While Twitch is completely dominating the streaming market, TikTok seems to be quietly working on its own alternative streaming software called TikTok Live Studio.
Although TikTok has proven to be quite the social media sensation, it still doesn’t offer some features that would allow its stars to keep viewers on the platform. Specifically, if a TikToker wants to do a video game livestream, they must go to Twitch or YouTube Gaming, and, therefore, take their users with them. But for TikTok, the goal is to keep people on its platform for as long as possible. So, the company has started working on a Windows program called TikTok Live Studio, which would allow users to stream their content from their desktop directly to TikTok Live.
So far, the program is being tested in a few Western markets and only for a few thousand people. The current version is fairly limited, but still allows users to monetize their streams, set up keyword filters, and enable gifting and comments. But there are still many important features missing, such as browser window sharing, assigning moderators, and scheduling streams. It is, however, expected that these features could be added in later iterations of the program, but for now, the main purpose of the program is to help TikTok’s ongoing research into how creators will actually use the program.
Currently, the company doesn’t give any information on when TikTok Live Studio will roll out, and doesn’t give any guarantees that it actually ever will. However, if the research shows promise, TikTok could start putting more effort in the program and start catering it towards the needs of content creators.
If it does kick off, the program could bridge the gap between mobile and desktop users of TikTok, and potentially pose a challenge to platforms like Twitch, which has essentially been dominating the livestreaming market, with YouTube gaming being the only real competition.
Considering TikTok now boasts over 1 billion users worldwide, the rising social media platform certainly has what it takes to pull over a significant portion of Twitch’s audience, which measures at 140 million unique users per month.