Former Facebook Live Manager Launches Live-Streaming App Alively
August 23 2016 - 2:00PM
Dow Jones News
One of the architects of Facebook Inc.'s live-streaming video
product is striking out on his own.
Vadim Lavrusik, the former product manager of Facebook Live, has
co-founded Alively, an app meant for users who want to share live
videos with a handful of people rather than their entire social
network. It launched in the U.S. on Apple mobile devices
Tuesday.
Alively joins dozens of other companies trying to crack the next
big thing in social media: live-streaming. They include Twitter
Inc.'s Periscope, which came out in early 2015, and the similarly
named Live.ly, launched in June and owned by Shanghai-based company
Musical.ly Inc. The largest player is Facebook, which earlier this
year gave its 1.7 billion monthly users access to a live-streaming
feature called Facebook Live.
But Mr. Lavrusik and the company's two other co-founders, Ray
Lee and Vincent Tuscano, think social-media users don't want to
share their videos with a huge group of people. "These are moments
you would have recorded on your camcorder, but those aren't moments
you'd want to broadcast on CNN," said Mr. Lavrusik, who left
Facebook earlier this year to start the company.
Facebook users can choose to limit their live-stream videos to a
select group of people in their news feed, but most users use it to
reach broad audiences.
Companies in Silicon Valley and beyond are betting that live
video will redefine how people communicate and absorb information,
much in the way messaging apps have over the last five years.
Through live videos, users watch events unfold in real time,
theoretically making them more compelling than prerecorded
videos.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg vaulted live video to
the top of the company's agenda in February after internal data
revealed the format's popularity among younger users. It is now a
key part of Mr. Zuckerberg's effort to transform the social network
into a "video-first" platform.
Mr. Lavrusik helped shape Facebook's live-video strategy,
starting last year when he led the introduction of the feature to
Facebook's app for public figures, Mentions. Facebook didn't
respond to a request for comment.
Alively is positioning itself as a "one-to-few" live-streaming
platform, where users can share moments they don't care to reveal
to a broader audience, says Mr. Lavrusik, now president and chief
product officer of Alively.
Broadcasting to a select group, such as friends or family, can
protect users from the harsh judgment that a wider audience might
bring, Alively says.
Tight competition within live-streaming is just one of the
challenges facing Alively. Another is the fact that fewer and fewer
users are downloading new apps. Live-streaming also represents a
big technical challenge.
Alively videos are stored in the cloud, rather than on users'
phones. Alively said the app prioritizes picture quality, rather
than immediacy. There is a 10- to 30-second delay in the broadcast
to make sure the image is clear when it is transmitted to other
users, the company added.
The San Mateo, Calif.-based startup has raised $800,000 in a
seed round from venture-capital firms including Greylock Partners
and SV Angel.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 23, 2016 13:45 ET (17:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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