Kamcord, the YC-backed company that offers a Twitch-like game streaming service for mobile devices, has just made its biggest announcement yet after allowing any user of its Android app to live stream their games.
It’s not the first app to offer this feature: the YouTube Mobile app and Sony screen recorder are also among those who also do the job – but Kamcord is notable for its mobile-only focus, which helps it gain popularity among streamers and gaming fans.
The US-based startup started offering game replays, but it added live stream viewing to its US Android app in July. At that time, only a handful of broadcasters could stream from their phones, and even then it required a fairly sophisticated setup of cables and a desktop machine. But now the cables are gone! Those with an Android device can stream on the fly, but it’s a move that will likely democratize livestreaming among “normal” users, rather than existing game celebrities.
“Our goal has always been to get people to interact through broadcasting,” Kamcord co-founder Adi Rathnam told TechCrunch in an interview. “A lot of our viewers want to create content but just don’t have the means to do so. This [new update] will give Kamcord a whole new appeal.
The update is Android-only at this point, as Apple’s iOS operating system doesn’t offer the necessary screen capture APIs to enable live streaming. (So if you want to live stream games, get an Android phone or have two devices.)
Kamcord has recently focused on expanding its presence in Asia, having raised $15 million primarily for international expansion last year. It initially targeted Japan and Korea, two of the most lucrative gaming markets in the world, opening offices and hiring local teams in Tokyo and Seoul. Last month, it went a step further by introducing the live streaming feature among the top figures in games in both countries.
This had two major impacts on business. First, Rathnam explained that there are “no more peak times” on the service as the United States falls asleep. Instead, traffic flares up in Korea and Japan, among other places, during off-peak hours in the United States.
Second, the ratio of iOS to Android devices has gone from around 50-50 to around 60-40 in favor of Android. This is particularly important given today’s announcement for Android users – and will likely create an increase in new content, which means Kamcord’s engineering team will be on standby for Christmas to ensure the service stays online despite a potentially huge increase in traffic and activity.
This inevitable surge of new content through the ability to live stream on Android also poses a challenge in terms of content curation. Kamcord will continue to place top streams on its homepage based on popularity — metrics such as concurrent users and number of cores per stream — but Rathnam added that his team will also reach out to new streamers they identify. as having the potential to grow on the service. For an example of where things stand: Clash Of Clans player Galadon now has more subscribers on Kamcord that on Twitter — despite accumulating Kamcord’s followers in less than six months and Twitter’s number in three to four years.
“Our pool of broadcasters is about to grow from tens of thousands to [potentially] hundreds of millions,” Rathnam said.
Do you like streaming mobile games or are curious to find out? You can grab the Kamcord Android app here.
