#Facebook - Donations During Live-Stream

Facebook's reportedly looking to trial a new system which would enable people to donate money during a Live stream, with those donations - and donators - displayed during the broadcast.

The discovery is based on currently dormant back-end settings within Facebook Live, discovered by Moshe Isaacian(and shared by The Next Web’s Matt Navarra) earlier this week.

Facebook's been investigating ‘tip jar’ type options for a while – back in April The Verge got access to a Facebook survey which had been sent out to verified users posing a range of questions around how they use Facebook, including whether they might find a tip jar option useful. If introduced, it could give Live broadcasters a new way to monetize their streams, and a new incentive to provide more value to their viewers, to whom they could directly appeal for funding to keep doing what they do. And worth noting, both YouNow and Twitch, which Facebook is now competing with in the live-streaming space, have donation options which, in YouNow’s case, enable a sort of digital busking option for artists.

That’s very likely the type of activity Facebook’s looking to encourage, giving broadcasters more reason to create content on the platform.

There’s no word as yet as to when, or even if, the tip jar system will ever be activated, but given it’s already built into the code, it’s likely we’ll see the tool announced some time soon.

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