Facebook always has many projects in the works, but nurturing its real-time potential is very high on the to-do list.
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This week, re/code reports, Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg has been getting in touch with Hollywood talent agencies to encourage celebrities to use Facebook Live. Apparently, Facebook is offering money as an incentive to work with influencers to push the Live feature.
This of course is a first for the company – i.e. to pay someone to use one of its features. It is understood that Facebook is looking for a pool of a 100 or so early adopters, and some payments are said to be in the six digits.
As Facebook has always been reluctant to directly pay content creators to share their work, it’s interesting to notice that things are changing. For now, at least.
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In the long run, it is believed that Pages will generate revenue on Live. As Page admins start using in more and more, and users get the hang of it, it is more than likely that Facebook will introduce ads at some point – like it always does. If that happens, the company could then shift to a YouTube-like ad revenue-sharing scheme, turning the current celebrity outreach investment into a long-term additional revenue stream while also giving a good reason for content creators to use Live on a regular basis.
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Of course, speculations around Live’s future come without solid foundation since live streaming is still not fully available to all on Facebook. Only time can tell whether users will actually be really impressed and use the feature. But with Live rolling out to everyone, we should be getting an answer pretty soon.