Smiletime, launched publicly Wednesday, is the new live-streaming service for creators to interact live with viewers.
Image: smiletime

For the last four years, Danika Lee Massey has been talking about X-Men, other superheroes and Game of Thrones with thousands of fans. More commonly known as Comic Book Girl 19, she spends hours each week producing YouTube videos about her theories and reviews.

But earlier this year, after signing with crowdfunding site Patreon, she embraced the idea that not every video she makes has to be so finely edited and scripted.

We recently launched on Patreon, and one of the things they suggested to us was live shows, talking to an audience live. I reached out to a friend of mine. Im not a tech person, but I was talking to friends of mine about live-streaming, Massey told Mashable while driving to the Smiletime studio in Santa Monica.

Smiletime, launched out of beta Wednesday, is the latest service betting that livestreaming is the future of video consumption and mobile. It joins an increasingly crowded market with Facebook Live, Twitters Periscope, Amazons Twitch, YouNow and a flood of startups.

The majority of the apps offer what YouTube and TV traditionally lack live commentary and other interactive experiences for viewers. Creators, like Massey, can answer fans questions and the viewers can talk amongst themselves in the chat box alongside the broadcast.

Being able to interact with fans that are really awesome and really excited about the show and have real questions, thats something you dont get unless you go to conventions, Massey said.

On Smiletime, viewers can up-vote each others posts in the hopes of catching the broadcasters attention. Broadcasters can show comments on the screen along with other images through a simple drag-and-drop system. They can also request for a viewer to appear in a video chat alongside them and run live polls.

Creators, like Comic Book Girl 19 (pictured here), can run live polls for viewers.

Image: smiletime

Those features on Smiletime are not unlike those on other services. YouNow previously allowed up-voting but now relies on a virtual currency model, which Smiletime plans to incorporate in the future. Facebook is rolling out the option to invite viewers into the broadcast, which has already been a part of YouNow.

Smiletime is similar to other offerings that weve seen, said Chris Knowlton, vice president and streaming industry evangelist at Wowza, a media streaming software company. I looked at the app, looked at the Twitter feed. They said there were going to be different experiences.

The service got noticed back in December 2014 shortly after it closed a seed round of $1.5 million, according to Crunchbase. Were really thinking of Smilecasts as a place for broadcasters to innovate, and for viewers to connect, CEO and founder Alex Kruglov told Recode at the time.

“The future of is to create audience engagement with each other, to create that electric feel.”

That mission has not changed. The future of is to create audience engagement with each other, to create that electric feel that you experience at a concert or a panel discussion or a classroom forum, whether its politics, or comedy or music. You get that feeling from not just seeing a great performance but also bonding with the fellow crowd members, Kruglov told Mashable.

Over the last two years, Kruglov has overseen improving the product and attracting talent. Kruglov hails from Hulu, where he was the head of content acquisition from 2008 to 2014. His founding team at Smiletime includes Sharon Chang, who works in multimedia and brand strategy, and Jace Hall, who works in video games and eSports.

The first stage of the business focused on attracting significantly-sized networks to stream on Smiletime. For instance, The CW hosts FanTalk,” where actors and fans talk about The Flash, Arrow and other shows. TMZ has been using Smiletime five days a week since July 2015.

Smiletime has been a tremendous partner. Theres just no other platform out there allowing this type of direct engagement. Smiletime offers the technology to make the audience just as much a participant as they are a viewer, Jim Crosby, executive director of digital for TMZ, wrote in an email.

A broadcaster or a producer can drag comments onto the main screen to show to all viewers.

Image: smiletime

The engagement is impressive for a service that has not been publicly touted and remains unrecognized among many people in the live-streaming industry. On Smiletime, nearly 50 percent of viewers comment. The average viewing time for a video lasting at least an hour is 44 minutes.

Smiletime declined to share active user numbers or other audience metrics.

The next phase, Kruglov says, is allowing anyone to broadcast and releasing more options for creators to be paid. Smiletime allows broadcasters to have sponsorships and will soon offer a virtual tipping system. Unlike Facebook, Smiletime is not paying celebrities, athletes and media companies to create live videos (Mashable is a Facebook Live partner).

We dont do that. Were in the technology business. Were in the platform business, Kruglov said. I believe strongly that creators need to be paid, and they need to get compensated. If not theyll go somewhere else.

“I believe strongly that creators need to be paid”

Smiletime relies on Facebook for distribution and sign-ups. Broadcasters can simulcast their videos on Smiletime and Facebook. The comments do not sync and viewers on Facebook will not be able to participate in Smiletimes interactive features. Additionally, watching on Smiletime requires a Facebook account for now.

Kruglov does not fear Facebook eating away at his business. Facebook absolutely has the ability to do whatever they want, he said. I would say having a video pop up in your News Feed is really distinct from having a full immersive environment where all youre doing is taking in a video experience.

Additionally, Kruglov envisions a perception in the marketplace where Smiletime “stands for high-quality” content, he said.

Even so, Smiletime embodies a service for easy-to-create and distribute content that has resonated with YouTube creators looking for more options.

“One video we did for Smiletime was 45 minutes of me bitching about X-Men Apocalypse. I didn’t want to do anything highly produced. I just wanted to do it on Smiletime. That ended up doing really well for us,” Massey said.

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