Facebook wants to attract game streamers with fb.gg
Facebook competes with streaming service Twitch.tv and YouTube to attract viewers for game streamers who share their live gameplay with fans and interested parties. For this they have launched the fb.gg hub, which should make it easier to find gaming content for Facebook users. The hub is in the Facebook grid, but you only see the games and streamers that you follow in the left bar.
Stars of heaven
It’s easy to add both streamers and games and of course you can also go live yourself but then you have to know how it is with streamkeys or setting up an encoder before you can broadcast to start. That in itself is nothing new, of course, but bringing together in a hub of game streams is sensible. At the back there is also the Level Up program that makes it possible for streamers to make money. That was already there, but with the introduction of fb.gg that will become a permanent program. Fans can use so-called Facebook Stars to buy virtual goods for their favorite streamer and they will then receive a percentage of Facebook’s purchase price.
Of course, Facebook also invited some streamers to get people to the new service such as MissesMae (photo), MelonieMac and Darkness429. Whether that will be enough to compete very seriously with Twitch and YouTube Gaming remains to be seen, but it is wise that Facebook – albeit late – will take the streaming phenomenon seriously. If they can keep the last leftovers of youngsters who still sit on Facebook, it has been worth it.