WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FACEBOOK'S GAMING HUB
Facebook recently announced the social media giant will launch a service to attract gamers who stream their gameplay online for others to watch, similar to Amazon's Twitch platform.
It serves as a hub of all the video games streaming on Facebook and lets users follow esports celebrities, competitions and gaming conferences, so says TechCrunch.
According to TechCrunch this Facebook-gaming-service will serve as a hub for all video games to be streamed on the platform itself. It will also allow users to follow esports celebrities, competitions and gaming conferences, like the E3 conference which took place this week.
Facebook is also planning to introduce a service for star gamers to build an audience on its platform and earn money from tips. Known as The Level Up Program, it will be available in the next few months though the social giant has begun to let a handful of creators allow fans subscribe to their channels for $5 per month.
All these new features will allow fans to support their favourite gaming content creators by buying and sending virtual goods during live streams with digital currency Facebook Stars.
This currency will allow content creators to earn real cash, as Facebook will pay $0.01 for each Star a streamer receives from fans. However, the main question to ask now is...
Could this cause a Twitch-fight?
It is nothing new that Facebook just takes what they want and "make it their own". But it just seems that Facebook is playing catch-up to platforms like Twitch, which has an average of more than 15 million active daily viewers and over 2 million unique monthly broadcasters.
The video gaming industry is HUGE, it has also made stars out of skilled gamers and social influencers who share their commentary about strategy and reactions to online games. Consumer spending on video games is forecast to increase 13% to $137.9 billion globally this year, with mobile games growing even faster at 26% to $70.3 billion.
We do not know if Facebook's gaming service will affect Twitch or YouTube, and teen's aren't that impressed with Facebook as of late, and this might be the service's attempt to pulling users back to the social platform.
Whatever the outcome might be, we will keep you posted!