Singapore based BIGO LIVE is one of the largest and most successful live streaming apps in Southeast Asia, Middle East, Russia, South American countries. The company is now expanding its horizon to the Indian Market as well. BIGO Technologies, a pioneering mobile internet company and a leading user content generation platform is the technology solution behind famous user app BIGO LIVE.
stoodnt.com got in touch with Nagesh Banga, Deputy Country Manager at BIGO LIVE, to know more about this new-age tech company. Banga is a young leader with more than 10 years of experience in Sales, Marketing, and has leadership experience in advertising and marketing domain. He joined BIGO LIVE as one of the founding team members in India in 2017, since then he has grown into the existing role due to his analytical abilities.
A selected excerpt
Will live streaming apps disrupt influencer marketing?
I will not say Live streaming will disrupt Influencer marketing, but it is adding one more leg in terms of number of platforms used for influencer marketing. We can say Live streaming as a product has an edge over other social media apps, since everything here is not just very raw & unpolished but also via live streaming we can have a real time product showcase and feedback system. We are in a world where just to market one product we do lots of photo/video editing before taking it on internet, but actually there is a great distrust among users in terms of the products they saw and what they actually received. But with live streaming we are able to rebuild that since whatever has been or will be shown on platform is exactly the same what one will actually get. Also while streaming one can have a real time engagement & feedback with viewers can take up their query related to these products and the results would be much better. Adding another yet important dimension to it, would be onboarding these influencers and helping them widen their reach further via live streaming. Their fans and supporters would like them going LIVE watching them real time. Hence, live streaming is the future and would give an edge to influencer marketing
How brands are using small scale influencers to tell their stories?
I will not call them as small influencer yes but a regional influencer, also one interesting thing about these influencers is might be they do not have that great reach but certainly they have a better influence on the TG with a better click rate, being the face ‘next door’ so the campaign done by them really does not look like a marketing campaign but a testimony, also what matters a lot is the placement of the product which is very subtle,yet impactful and regional influencers are master of that. Moreover, people easily connect to these regional influencers!
Can influencer marketing fully take over social media advertising?
I will not say that it will completely take over social media advertisement, Since influencer marketing is a part of social media marketing, as social media platforms are the ones giving birth to these influencers. Also the process is such, be it any social media platform these influencers would be using social media platforms only to post their videos/market their campaigns so I believe with better technology and variety of platforms the whole ecosystem has a positive growth with influencer marketing just a pie of share
How live streaming is modifying social media for business?
As we have experienced the shift in terms technology, infrastructure in past years we the whole internet is also undergoing a shift of how the content been curated and consumed on it, primarily it started with words to pictures, to Gifs and now to short videos and Live streaming, again the biggest advantage of live streaming is, reaching out to number of people and interacting them on real time basis, not like old things where one would upload something and then wait for people to react, in today’s era of instant feedback and reaction I guess this is the base of live streaming. Live streaming is also making people earn and learn, and showcase their talent which no other social media platform has offered, just to give example BIGO LIVE has hired over 14000 Broadcasters who are showcasing their talents not only in India but also to the users of other parts of world, on an average top 1000 broadcaster are earning around 1000 USD which is a big thing for people in small town where lots of jobs are not available and talented people do not have access to showcase their talent. Live streaming platforms like BIGO LIVE acts as gateway to entertainment
How, when, why companies should use live streaming for marketing?
Since live streaming Apps like BIGO LIVE give real time look and feel to the users be it talent, content or products. With advancement in technology and robust infrastructure, the evolution of internet ecosystem has been such that nowadays brands are approaching live streaming apps for associations and product launches!! For ex, BIGO LIVE has launched two of the HONOR handset consecutivly for two years i.e. in 2017 & 2018, also this technique has been experienced by internet giants like UC, and E comm company Layuva, who already with BIGO has done lots of activity, so this is the time for all brands to come and join hands with us, we are ready and open for same. Marketing via Live streaming could be one of the next trend hitting the markets which is already there in the west!
How social media landscape in 2019 is overshadowed by live streaming?
After Live streaming giving our social media community an edge, lots of players are coming and trying their luck, off late we have seen Social Media giants like FB, ING and YT also started Live streaming, one major change also happened is in the quality of content, like recently BIGO LIVE hired over 100 teachers to give free English training to its user base on where these users can connect to the teachers and ask their queries on real time basis, we are also planning to add more soft skill training in this. Not only this, BIGO LIVE is also giving an opportunity to users to become micro-entrepreneurs apart from giving a global exposure to showcase their talent and brand tie-ups which is acting as a catalyst in giving a new dimension to our Social media landscape! Now coming back to the question, with such improvisations in the internet landscape, we foresee lots of competition and innovation is this sector, and In India with better internet infrastructure, and availability of cost effective handsets/smart-phones this industry is all set to gloom.