INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Musical.ly has begun redirecting users of its Live.ly app, which it decided to kill off last month, to a competing app called LiveMe
Existing Live.ly users are being pointed to LiveMe through an in-app message, it says
While it a fairly common industry practice for companies to direct users to similar apps or services when a product of theirs is being
sunsetted, in this case, Musical.ly decision to close down Live.ly and send users to LiveMe was actually a contractually obligated part of
Musical.ly nearly $1 billion acquisition by Chinese technology company Bytedance last year.
A clause in Bytedance agreement to acquire
Musical.ly stated that, if the deal went through, Musical.ly would have to close Live.ly within six months,according to a source with
knowledge of the deal.
The agreement also said that Live.ly would have to point users to LiveMe for at least 30 days following its closure,
we learned, when verifying the information.
The issue at hand was a competing investment & right around the time of the Musical.ly
acquisition, Bytedance had also put $50 million into the live-streaming app LiveMe
Apparently, it didn&t want to operate two rival properties.
Clearly, this request was not a deal-breaker for Musical.ly & in fact, it
integrating Live.ly feature set into its own app
That means it will still be something of a competitor to LiveMe, though now no longer a direct one
Musical.ly main app, after all, is not known today for its live streaming, but rather for lip syncing videos that are recorded and edited
using the app included visual effects and editing tools.
In addition, Live.ly had not been able to attract the viewership numbers that
The company said, when confirming Live.ly closure last month, the majority of live stream views were taking place in Musical.ly itself, not
in its spinoff.
That said, Live.ly had a fair number of users
Though nowhere near as big as Musical.ly 200+ million registered users or 60 million actives, its live stream app had 26 million installs,
around 70 percent in the U.S., according to Sensor Tower data.
But LiveMe is bigger & it has more than 60 million users and has paid out
over $30 million to its broadcasters through its direct virtual gifting program, the company claims.
LiveMe is also not the only app
Other LiveMe portfolio apps include the social short video app Cheez, and mobile gaming and esports live streaming app Fluxr
To date, it has raised a total of $110 million.
Live.ly isn&t only redirecting users to LiveMe, however
In its own announcement about the news today, it shows a screenshot that pointing Live.ly users to Twitter Periscope, for instance
The message also notes that the Live.ly domain name is for sale, and provides an email for sales inquiries.
Musical.ly hasn&t yet responded
to a request for comment.
