Musical.ly Now Directs Former Live.ly Members to LiveMe App
When Musical.ly shut down two-year-old live streaming app Live.ly in June, it told former members that they should move to Musical.ly which would get live video streaming in a few weeks. That plan seems to have changed, as Musical.ly is now directing former Live.ly users to the LiveMe app instead.
Musical.ly lets users create short video clips from 15 seconds to 1 minute in length and enhance them with filters and effects. The company launched Live.ly in July 2016 to provide a live video streaming platform. The app quickly became popular, but that popularity just as quickly waned. Variety reports app downloads were down 41 percent year-over-year in Q1 2018.
In November 2017, Musical.ly was acquired by Bytedance Technology Co., a Chinese technology company, for around $800 million to $1 billion U.S.
With today's news, Musical.ly seems to be foregoing the live streaming market. A message in the Live.ly app prompts users to join LiveMe, a former rival, and provides a download link. Neither company divulged the financial arrangements behind this relationship.
In June 2018, LiveMe announced its Broadcaster Development Program which trains and develops promising live broadcasting talent. The company put $100,000 into a fund to provide financial incentives to creators. LiveMe debuted in 2016 and has paid $30 million in revenue to creators on its platform.
Update: TechCrunch reports that Musical.ly shutting down Live.ly and redirecting users to LiveMe was a contractual requirement when Bytedance bought Musical.ly last year. Bytedance made a $50 million investment in LiveMe and doesn't want to support two competing services.
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