Linkedin ) has selected a handful of third-party developers of other live broadcast streaming services to work with creatives to push “more polished live video” on the platform.

These include Wirecast, Switcher Studio, Wowza Media Systems, Socialive and Brandlive, “with more to come in the following weeks,” LinkedIn said.

“Video is the fastest growing format on our platform right now, and the one most likely to get people talking,”

said Pete Davies, the director of product management at LinkedIn. He and LinkedIn declined to give specific figures in terms of how many video creators or viewers there are, except to note that “millions” of LinkedIn members have used the feature.

“Live has been the most requested feature,”

he said. Users can “like” videos as they are being broadcast, with the likes floating along the screen. Viewers can ask questions or make suggestions in the comments in real time. Hosts can moderate those comments in real time, too, to remove harassing or other messages, Davies added.

What about the monetization ?

Microsoft wouldn’t comment on future monetization plans for linkedin live videos, and for now isn’t even putting video ads into LinkedIn Live videos.

“That will come down the road, but for right now we are focused on awesome use cases,”

said Peter Roybal, head of video product management, in an interview.

“This could even be a way to try out some new ideas.”

 

Follow us on Facebook