Your Tech Story

linkedin

LinkedIn is Rolling Out the Beta Version of its ‘Live’ Video Broadcasts in the U.S.

LinkedIn has revealed that it is going to launch the beta version of its new live video streaming feature. Tech Crunch on Monday spotted the news, according to which the company will be providing its invite-only live feature to be broadcasted for select groups in the U.S.

linkedin
Image Source: inc.com

The live feature will broadcast conferences, advice from the experts, news, interviews as well as events from big companies and famous influencers. The feature will also help people have discussions online.

Although the feature is an invite-only and is still in its beta, LinkedIn is also offering a contact form, through which, the people who want to try out the live streaming, can apply for it. The company has not given any clues on if the feature will be available for everyone or not.

For now, the feature is in its pilot mode and will be rolling out this week for testing. The company has collaborated with several third-party developers that have sufficient experience in live broadcasting streaming services development. The company aims at having posted more polished live videos on the platform, that matches the theme of LinkedIn. The third party developers may include Wirecast, Switcher Studio, Wowza Media Systems, Socialive and Brandlive, etc. and according to LinkedIn, more names will be added to the list. Also, Microsoft’s Azure Media Services will also work as a part of this effort.

Noticeably, Microsoft had acquired LinkedIn in 2016, but it has never interfered or been a part of the company’s working.

In August 2017, LinkedIn had also introduced a native video feature for users, which started functioning as in-feed video ads, last year in the spring. According to LinkedIn, the users are more likely to watch videos rather reading long static sponsored content. The company also revealed that it is already earning 30 per cent more comments over the videos ads.

Companies like Facebook and Twitter are already providing the same feature to their users, and it has been the biggest form for them to grab more user engagement. So it would be interesting to see how the live video streaming feature will change things for LinkedIn.

Reid Hoffman : The Mind Behind the Largest Corporate Social Network

Sometimes, it takes a long process for a person to understand and choose the right way that leads to his goals. Only a few can dream to help others achieve their dreams and bring out a positive change in the world. But if one truly wants to accomplish his dreams, he will find out a way. Same is the story of the infamous American internet entrepreneur and the venture capitalist- Reid Hoffman, who had initially dreamt about changing the world through his motivational speeches and eventually, reached out to a bigger platform and definitely have brought out his share of change.

Early Life

Reid Hoffman was born to William Parker Hoffman Jr. and Deanna Ruth, on 5 August 1967. He was born in Palo Alto, California and spent most of his childhood in Berkeley. He did his high school from The Putney School and earned his Bachelor Science degree in Symbolic Systems & Cognitive Science, from Stanford University. He was awarded a Marshall Scholarship and hence went to the Wolfson College, Oxford University to pursue a Master in Studies in Philosophy in 1993. He had also received a Dinkelspiel Award in his graduation from Stanford University.

Career

As a child, he always loved playing the tabletop roleplaying games. So in 1982, when he was just 12, he got his first job as an editor at a game developing company named as Chaosium. His work at the company was quite impressive, and in 1984, with the release of Chaosium’s ‘Borderlands’, a role-playing game, he got his name featured on its box, at the time he was just 14. He always wanted to become an influential person so that he can bring a change in the world. He had thought of becoming a professor. But soon he realised that writing books and reaching people can be a long way. So he diverted his mind towards entrepreneurship.

Reid Hoffman
Image Source: twimg.com

After graduating, he went to do an internship at Inglenook, a winery, followed by a job at Apple Computer. In Apple, he worked on a social network named as eWorld. After working for some time in Apple, he took a job at Fujitsu and in 1997, found his first company named as SocialNet.com. Soon after, setting up SocialNet.com, he joined PayPal as the COO, in 2000. His boss at PayPal, Peter Thiel says about Hoffman that he was a firefighter-in-chief at PayPal. At Paypal, he was responsible for most of the high-level jobs like payment infrastructure, government, legal issues, etc., that he handled efficiently under a great pressure.

Founding of LinkedIn

After eBay acquired Paypal, in 2002, Reid Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn, a professional social media network, with his old colleagues from SocialNet.com and Fujitsu. He also received some investment from his colleagues from Paypal, Peter Thiel and Keith Rabois. LinkedIn became a huge success and Hoffman became its founding CEO. Today, Hoffman holds a share worth $2.34 billion in Linked in and he serves as the Executive Chairman of the company. By 2014, LinkedIn had spread in more than 200 countries, with over 332 million members. In June 2016, Microsoft offered him an amount of $26.2 billion in cash for the acquisition of LinkedIn.

Investment, Writing & Motivational Speeches

LinkedIn was a huge success, after which, Hoffman found his interest in investment. He is one of the Angel investors, who are happily ready to invest in potential startups. It is said that Hoffman was the one who arranged the $500,000 angel investment meeting between Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel. Along with Peter, he had also invested in Facebook initially.

Reid Hoffman always wanted to become a positive influence the for its betterment. His desire of becoming a motivational speaker and writing books was always alive. He started writing from local blogs, followed by his ‘LinkedIn’s Series B Pitch to Greylock: Pitch Advice for Entrepreneurs’ and ‘LinkedinInfluencr’ blogs on LinkedIn. In February 2012, he released his first book ‘The Start-Up of You’ with co-author Ben Casnocha, that became the bestseller in New York and was critically acclaimed. In July 2014, he came with another release, ‘The Alliance’ with Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh.

Hoffman also started a podcast named as ‘Masters of Scale’ on 5 May 2017, where he discusses various counterintuitive business theories with successful entrepreneurs.

Personal Life

Hoffman got married to Michelle Yee, in 2004, and the two live in Palo Alto, California. Hoffman is also in Philanthropy and is a member of many NGOs. In 2016, he donated $20 million to a charity Biohub.