Covid-19 and the emergence of live streaming
With complete lockdown everyone is going live to create and consume content
“Every problem comes with an equal or greater opportunity.”
I know it is very easy to preach the world sitting from the comfort of my house. I am lucky that I am safe, I have food and a decent consulting job. Before writing this story I saw the headline that the US has more than 83,000 Covid-19 cases; leaving China and Italy behind. If you are not scared then are you even human? And we are still not serious.
“Even a perfect response won’t end the pandemic. As long as the virus persists somewhere, there’s a chance that one infected traveler will reignite fresh sparks in countries that have already extinguished their fires. This is already happening in China, Singapore, and other Asian countries that briefly seemed to have the virus under control,” writes Ed Yong for The Atlantic. (One of the hard-hitting pieces right now on the Internet)
This is just one side of the pandemic, the other side is the economic turmoil. Small and medium businesses are fucked and the large ones have no clue. While work from home is the new cool on LinkedIn with people sharing headshots from online meetings but how long will this hold. And what about the daily wage earners? Moody has slashed India’s economic growth in 2020 to 2.5% from 5.3%. The news drops at a time when India is observing a complete lockdown to fight back against Covid-19.
“A general lack of social safety nets, weak ability to provide adequate support to businesses and households, and inherent weaknesses in many major emerging-market countries will amplify the effects of the coronavirus-induced shock,” the report said.
If the present is bad then the future is scary. The job market is terrible, pay cuts will be the next norm and almost every market and category has been hit. Besides I am not talking about the unorganised market. If the situation doesn't improve the worst hit would obviously be the low and middle-income groups, as most organisations have already started drawing up a list of employees who they can afford to let go of. But the effort initially would be not to lay-off. (The truth is never spoken with the media, it is often shared with the employees)
"We will put employees on the bench, which means we will give them the basic support they need to run their families. But we will cut down the special allowances and even the performance-linked incentives that they are entitled too. We are stopping allowances such as LTA," says the CHRO of a leading consumer durable company. "We will use that money to pay their fixed salaries until the situation improves. Our intent is to avoid giving pink slips as far as possible," he further explains.
This is the state of every other country, some countries have plans to cope with but we have no clue what has hit us. A disaster that was about to happen and thankfully we morons have created. From Ebola to Covid-19, in fact, today every natural disaster is a result of human greed. Environmental editor John Vidal traveled to Mayibout 2 in 2004 to investigate why deadly diseases new to humans were emerging from biodiversity “hot spots” like tropical rainforests and bushmeat markets in African and Asian cities.
With countries going into partial or complete lockdown to inculcate the need for the behaviour of social distancing, human beings are finding solace online. Meeting rooms have transformed into Zoom online video calls. LinkedIn is no more a professional network, it's now kids and parents network. LinkedIn management won’t be complaining because it has been a blessing in disguise.
India’s working class from the rich to the poor is completely locked into their houses. So it means they are also spending more time online than before.
Instagram and TikTok Live
For instance, let’s talk about the idea of going on live with your followers and friends. Instagram has the Live feature where you can go live anytime with a click of a button and the best thing is you can invite people to your Live stream. This feature has been there for a while off late it is the go to thing. And it sits right at the top with your Instagram Stories, so the chances of missing are rare and Instagram also notifies your friends and followers. Everyone has jumped onto it (including yours truly doing Live sessions with people about their cool interests).
Yesterday Kevin Pietersen did an Instagram Live with Rohit Sharma where both discussed their day, life, family, and obviously cricket. Later in the evening, Rohit got into an Instagram Live with Yuzvendra Chahal - the chat was hilarious, both discussed their routine, life and Yuzvendra’s latest TikTok video with his dad.
I won’t be surprised if Breakfast with Champions goes Live on Instagram. I am also waiting for brands to feature on the Live with their ambassadors and dumb product placements. (I am not even discussing the massive reach these live videos got. Instagram might have a breaking moment if Virat does a live video with Dhoni.)
Bollywood has also joined the bandwagon. But Internet influencers have been the most active on Instagram Live because they know how to use this medium. My favourite has been Beyounick aka Nick who has been quite regular with Instagram Live. Vir Das is another legend who has been doing the same for his Happy Home Concert.
Vir has also joined TikTok. Talking about TikTok - the fastest growing app globally and Instagram’s biggest competitor is also getting its act together for its live feature. Right now the feature is only available with celebrities and influencers got cricketer Suresh Raina to interact with fans. The latest one to join the bandwagon was YoYo Honey Singh and I am sure in the next few days it will get more stars for live interaction.
Celebrities won’t mind these interactions because everyone is at home and this is just free reach and PR too. However, it would be interesting to know how long before the feature opens for everyone on the TikTok app.
Similarly, LinkedIn has a live feature but it is a boring length process to apply for it and then the company will review to give you access. I am confident that this will change because the matured professional audience is also using Zoom for discussing on topics like how brands should market in the times of Covid-19 (my simple advice: if you don’t have anything just shut the fuck up, don’t send those lame emails how you can still shop with us in Corona times.)
Events are going Live
With the ongoing pandemic threat, one of the industries that have been brutally hit is the offline events and entertainment business. IPL is postponed, the Olympics are being postponed if not canceled, multiplexes have been shut for a while and all other offline concerts are either shut or have been postponed into the future. Because no one knows what will happen tomorrow.
According to Rajat Kakar, CEO PPL India, “Public performance income, a large part of the music industry’s livelihood, especially that of the smaller music labels that survive on this revenue source, has taken a beating due to cancellation of events. These smaller labels need public performance revenues to survive.”
Some offline events are now changing their way of doing business and are going online. For instance, Adobe’s yearly summit is now going to be online on March 31, 2020. Similarly, BookMyShow whose primary business has been online ticket booking for events and entertainment is taking the digital route.
“Live from HQ” is a platform that will provide users with the experience of live events. BMS would be broadcasting live performances from March 25 to April 1 featuring popular independent music, comedy, and other performance artists through Instagram and Facebook.
From today Bacardi NH7 Weekender is also going live with the likes of Abish Mathew, FKJ, and more. The happiest music festival is going to be live-streamed on Instagram and TikTok.
Even religion is also embracing live streaming. In Finland, Ramil Belyaev, an imam from the Finnish Islamic Community in Helsinki, led prayers via a Facebook Live broadcast. Sofia Abasolo, an English teacher and translator in Genoa, Italy, dressed up her two sons, aged two and three, as if they were going to church, and put on a televised service, streamed live from the Vatican.
Zoos Victoria has launched Animal House, a selection of (so far) four live feeds from its animal enclosures in Melbourne and Werribee zoos. Here is one from the Zebra home.
Like every other business is jumping into the business of hand sanitizer, I am assuming that live streaming business will become a regular thing. But will we pay? Let that debate be for another day.
For now let’s just stay home, watch amazing online content and spend time with our loved ones.