BeLive’s Co-Founder and CEO Kenneth Tan
In this era, consumers devour enormous amounts of video content daily on multiple social media platforms — a whopping 86 per cent of global internet traffic in 2022 was used for video content. They increasingly turn to digital platforms not just for social interactions but also for their shopping needs. What distinguishes this trend is the seamless integration of purchasing opportunities within the social media experience. It means shopping has become an integral feature on popular social platforms.
For consumers, social commerce means their favourite social networks now serve as marketplaces, too. On the other hand, for businesses, this translates into an unprecedented opportunity to engage with their target audience directly, transforming their online presence into a thriving store.
One Singaporean company has been catalysing the adoption of live and interactive videos since 2014. BeLive Technology allows any website or app to broadcast live video with interactive elements such as live shopping platforms and analytics, live virtual gifting, and live trivia game shows.
In this interview, BeLive’s Co-Founder and CEO Kenneth Tan discusses the company’s offerings and current position in the evolving landscape of social commerce and shares insights into its future plans.
What gap in the market did you identify that led to the establishment of BeLive Technology?
BeLive Technology was founded to address the gap in the market for businesses seeking to harness the power of interactive video commerce, specifically in the live video commerce space.
Many larger enterprises were reluctant to rely entirely on public live-streaming platforms like Facebook and Instagram Live due to a lack of ownership, first-party data collection, customisation, and insufficient engagement or conversion features like add-to-cart or virtual gifting.
We recognised the need for an end-to-end solution providing businesses with more control and tailored services for their live and short video needs.
Could you share your insights on the evolving trends in social commerce and its foreseeable future? How does BeLive stay attuned to emerging trends and develop its offerings accordingly? How many clients do you currently serve?
BeLive Technology serves customers and partners that invest in social commerce across multiple verticals like retail, broadcast and e-commerce. Even though we have a thesis on how our solutions can drive the development of social commerce in the region, we are also in commonplace conversations with innovation leaders in the space, using their feedback to influence our product roadmap.
We serve diverse clients across the retail, e-commerce and broadcast verticals like Shopback, Trendyol, Genting Group and Mediacorp.
We employ a simple annual licensing revenue model pegged to user capacity and video traffic.
Also Read: Hard work takes over when talent fails: Latif Sim of BeLive Technology
How does BeLive leverage technology to enhance sellers’ and buyers’ social commerce experience?
Our easy-to-install video solutions transform traditional text and image-based digital properties into swipeable, shoppable video experiences. Any website or app can display full-screen TikTok or Instagram Reels-esque short and live videos that increase user engagement time and intent capture by 300 per cent.
BeLive’s video solutions include features like virtual gifting, levelling and add-to-cart buttons that significantly increase the buying and selling experiences. We also have a vast network of partners that allow us to tap into the latest video content and social commerce innovations, like virtual humans, XR live commerce and AI assistants.
What methods does BeLive employ to foster community and trust among its users?
BeLive’s video solution includes features like virtual gifting, levelling and add-to-cart buttons that significantly increase the seller-buyer experiences, bringing buyers closer to the creation of products that they love, introduced by KOLs (Key Opinion Leader) they trust.
Allowing merchants to broadcast authentic live videos and polished short videos directly on their shop pages and e-commerce platforms is invaluable for building brand trust and loyalty.
With data privacy concerns gaining prominence, how does BeLive Technology prioritise and ensure the security of user data and transactions?
All user data and transactions are stored not on BeLive’s servers but on our customers’ servers. We take only anonymous, aggregated user data to ensure maximum security and compliance for our enterprise customers and their users.
Also Read: Destroy your enemies by making them your friends: Kenneth Tan of BeLive
Besides traditional metrics, how does Belive Technology gauge its impact on fostering genuine connections between buyers and sellers?
One of our north-star metrics is “minutes delivered”, which directly correlates with the success of our customer’s video content generated. We have over five billion minutes, or the equivalent of 9,000 years of video content delivered so far!
BeLive Technology recently secured US$4.5 million in a bridge funding round. Could you shed light on the strategic goals or expansion areas this funding intends to support?
We invest deeply in our customers’ success, which involves constantly evolving our product, partner network and thought leadership.
Southeast Asia is on the cusp of a video-first revolution. Consumers are devouring enormous amounts of video content daily on multiple platforms; a whopping 86 per cent of global internet traffic in 2022 was used for video content!
This translates into the inevitable commoditisation of live video and short video broadcasts — every website and app in the world will eventually have a video solution like BeLive’s installed. With the support of our backers, we are sharpening our toolkits, streamlining processes and, most importantly, getting our heads down and building world-class, video-first experiences for our customers.
What innovations or developments can users and stakeholders anticipate from BeLive Technology in the next phase of its journey?
With video at our core, we will continue to build tools that empower content creation with clear business impact objectives like user time spent and intent capture.
We are also building the world’s first live and short video media network, helping brands simultaneously broadcast their videos on walled gardens and the open web. A brand can produce a single live stream or short video and have that video asset distributed seamlessly to any social platform, E-commerce platform or website that BeLive’s partner network covers.
Every video also has intelligent sentiment analysis, AI assistants and best-in-class interactive features.
—
Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.
The post How BeLive transforms text and image-based digital properties into shoppable video experiences appeared first on e27.