We heard that BeLive was built from a two-men team to what is now, a global group of 30 people spread across five countries. You are one of those men in the initial team, Daniel. Before we go further, tell our readers about you.
I’m Daniel Mayer, the Co-founder and CEO of BeLive. I founded two web-based broadcasting startups like AweVid, among other exciting business endeavours. It has been an exceptional experience leading a global team of over 30 people in five countries and helping the company grow its user base nine-fold. When I’m not busy at work, the thrill of snowboarding excites me.
What is BeLive?
BeLive is an easy-to-use live streaming platform for ecommerce retailers, influencers, small business owners, and all content creators. There’s zero installation and no set-up required. Photos, videos, and text can be inserted within the broadcast to create a talk show-like experience.
BeLive was the first live streaming company to introduce real-time on-screen comments from viewers, which enabled a two-way communication, and thereby created an optimal platform for community engagement.
With BeLive, you’re just one click away from having your own talk show.
How did the idea of BeLive first came about, Daniel?
Years back, my longtime friend and now BeLive Chief Technology Officer, Tzafrir Rehan, wanted to come up with the best solution for people who want to do a one-man show. We took inspiration from the learning and insights we’ve gained from making AweVid, a multi-person broadcasting platform. At that time, it was complicated because you needed to have many people that would stream on it and a producer who had to oversee everything. By May 2016, Facebook launched the live API, so we wanted to create the simplest and effective live streaming platform that we can integrate into Facebook Live. And there it was: BeLive.
The first idea was for people to sit in front of their desktop and broadcast anywhere in the world and get live comments to be shown on-screen. We had positive feedback from our users that time, and then from these insights, we wanted a better platform so we developed screen sharing, and the next thing we know, BeLive grew from having one-man shows to virtual talk shows, and today even live shopping.
What sets BeLive apart from the rest?
BeLive is a simple but powerful tool. In 2016, BeLive has made live streaming more easy and it lessened the friction in doing live broadcasts. We pioneered a simpler and more efficient way of live streaming. Before, you need to use tools like OBS which can be a complicated software to navigate, plus it usually takes a vast learning curve to understand everything all at once. But with BeLive, we are the first to establish the biggest community of livestreamers. In fact, today we now have an awesome family of more than 24 thousand BeLivers… and counting!
Ever since day one, we wanted to support our users and the livestreaming community by offering them superb services that can make their live shows successful. One of the fundamental things we do in BeLive is to keep track of the trends and understand our market so we can leverage for improvement.
Long before live selling went popular, we have already pioneered such a feature on our platform. Last year, we noticed that our users are actively using the tool and since then, we have continuously optimised it. Knowing what our community wants and needs is the key to make everyone happy and satisfied.
You seem to have built such an ardent community with this platform in such a short time. How is that possible?
BeLive is user-centric. I believe that the key is understanding what works for your audience and using that knowledge to upgrade your services. We value our users like our families. We provide them knowledge and assistance to support their goals. I believe that’s one of the reasons why our BeLivers remain loyal.
In addition, our BeLivers Facebook group is a wonderful platform where we can get in touch with our users, and we see to it that we nurture our relationship with them over the years. Aside from that, we also have a fantastic support team who make sure that we address concerns immediately.
In BeLive, we value 3Cs: Commerce. Connections. Community.
Let’s talk a little about your marketing and promotional campaigns for BeLive, Daniel.
With the hope of supporting our community and making their shows engaging, we regularly give free webinars and tips on our Facebook page. We make livestream a dream. We have been constantly doing it in the last four years, making us the first live streaming platform to implement such initiative. Today, these shows are hosted by our BeLive Ambassadors Molly Mahoney and Owen Hemsath. Molly helps online business owners to boost their profits using Facebook Live, while Owen hosts the show BeLiveWeekly on the BeLive Facebook page where he shares the latest updates about BeLive as well as tips and tricks about live streaming.
A huge chunk of our market is from the USA. It feels good to know that big brands, media outlets, and retailers find BeLive useful, not to mention that we are catching the attention of Forbes and Social Media Today in our promotional campaigns. To know that we have American broadcasters using BeLive like Avon USA, CBS Sunday Morning, Barnes and Noble, Scholastic Book Fairs and Chonda Pierce among others, inspires us to continue doing our best.
We also have broadcasters from Asia including: Cetaphil Philippines, Pascual Creamy Delight Yogurt, Fingo Thailand, British Council Sri Lanka, BBC Vietnam and MediaCorp Malaysia and Singapore. These days, it will be difficult for a brand to thrive if they don’t have a strong digital presence.
I notice there is some sort of a trend in your company; everyone is fresh, energetic, lively – are these some of the traits you look for when getting people to work with BeLive?
We value talented and driven people who can adapt to the fast world of startups. I say that because I have worked in several startups before and I realise that the team must be flexible enough to recalculate their plans and create or improve strategies once they spot a recent trend or see a big disruption in the market.
I had the chance to use BeLive when co-hosting a talk show some weeks back and I love how seamless it is. Walk us through what kind of technology goes behind your platform.
BeLive uses advanced web technologies to allow our users to go live directly from their browser, without installing any software on their computers.
A cliché but definitely need asking; where do you see BeLive in five years?
I see BeLive and our users dominating the live streaming ecosystem. BeLivers will be known for their wonderful live videos and insightful broadcasts. And I see myself leading a growing passionate global team and a thriving community of BeLivers around the world.
We are always looking to provide efficient and holistic solutions for our users. BeLive is already professional looking and easy to use, but we are making sure that we remain relevant and useful to livestreamers, broadcasters, brands, and content creators. We want everyone to be super connected while socially distanced.
How can our readers reach you?
I would love to hear more from the Marketing in Asia community, and other livestreamers and broadcasters in Asia and absolutely anywhere in the world. Everyone is welcome in BeLive! So please say hello, or send feedback on dmayer@belive.tv.
