How Key Opinion Leaders are Changing the Nature of Streaming in Asia

While the idea of the MCN (Multi Channel Network) might have burned bright but mostly fizzled out in the western hemisphere, they are thriving throughout much of the ASIAPAC region as an increasing number of businesses have come to rely on their talent to drive attention to their products and services.

The primary driver of MCN success has been the KOLs - Key Opinion Leaders - influential streaming personalities that engage with viewers across all demographics and drive everything from increased viewing engagement right through to purchases of goods and services.

According to AIB China, over 50% of Chinese online consumers born in the 90’s will stream at least daily, with Business Insider estimating that the market is worth 4.3 billion USD. These MCN platforms, in combination with KOLs, are becoming an extremely popular and valuable marketing tool for businesses of all types.

One of the keys to the success of KOLs is their ability to engage with their audience in real time, meaning that the infrastructure that supports their streaming be resilient and offer as low latency as possible. In addition, given that a lot of KOL videos and stream are short, the spike in traffic demand for viewing can be significant, pushing traditional backend services to their limit as they try to cope with the demand.

At Varnish Software, we’ve eschewed the traditional approach of having a ton of servers ready and waiting to answer demand, as this in inefficient and costly. Our Streaming Server solution is designed to scale rapidly by using a number of techniques that don’t require you to pay for servers that you might rarely use, while also enabling ultra low latency streaming, meaning rapidly delivery and - in the case of KOLs - near instantaneous interaction with your viewers.

Varnish Software will have some of our key technical and business development people attending the Broadcast Asia show in Singapore on June 18-20, so if you want to get a better idea of how we can help you answer your content delivery and streaming needs, get in touch and book a meeting.