UPDATED 12:58 EST / NOVEMBER 10 2011

NEWS

Social Video Takes Lead with Spreecast and LiveLead Services

Social videos have become a rage these days and this is quite evident from lots of startup companies coming up with similar services. Two of the latest ones include Spreecast and LiveLead, who are offering live-group video session services, and help users broadcast themselves and enjoy videos together. But more or less, both these have lots of features common with Google+ Hangouts.

Spreecast, founded by StubHub’s founder Jeff Fluhr, lets groups of people broadcast themselves, and offers live group-video sessions that are instantly archived. It is especially for users who want to attract people online by becoming broadcasters. Public spreecasts lets up to four people on camera at a time, and allows all others to participate in text chat through their Facebook, Twitter, or Spreecast account.

Unlike Spreecast, LiveLead allows private sharing of video and photo content. As of now, it requires a Facebook account for joining and sets up private rooms, where friends view content and have a text chat. Anyone in the room can take the lead and flow out something new so that everyone else can see it. Though both these services have recently entered in the domain, there are several other ventures Tinychat, Paltalk, Livestream, Socialeyes, and Operator11 have already tried their luck. Moreover, ClipSync, Google Hangouts, and new Flickr “Photo Sessions are also providing similar services, in the form of communal content-viewing experiences. Though new in the market, let’s see how Spreecast and LiveLead perform, and serve their audience.

Social video sharing and communication collaboration is becoming the next-big-thing in the market for connecting both mobile and home users–this attention generated a summer boom in startups and idealism. Add in feature rich applications like Klip and the amount of money pouring into TV streaming like Netflix and similar ventures, and you’re developing the perfect storm to bring the social cloud into the hand and into the living room. In fact, with the Xbox Kinect and Microsoft-Skype leading the charge to put the Xbox as an entertainment and communication center as these solutions mainstream we’ll see them promoted higher in the public consciousness.


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