Unlike YouTube, Stream targets businesses only
Microsoft has finally launched Microsoft Stream. The announcement, which was made yesterday, has made available a streaming service that allows users to upload and share video content with their colleagues.
The Windows maker has launched the first preview of its new video streaming service and Office 365 Business users can try it out right away. Through Stream’s launch, the company aims to provide a de facto video sharing solution to businesses. The move has brought Microsoft in the spotlight, as it will help the company to stand in line with Google’s popular video streaming service, YouTube. The former’s new video streaming service enables businesses to share videos internally, with functions similar to those that YouTube offers.
“Starting today, anyone with a business email address can sign up for the preview in seconds and begin uploading, sharing and tagging videos in their organization,” Business Intelligence Products Group VP, James Philips, wrote. “By taking the ‘work’ out of managing video storage and security, Microsoft Stream enables organizations and their employees to communicate and collaborate with video more easily.”
Microsoft plans to integrate Stream with its PowerApps, SharePoint, and Flow in a bid to offer an improved experience to users. One of the most interesting features that Stream offers is treating videos on its platform as any other business document. Videos can be assigned to specific users; the streaming service will ensure that they won’t be shared externally.
The Windows maker has given developers an opportunity to use Stream API to build new applications for the platform. The company hopes to introduce new features for Stream ecosystem in the coming future.
“We’ve all been trained as consumers to understand what beautiful and fully featured software looks like,” said Mr. Philips. “And we are now delivering on those experiences in business software.”
Investors seem to be happy with the company’s move. Microsoft stock experienced a surge in its shares ever since it announced the roll out its new video streaming service. Yesterday, during mid-day trading hours, the company’s stock climbed up as high as 1.12%.
If Microsoft plans to compete against the likes of YouTube, it should introduce innovative features in order to lure businesses to join its platform. The latter currently boasts of one billion monthly active users (MAUs). Therefore, it is safe to assume that Microsoft should be prepared to face fierce competition in the video-streaming industry.
It will be interesting to see how the Windows maker plans to fit Stream in its product line-up. The tech giant already offers several video-sharing tools including Office 365 Video and SharePoint. According to the general manager of Azure Media Services, Sudheer Sirivara, Stream will take Office 365 Video’s place. According to a report, the tech giant plans to add features such as speech-to-text, automatic translations, and support for face-to-face recognition to Stream.
For now, it is unclear as to how much Microsoft plans to charge for its new service. In line with Power BI and PowerApps, we believe that Microsoft will allow users to subscribe to the free tier, which offers a relatively smaller set of services.
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