Twilio adds live audio and video streaming options

3 years ago 378

Reddit is using the new service to power an upcoming live audio feature.

Twilio launched a new Live service that allows businesses to embed live audio and video streaming features into existing applications. The service provides low-latency streams at scale, according to Twilio.

The company's new product reflects the demand for live video streams as part of many corporate events. Tiger Shen, CTO of the events platform company Welcome, said in a press release that building on top of Twilio's live-streaming infrastructure allows his team to spend time on the more customized elements.

"The virtual event has evolved from an ad-hoc experience to a permanent element of nearly every company's internal and external engagement strategy," Shen said.

Grand View Research predicts that the growing adoption of cloud-based solutions will increase the reach of video content and expand the market, particularly in North America and Europe.

SEE: Software as a Service (SaaS): A cheat sheet (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

In the 2020 Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions report, Gartner predicted that spending on global meeting solutions for end users will yield an 11% (2019 through 2024) compound annual growth rate as organizations adopt flexible work styles and cloud meeting services.

Gartner also predicted that remote work and changing workforce demographics will impact enterprise meetings so that only 25% will take place in person by 2024, down from 60% in 2020.

"The rise of virtual experiences and the popularity of platforms like Clubhouse and TikTok have signaled that the next big channel for customer engagement is live audio and video streaming," Hakim Mehmood, general manager of voice and video at Twilio, said in a press release. "Twilio Live gives businesses the building blocks they need to create personalized experiences for their communities and interact with millions of customers in a fresh and exciting way."

Gartner also noted in the report that companies often use separate solutions for informal meetings within the company and for more formal meetings such as external presentations or training sessions.

Anand Paka, senior director of product at Reddit, said in a press release that the website used Twilio Live to power Reddit Talk, an upcoming live audio feature.

"We have been pleased with the quality of the audio capabilities and the proactive support from Twilio that allowed a speedy integration," Paka said.

A report from MarketsandMarkets forecasts that the global video streaming software market size will grow from $6.1 billion in 2020 to $15.0 billion by 2025. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 19.7%. MarketsandMarkets identifies the major factors driving the growth of the video streaming software market as the increasing penetration of mobile devices and internet users, the growing demand for video-on-demand streaming and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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