Survey: Mobile Devices No. 1 for Live Video Communications

TokBox survey shows live video has evolved far beyond laptops, desktops

SAN FRANCISCO(25 Sep 2017)

TokBox, the live video, real-time communications (RTC) company, today announced the results of its first “Live Video in the Spotlight Survey,” which evaluates the evolution of live video adoption as well as emerging trends. Among the results, the survey found that mobile has now overtaken laptops and desktops as the most-used devices for live video communications.

“Live video has become a standard form of communication, and its adoption has dovetailed with the proliferation of mobile devices,” said TokBox CEO Scott Lomond. “That said, adoption and the medium in which live video is used can still vary widely from industry to industry. Cost reduction and increased efficiencies often play a big role in these variances, but that’s not always the case. The survey shows that there are some surprising factors driving adoption in many areas.”

TokBox surveyed 1,000 users between May and July 2017 and found that:  

• 28 percent of people video chat on social apps such as Houseparty and Facebook Live.

• The three areas with biggest consumer adoption of live video include see-what-I-see (defined as one user showing another what they are viewing), insurance, and recruitment and workplace.

• The three areas with the strongest growth of live video, in minutes, include gaming, social media and see-what-I-see.

Additional industry-specific results include:

• Healthcare: 60 percent of people have used or are likely to use live video to chat with a doctor about a non-emergency condition such as prescription renewal.

• Education: 3 in 5 people have either used or are likely to use live video to speak with a tutor remotely through a language app or education platform.

• Workplace: 70 percent of people either have used or are likely to use live video to collaborate remotely on a professional work project.

• Recruitment: 1 in 5 people are already using live video to speak with a recruiter or for a job interview with a potential employer.

• Customer service: 53 percent of people either have used or are likely to use live video to speak with customer service representatives from major brands.

• Repair and tech support: 66 percent of people either have used or are likely to use live video to speak to a customer service representative or technical expert to help troubleshoot a product such as a wireless router, and 65 percent either have used or are likely to use live video to speak with a professional tradesperson to guide through a task such as fixing or replacing a part.

• Insurance: 3 in 5 people people have either used or are likely to use live video to speak with an insurance consultant to show damaged property for an insurance claim such as damage from a car accident.

• Retail: 40 percent of people either have used or are likely to use live video to speak to a retail sales advisor about a product.

• Financial Services: 37 percent of people either have used or are likely to use live video to speak with a banking or sales advisor about purchasing a financial product such as a loan or mortgage, and 42 percent of people either have discussed or are likely to discuss investment options with a financial planner via live video.

To find out more, please visit: https://tokbox.com/pdf/Live_Video_Survey_Infographic.pdf

About TokBox

TokBox, a Telefónica company, develops and operates the OpenTok Platform, making it fast and easy to add live video communications into online and mobile websites, apps and services. The scalable, customizable platform gives users the creative freedom to develop any video interaction, from one-to-one chats to large-scale broadcasts.

The first platform to incorporate support for WebRTC, OpenTok caters to enterprises, entrepreneurs and developers with powerful APIs and a global cloud infrastructure. OpenTok has been used to stream WebRTC live video in over 36,000 applications since 2013. Companies including Mozilla, Major League Baseball, Esurance, Royal Bank of Scotland, Valspar, Bridgestone Golf, and Double Robotics. www.tokbox.com