Live broadcasting once required cameras, cables and satellite trucks. Today, just a smartphone will do.
Mobli, an Israeli company with a $60-million dollar investment from billionaire Carlos Slim, updated their app Thursday to allow users to stream live video from their mobile phone for a large audience of users to watch in real time.
Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) FaceTime and Skype have made live video conversations a reality, but Mobli promises that its technology has the potential to let millions of users see exactly what your smartphone lens is seeing."
Mobli's CEO and Founder, Moshe Hogeg, hears lots of comparisons of his photo-sharing app to its more famous competitor Instagram, which is owned byFacebook (FB, Fortune 500). Hogeg believes the app's new video-streaming feature will set his company apart from the crowded photo-sharing market.
"There's Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500) and there's Pepsi (PEP, Fortune 500); there's WhatsApp and there's WeChat," Hogeg says. "And we think the world is big enough to have a few companies in the same industry."
Mobile apps have become ubiquitous for protests from Cairo to Kiev to Caracas -- enabling demonstrators to capture and then share ground-level images. With this app, a protester could broadcast non-stop video of exactly what he or she was seeing live.
Related: How Mark Zuckerberg courts companies
For the moment, you need to have the Mobli app to watch a live broadcast, but the company says in a matter of weeks anyone will be able to watch the streaming video on a website regardless of whether they're a Mobli user or not.
"The main reason I think live streaming will work is that for the first time the infrastructure allows you to do broadcasting in a way that it never allowed you before: the speed of the Internet connection and the quality of the devices we have in the market," Hogeg says.
He acknowledges that in some countries where mobile internet connections are still slow, this service won't but ideal just yet.
With the tens of millions of dollars telecom magnate Carlos Slim has invested in the company, the expectation to begin generating revenue weighs large. Mobli says soon it will also launch a pay-per-view aspect to the new video feature where celebrities could charge users for viewing live performances. Mobli would take part of that payment.
"If an artist wants to do a private show around the world to sing -- not to 50,000 people, but to a million people and a do a show like this -- our technology will allow him to do it."
Latest Stories
-
CHAN 2024Q: Ghana’s Black Galaxies held by Nigeria in first-leg tie
21 seconds -
Dr Nduom hopeful defunct GN bank will be restored under Mahama administration
34 minutes -
Bridget Bonnie celebrates NDC Victory, champions hope for women and youth
42 minutes -
Shamima Muslim urges youth to lead Ghana’s renewal at 18Plus4NDC anniversary
2 hours -
Akufo-Addo condemns post-election violence, blames NDC
2 hours -
DAMC, Free Food Company, to distribute 10,000 packs of food to street kids
3 hours -
Kwame Boafo Akuffo: Court ruling on re-collation flawed
3 hours -
Samuel Yaw Adusei: The strategist behind NDC’s electoral security in Ashanti region
3 hours -
I’m confident posterity will judge my performance well – Akufo-Addo
4 hours -
Syria’s minorities seek security as country charts new future
4 hours -
Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo re-appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana
4 hours -
German police probe market attack security and warnings
4 hours -
Grief and anger in Magdeburg after Christmas market attack
4 hours -
Baltasar Coin becomes first Ghanaian meme coin to hit DEX Screener at $100K market cap
5 hours -
EC blames re-collation of disputed results on widespread lawlessness by party supporters
6 hours