Facebook expands paid live streaming service to SA, Egypt and Morocco

Other countries include Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The service, which lets creators get paid for live events, was first launched in select countries in August last year. Facebook says the service has grown significantly, with creators of virtual tours, private concerts and live podcasts, among others, using the feature to monetise.

The company claims that creators earning the equivalent of $10 000 a month using the service increased 88% year-on-year, while creators making $1 000 every month climbed 94%.

The platform is now exploring ways to monetise its short-form video platforms and open access to in-stream ads for Live, among other developments. Facebook also introduced fan subscriptions as part of its efforts to increase monetisation methods on its platform, which it says have continued to see strong growth, providing a reliable source of revenue for creators. There are now more than 1 million active fan subscriptions to content creators on Facebook. The company says it plans to expand the feature to include more countries in the coming months.

Facebook added that it would not collect revenue from the features up until August. This means page owners can create events, set a price and receive 100% of the revenue generated until then.

At launch, the social network had a scuffle with Apple over the ‘Apple Tax’ to get the fee waived for iOS users. The paid ticketed live streaming service uses Facebook Pay, which lets users subscribe and pay for an event without giving Apple or Google a commission. Apple and Google’s tax accounts for 30% of creator’s revenue.

Meanwhile, South African-Norwegian live-music development project Concerts SA last year released a comprehensive research report that unpacks the different live-streaming activities in South Africa and assesses the underlying business models to evaluate the risks and opportunities for live streaming. The report addresses additional aspects in live streaming, including key questions for artists who are considering live streaming as well as recommendations to artists from live-streaming platforms.

Download the Concerts SA Digital Futures live streaming report below (PDF).