Live streaming in the context of "Streaming media"

A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in video telephony, live streaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware, like a laptop, or peripheral devices, and are commonly connected to a device using USB or wireless protocol.

Webcams have been used on the Internet as early as 1993, and the first widespread commercial one became available in 1994. Early webcam usage on the Internet was primarily limited to stationary shots streamed to web sites. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, instant messaging clients added support for webcams, increasing their popularity in video conferencing. Computer manufacturers later started integrating webcams into laptop hardware. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shortage of webcams due to the increased number of people working from home and children attending school remotely.

The live streaming of video games is an activity where people broadcast themselves playing games to a live audience online. The practice became popular in the mid-2010s on the US-based site Twitch, before growing to YouTube, Facebook, China-based sites Huya Live, DouYu, and Bilibili, and other services. By 2014, Twitch streams had more traffic than HBO's online streaming service, HBO Go. Professional streamers often combine high-level play and entertaining commentary, and earn income from sponsors, subscriptions, ad revenue, and donations.

Both AAA and indie developers have circumvented rising development costs by utilizing the free advertising live streaming provides. Independent titles such as Fall Guys, Rocket League, and Among Us are examples of games that have experienced a huge increase in player base as a result of streaming. Esports have also gained significant traction and attention from the accessibility of live streaming, and streaming has even been used as a method to raise awareness of social issues and money for charity.

Huya Live (Chinese: 虎牙直播) is a Chinese video live streaming platform focused on video games and esports, operated by Huya Inc. (NYSE: HUYA). It is one of China’s two largest game live‑streaming services alongside DouYu and carries official esports broadcasts as well as user‑generated streams. Huya Inc. is controlled by Tencent Holdings Limited. Outside mainland China, the service operates in selected overseas markets under the Nimo TV brand.

DouYu (Chinese: 斗鱼; pinyin: Dòuyú) is a Chinese video live streaming service. The site is the largest of its kind in China with 163.6 million monthly active users in 2019,more than the 140 million monthly active users of Twitch.In July 2019, DouYu International Holdings Ltd raised $21 million through U.S. initial public offering (IPO) and listed itself on the Nasdaq with the stock symbol DOYU. It was the largest IPO of any Chinese company on Wall Street in 2019.

In 2018, Douyu made $21 million in advertisement revenues. Tencent owned about 21% of the shares as of 2020.

A content delivery network (CDN) or content distribution network is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and corresponding data centers. CDNs provide high availability and performance ("speed") through geographical distribution relative to end users, and arose in the late 1990s to alleviate the performance bottlenecks of the Internet as it was becoming a critical medium. Since then, CDNs have grown to serve a large portion of Internet content, including text, graphics and scripts, downloadable objects (media files, software, and documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social media services.

CDNs are a layer in the internet ecosystem. Content owners such as media companies and e-commerce vendors pay CDN operators to deliver their content to their end users. In turn, a CDN pays Internet service providers (ISPs), carriers, and network operators for hosting its servers in their data centers.