If there’s one thing social media and entertainment apps have always wanted, it is the joining of a Global star to their brand name. MyEye, a British live streaming startup rivalling periscope and Meerkat, has got just that. And it isn’t just a ‘global star’ backing them, its David Beckham people. Yep.
According to the company, Beckham will be a minority equity holder in its iOS/Android app. The app has been in stealth-mode for the past year.
According to reports, the total investment the company has managed in the whole region is almost £2 million.
Beckham has also signed a deal to use the app exclusively for short-term live streaming content. This is a huge plus for the service as Beckham has a history of attracting fans to any social web service he joins. The superstar has over 77 million Facebook subscribers, he attracted 4+ million followers in the first 48 hours and 6 million in the first week when he joined Instagram in May 2015(which was in itself a Guinness World Record) . But he has never joined Twitter. His wife Victoria has 8 million followers on Twitter.
Unlike its rivals like Meerkat and Periscope, the videos uploaded on MyEye will expire after 72 hours which is thrice as much on the formers.
The startup has been founded by British tech entrepreneurs Mark Betteridge and Lee Musgrave, along with partner Paul Kavanagh, both of whom were previously Head of Studio and Head of Art for Rare Ltd., the highly successful games developer behind some $5.5 billion of sales of games including GoldenEye 007, which was later sold to Microsoft in 2002 for $375 million in cash.
Beckham’s deal with the company is not an ordinary celebrity promotion deal, instead he is on board as an investor and a brand ambassador. This was the result after he met Kavanagh, Betteridge and Musgrave in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, a village in Leicestershire, England in early 2014. All that adds up to the fact that if you want to watch streams by David Beckham, you will have to get MyEye (yeah exclusively), no other service will be helpful.
In a statement, he commented,
I’m always looking to back and support British businesses that have the ability and vision to do something truly transformational on the global stage, and I believe that MyEye has the potential to change the way people interact through social media. I have been cautious about the partners I work with in the digital world and I’ve been very impressed with Paul, Mark and Lee. They have a great track record of building successful businesses and I’m excited to collaborate with them going forward.
However, Beckham is not the only star who has backed up video steaming services. Others include rockstar and actor, Jared Leto and actor, Ashton Kutcher both backing Meerkat, and singer, Justin Bieber investing in Shots.
MyEye is specifically aimed for sportspeople, pop stars and entertainment personalities, who want to have a better relationship with their fans. There are many features of this service similar to Periscope, Meerkat and Instagram, but there are also plenty of newer innovations to keep you busy.
You can sign in as a new user or even connect your Facebook account for a sign in. Later when you feel like sharing your stuff on other social media like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you will just be a tap away.
The service will allow you to follow different people and you can even select whose activity you want to be notified about specifically, which is a huge plus. Other services include interacting with the videos to like them and such.
There is also a direct chat service and if you choose to use it, a private group one too.
