The live-streaming opportunities within the social streaming landscape are always evolving, making it crucial to assess newly launched platforms for any distinct advantages they might present.
With Kick debuting in December 2022 and Instagram Threads in July 2023, brands have fresh avenues to captivate and engage their audience.
Kick
By the end of June, Kick had expanded its user base to 12 million, with these users consuming around 85 million hours of content monthly. Although this is modest when compared to Twitch’s 140 million active users watching 1.72 billion hours in June, Kick presents unique live-streaming opportunities that set it apart from Twitch.
- It’s in a startup phase so expect rapid growth in the platform’s user numbers
- It’s willing to spend to attract talent with prominent influencers Destiny, Amouranth and xQc all streaming on the platform. The latter was paid a reported $100million
- You can stream certain types of content, such as gambling, which are banned on Twitch.
- It offers a much higher percentage of revenue to streamers.
Kick is obviously very new but there is an opportunity for brands to claim their channel in a rapidly growing platform and start to build a new audience. Brands can also look at a range of new influencers who are emerging on the platform and potentially start long lasting relationships with new talent.
Instagram Threads
While Instagram Threads has grown rapidly, drawing in 100 million users within the first five days of its launch, its current video capabilities are limited. At the moment, it only supports on-demand videos of up to five minutes and lacks live-streaming opportunities.
Given its rapid growth and the advertising model likely to be deployed within the platform we expect to see the live video feature to be added before the end of the year.
The key thing which may differentiate the live video offering from Twitter is how much access the platform offers through its API. Currently Twitter has a much more extensive API than Instagram which allows the creation of complex interactive elements such as live auditable competitions. If Threads API is as extensive then there will be the opportunity to create brand new experiences on the platform potentially at a lower cost to Twitter which charge fees for API access.
Conclusion
For brands with the right content, Kick presents a promising opportunity, not just for audience growth but also for live-streaming opportunities, given the platform’s continued expansion.
On the other hand, Threads, despite its rapid user acquisition, is poised to remain devoid of live features for the foreseeable few months. Once live-streaming is integrated, the burning question will be how Threads’ live offering distinguishes itself from Instagram and other contemporaneous platforms.
Ready to take your brand’s live streaming to the next level? Explore the possibilities with Kick and Instagram Threads today. Get in touch with us for advice on how to unlock the full potential of live streaming for your brand.
