Facebook launches dedicated game streaming app... Competing with YouTube and Twitch

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] Facebook launched its gaming application on the 20th (local time), earlier than the originally scheduled June release, as demand for games surged due to the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It is intensifying competition in the game streaming platform market against YouTube, Twitch, and others.

According to the economic media CNBC, the ‘Facebook Gaming’ app introduced on this day is a dedicated game streaming app that allows users to watch and broadcast game play videos in real time. Through the ‘Go Live’ feature, users can also link videos to their own Facebook pages.

The app does not include in-app advertisements. Instead, viewers can provide streamers with so-called ‘Stars,’ a one-time payment method. However, Facebook added that it plans to explore more monetization options in the future. The app is first released on the Google Play app store, with an iOS version to be added later.

Facebook conducted app testing over approximately 18 months in Southeast Asia and Latin America. The original release date was reportedly June.

CNBC reported, “Due to the impact of COVID-19, Facebook is focusing its capabilities on gaming.” According to Streamlabs and others, Facebook’s game streaming watch time in the first quarter of this year was 554 million hours, far less than YouTube’s 1.1 billion hours and Twitch’s 3.1 billion hours.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.