Microsoft launches LinkedIn Live on an invite-only basis: All you need to know

The logo for LinkedIn Corporation is shown in Mountain View, California, U.S. February 6, 2013. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/File Photo - RTX2PJTD

Microsoft’s LinkedIn has launched LinkedIn Live for its mobile app. This feature would give LinkedIn users the ability to broadcast videos to select-groups or everyone in their connection list.

The professional networking site has introduced this feature in the United States only as of now. LinkedIn Live is currently in beta and is available in an invite-only basis. This means a user needs to get an invite before he or she can use this feature. LinkedIn would be posting a contact form for users who wish to use this service in the coming weeks.

The company aims at promoting this feature primarily for covering press conferences, product announcements, events led by mentors and influencers, major announcements by companies, etc. Viewers can ‘like’ the video stream and even ask questions to the host in the comments, just like the competitor websites.

Microsoft Azure Media services, LinkedIn’s sister company has contributed to providing cloud services for LinkedIn Live. The company is also working with third-party live-streaming services like Wirecast, Switcher Studio, Brandlive, etc. so that the creators on these platforms can use the feature to produce polished live videos on LinkedIn.

“Live has been the most requested feature,” said Pete Davies, director of product management at LinkedIn. Speaking to TechCrunch, Davies said that live videos had been a request by many users since other social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram introduced live videos.

TechCrunch also reported that LinkedIn might be promoting live videos to gain more revenue through engagement. The company, although very late, introduced videos in August 2017, is being used for advertising. The company had reported growth in revenue by up to 29 percent through ads. For Live, the company could charge viewers for conferences, or charge for parts of a live video to get premium subscribers.

With over 600 million active users, including over 50-million in India, the feature can be used by businesses to the mass audience to promote live content as well.

Although the company has not revealed plans on how it would monetise on the feature, Peter Roybal, head of video product management, said, “That will come down the road, but for right now we are focused on awesome use cases”.