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Meerkat

Ordinary people are making money from live-streaming

Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY

Andrew Bachelor, a.k.a., "King Bach," talks to his online fans on the YouNow app.

LOS ANGELES — You've probably heard about Meerkat and Periscope, the two live video streaming apps that launched this year to big headlines, and heavy usage from the technorati.

We're guessing that if we also mentioned YouNow in the same breath, you'd probably draw a blank.

Here's a friendly tip: Ask your kids.

YouNow is the live-streaming app that's bringing in money, and attracting huge audiences, with 100 million user sessions monthly. Its audience is mostly teens, watching YouTube performers interacting directly with their fans.

Like YouTube, YouNow shares revenues with its most popular talent. Some of the folks interacting with fans are making as much as $10,000 monthly, according to the company.

"YouNow is my bread and butter," says Andrew Bachelor, known online on YouTube, Vine and YouNow as "King Bach." YouTube, he says, is for video skits, while "YouNow is in the moment."

Unlike YouTube, which rewards popular performers with a piece of the ad revenues, YouNow has no ads but virtual currency. Starting at $2.99 a pop, fans can buy "likes," to help the performers "trend," and other goods. And there's a tip jar to put money directly into the performers' pockets.

Every Tuesday, high school seniors Vanessa and Veronica Merrell go on YouNow to talk to fans, sing songs and play games.

They appear on YouTube too, but on YouNow, "we can be ourselves," says Veronica Merrell, 18. "On YouTube, we hear from them in the comments. On YouNow, we get a much bigger and immediate reaction."

The $10,000 cited by YouNow is on the high end. The twins say they bring in anywhere from $500 to $1,000 monthly.

YouTube on the smartphone.

The site was founded by Adi Sideman in 2012 at a time when other then-popular sites like Livestream, uStream and Justin.TV offered the ability to broadcast live online for free. The other sites were perhaps ahead of their time. The business model for the first two has changed to premium, and Justin.TV shut down in 2014.

Which leaves the new entries, led by Meerkat and Periscope (which is owned by Twitter), Hang'w and YouNow.

"It's great to see the market aware of this new format now," Sideman says. "We don't see a crossover between the audience's Meerkat and Periscope attract older viewers, while we're focused on youth."

David Pakman, a partner with Venrock, which has invested in YouNow, says it makes sense to build a brand with the teen market first. They are the ultimate early adopters for sites like Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube, which were all discovered by young folks first.

"They have the most amount of free time," he says. "The word of mouth spreads, and older viewers start joining later."

YouNow currently has 5 million members, and while it's a long way from Pakman's goal of 100 million, "we'll get there," he says. "We're confident we've hit a tipping point, and the service will grow very big."

Sideman says traffic is up 10 times over the same period a year ago.


To start making money on YouNow as a performer, Sideman says it can take time: "It won't happen overnight," he says. "But if you're persistent, and like to talk, jump on."

To make money with the service, you need to apply online to be part of YouNow's "Partner" program. Requirements: you need to broadcast at least twice a week and build up an average audience of at least 500 viewers per show.

It also helps to be young, between 13 and 24, to connect with the young viewers.

The Merrell twins say to get to 500+ viewers, you need to be social — tweet and Instagram your appearances, and follow the popular hashtags on the service for your subjects.

For instance, "musicians," "girls," "guys" and "dance" are big, so use those broadcast accordingly.

Also, "make sure to be nice," says Vanessa Merrell. "If you're nice, people will like you."

The live streams attract "haters," who are very vocal during the live sessions, but the twins say the love online drowns out the hate.


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