Facebook uses Lollapalooza to test a new live-streaming feature

At the music festival, Facebook has started testing a new feature that allows people to live stream events on the social network, taking on the likes of Snapchat head-on. The Snapchat-esque motive behind Facebook led the company to offer a wide range of streaming content in the U.S. Facebook merged the public content such as stage photos with content from their own friends attending the event. The “live” aspect is new, though.

“This is the first time Place Tips will be implemented for an event and until now, Place Tips have only been available when you’re at a particular place”, a company spokesperson said in an email. During Facebook’s recent earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Instagram one of the “best places to get a real-time snapshot of the world”, and the app’s recent redesign puts a much greater emphasis on tapping into live events.

Snapchat launched the “Our Story” feature, which allows attendees at an event to post pictures and videos to a single stream, last year at the Electric Daisy Carnival.

Facebook told in a statement: “This Lollapalooza experience is just one of the many ways Facebook is trying to help people get the feel of an event when they’re not there”. Twitter is supposed to join the fray with Project Lightning.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the United States users can now visit Lollapalooza event page to view videos, photos, updates and posts from the festival, from the bands, friends and artists. Facebook says Lollapalooza is a test, and it will continue to explore applications for the feature in the future.