Palo Alto, California — World’s most popular social networking site Facebook on Friday launched a new live video streaming channel called Facebook Live, intended to keep users updated on what is happening at the social-networking site. This is the company’s official live channel, broadcasting from Facebook Headquarters in Palo Alto.
However, unlike services like Ustream and Livestream that offer live video features for Facebook Pages, Facebook Live is about “capturing activity already events at Facebook and showing it to the people who use the service,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
In a statement, the company says it will be using Facebook Live “to be your doorway into what is new at Facebook,” including celebrity guests that stop by the company’s HQ, demos of new features from employees and special events taking place (conceivably, things like the f8 conference).
“Facebook Live will furnish a deeper, more interactive approach into what is happening at Facebook,” a spokeswoman for the company said.
Users can submit questions to those featured in videos. The service that went live Friday with an event by “Ugly Betty” star America Ferrera. She will briefly stop by on Facebook to discuss her new movie “The Dry Land,” which is being promoted via social media channels like Facebook rather than traditional media. Her interview will air live starting at 6pm Eastern time.
Also appearing will be Wilmer Valderrama, and Facebook users can communicate with them through this channel. They can also participate with other viewers, as there is a special feed alongside the video in which viwers can update their status about the happenings. There is also a chat option.
The service, powered by Livestream, will feature videos from Facebook staff and is not intended as a platform for Facebook users to showcase their own videos — or a medium for Facebook to get into the video distribution space. However, the video player itself comes with options to share on Facebook or Twitter, as well as an embed option.
“Facebook Live is a natural extension of our blog and is a means to communicate with our users more directly,” the spokeswoman said. “The company has no plans to get into content production.”
Facebook Live will also include an “Ask a Question” feature, which will allow viewers to submit questions to a moderator. A Live Feed feature lets users update their status with Facebook Live information. It will be interesting to see how Facebook goes about promoting the feature.
The offering is also an app that can be added as a Facebook tab to any Page, where videos will stream live. Videos can also be archived and distributed as future reference materials. That would give the site an opportunity to aggregate some huge audiences around live video, though it remains to be seen if that’s in the cards or if this is more of a PR move to make the company feel more personable.
Either way, it is a nice blessing for Livestream, which has been chosen as the official live video partner for the project.