Almost half of the total world population—nearly 3.48 billion people—are using some form of social media. While giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat have hundreds of millions, even billions of users, niche apps are building their own small but dedicated communities as well.
No matter the size of an app’s user base, it has to make money to survive. Many social apps are free to use and depend largely on advertisers or paid features for revenue, so finding ways to increase in-app engagement and create revenue streams outside of downloads is crucial to the app’s long-term success. That’s why many developers incorporate live engagement features in their social apps.
Plan on building your own social app? Implementing live video, voice, and interactive streaming features into your user experience can help you stand out amongst the competition and open a variety of engagement-driven revenue streams.
More Engagement Leads to More Revenue
The goal of any app is to increase engagement among users and with the app itself, but social apps are particularly dependent on their engagement metrics, as the numbers are used to drive in-app advertising and other app monetization opportunities. However, finding a way to keep users engaged and encourage them to return to the app beyond the initial download can be difficult. That’s why more social apps are implementing live features—live interactive streaming and live group chat into the user experience.
For example, UPlive created “Live,” a feature that allows users to live stream, watch other live streams, invite others to join their live streams and chat with other users in real time.
Better User Retention Leads to More Opportunities
Another benefit of implementing real-time features like live voice chat and video chat is an increase in user retention. Rather than use text messaging, FaceTime, or another app to communicate with their friends and family, users are compelled to communicate within the social app for a more convenient experience. This leads to an increase in usage time, which can help developers and product owners increase their advertising revenue.
While there are several dedicated voice and video messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Zoom, many have faced scrutiny for their lack of security and data practices. That’s why many users are willing to pay for live voice and video calls—especially if the quality of experience and service is high. This presents a unique opportunity for social apps that uphold strong security practices to monetize their live video and voice offerings.
The More Interactive the Experience, the Better
Live engagement is about more than just adding real-time video and voice to an app. By incorporating add-on options and in-app purchases, developers and business managers can encourage even more user interactions and build new monetization channels outside of in-app advertising, such as:
Virtual gifting.
What started as a trend on international live streaming platforms has become increasingly popular in the U.S. and other parts of the world, especially as more social apps look for ways to pay their creators for their contributions to the community.
Virtual filters and stickers.
Animated filters and stickers have become very popular amongst social app users.
Voice-changing filters.
Like animated filters and stickers, voice effects offer users a way to customize their social experience.
Integrate Your Own Live Engagement Features
No matter what type of social app you want to create, ZEGOCLOUD offers a variety of high-quality, scalable real-time communications solutions that you can quickly and easily integrate to create a truly engaging user experience. ZEGOCLOUD’s SDKs come with a powerful tech stack for delivering live video and voice directly from inside your app.
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