'Group Chat Live' to Allow up to 6 People to Chat Together
In the era of COVID-19, online communication is fast becoming more than just a social distancing workaround. Video conferencing platforms and social networks are increasingly focused on creating deeper and more engaging experiences — beyond the usual content sharing or messaging. Particularly with Gen Z’s emergence as a group of content creators rather than just content consumers, social platforms must offer tools that enable anyone to become an online star.
Evolution of live-streaming: enjoying 'social streaming' together in split screen
Given Gen Z’s tendency towards outward self-expression and online community-building, platforms that offer 'interactive content' — where viewers themselves guide content creation — are witnessing massive growth. Hakuna Live is one such ‘social live-streaming’ platform that takes the traditional live-streaming concept — where one person broadcasts to many — and enhances it with multi-way communication features. Through the unique 'Guest Mode' function, for example, up to four people can co-broadcast simultaneously through a split screen layout, enabling a diverse playground-like experience. This year, Hakuna expects to expand upon its Guest Mode with “Group Chat Live,” allowing up to six people to chat together, further blurring the traditional lines between entertainer and entertained. Hakuna also provides a series of digital tools to help streamers entertain their guests and audiences — including quizzes, polls and more — and streamers can even broadcast using an augmented reality avatar via Hakuna’s advanced AI technology.
Hakuna has resonated strongly in its initial launch markets, effectively reaching Gen Z users through highly localized outreach — for example, celebrating key holidays and cultural events, such as the Indian Diwali Festival and the UAE National Anniversary event. Hakuna now ranks third within Google Play’s entertainment category in India and Turkey and is also a social streaming leader in South Korea, Japan, North America, and Taiwan with plans to further expand.
In a world of increasing competition for user time-share — social, ‘light’ and high-velocity content is king
Released by ByteDance, ‘TikTok’ has made waves with its platform for short video content of 15 seconds or less. Among its keys to success is the variety of video editing tools that enable rapid and easy video creation, editing and uploading. As most videos are centered around light-hearted, amusing content (dancing, singing, comedy, etc.), TikTok content has universal appeal among users of different countries, cultures, languages and backgrounds. TikTok has also enhanced stickiness and vitality through personalized content recommendations based on its deep learning technology, which helped it achieve over 600 million downloads in the first half of 2020 with more than 1.5 billion global users as of September 2020, according to mobile app data source, App Annie. TikTok has been particularly popular among Gen Z, ranking first in the social and communication apps categories in 9 out of 10 major markets (Q3 2020).
Gen Z overcomes social distancing with platforms that enable continuous connection and proactive info-sharing
Another platform loved by Gen Z is Zenly, which allows users to share location data in real time. This location-based social service app — branded as a “live map of your friends and family” — is attracting attention as a new connection method for Gen Z, helping users overcome barriers created by the spread of COVID-19. Versus existing social networks, Zenly continuously broadcasts a user’s location, direction, speed, and other information in real-time to a chosen, small group of people. Zenly is particularly popular with teenage users, who have grown up in a world of continuous online connection and are especially warm to services that compress distance and isolation. Developed by Snap, Inc., Zenly has recorded over 1 million downloads and climbed to number 6 on the charts.