live streaming

Is live streaming your life good business or dangerous?

Samantha Firth, a 21-year-old nanny living in Chicago, walks to the subway with her friend. So far, so ordinary.

But she is simultaneously broadcasting her 15-minute journey live via her mobile to thousands of avid followers.

"You guys are lit," she says excitedly as she looks at the stream of rolling messages and emojis that are popping up on her screen from her fans.

"I love you... you guys are the best," she exclaims, before heading onto the subway and zooming the camera in on a spot on her forehead.

Trump's inauguration breaks live streaming records

At its peak, a record 8.7Tbps of live video was streamed, according to content delivery network Akamai Technologies.

The previous record of 7.5Tbps was set during US election day coverage on 8 November 2016.

The figures reflect the growing popularity of online streaming.

In the US, 31 million people watched Mr Trump's inauguration on television, compared with 38 million who watched Barack Obama becoming president in 2009.

However, video traffic of Mr Obama's inauguration reached a peak of just 1.1Tbps the same year.

At A Glance: Livestreaming apps beyond Facebook Live

Livestreaming has also made the news in recent weeks as House Democrats used Periscope to broadcast a sit-in over gun control after the Republican majority cut off television cameras. It was also got attention when a Minnesota woman used Facebook Live to stream footage of her dying boyfriend after he was shot by police.

And it might come up during the Olympics if spectators and athletes livestream events publicly - a violation of ticketing and Olympic rules and a challenge to the billions of dollars TV companies pay for rights.

Taylor Swift doesn't want fans to live stream her concerts

A cluster of hardcore fans have been using Periscope to live stream her 1989 world tour over the summer, but the star has formed a dedicated enforcement team to have the social network broadcasts taken down.

TAS Rights Management (TAS stands for Taylor Alison Swift) have been getting in touch with Periscope, according to TorrentFreak, asking them to remove links to footage from Taylor's shows.

Periscope - the Twitter-owned live stream app - has significantly grown in popularity throughout 2015 and is starting to cause problems among copyright holders.