Yes you heard that right: I iSocialFanz who changed my business thanks to live streaming, who was ranked top 4 at SXSW on meerkat & who was the closing keynote at the first ever Periscope Community Summit doesn't think 2016 will be the year of live streaming! Why am I saying this....Let's take a look back at the "long" history of mobile live streaming (not even a year's worth).

NO, 2016 isn't the Year of Live Streaming, 2015 was!

January:

• Twitter buy's little known startup Periscope.co before the app is every released to the public attracting little media or press coverage.

February:

• Twitter rolls out Twitter Video allowing for embed twitter 30 second videos to be natively played in the timeline.
• Meerkat is released with Ashton Kutcher and Gary Vaynerchuk as the initial users only weeks before SXSW.

March:

• Meerkat demonstrated the power and desire for mobile streaming experiences like SXSW & unlike previous apps such as YouNow, Ustream,Hang w/ and others that weren't focused on mobile & leveraging existing social networks.
• Meerkat access to the twitter social graph is cut off by Twitter.
• Katch.me was rolled out Auto-Uploading Meerkat Streams To YouTube With A Hashtag Meerkat. Later Meerkat added features such as user pages, embed codes, auto uploading and sharing and included Periscope streams as well.
• Periscope, bought by Twitter in January, flexed it's muscle and amplified the concept of mobile live streaming as not just a startup as it rolled out at the end of the month rolled

April:

• Blab.Im released as a walkie-talkie service quickly turns into what I called the Google+ Hangout Live killer, allowing 4 live streams on one screen with an active community space and buttons for users to share to twitter and facebook.

May:

• Periscope debuts on Android devices not only doubling its user base but adoption of the tool spikes as iOS users now aren't limited to just fellow iOS users watching and engaging in their streams.

June:

• Meerkat adds Embed Feature allowing users to watch live streaming on owned media.

July:

• Al Roker Entertainment, opened an agency group called Roker Labs to create branded video for streaming platforms and connect advertisers with video stars from YouTube, Vine, Periscope, Meerkat and elsewhere
• MyEye & Firetalk jumped into the live streaming marketing adding new twists with limitations and features not available on Meerkat & Periscope playing somewhere in between Snapchat and the mobile live streaming apps.

August:

• Periscope released its user data showing 10 million users watching more than 40 years' worth of video each day.
• Sony & Samsung released a new button in the camera app: a one-touch way to begin a live broadcast to YouTube.

September:

• Periscope Community Summit NYC debuted to a larger than expected live and streaming audience demonstrating the power of the community leveraging periscope from brands, to celebrities to small business owners.
• Blab allows users to upload to YouTube, give "props" their version of periscope hearts and stats for users as the platform grows hosting podcasts, video twitter chats and pop-up talk shows.
• Periscope adds landscape as an option for users giving the video purists and those that want to use the replays on YouTube what they've been asking for.
• Facebook rolls out "Celebrity Live Streaming" utilizing its app Mentionswhich allowed those with verified pages and profiles to use the mentions app to live stream to their communities news feed.

October:

• Periscope makes a play for HDtv consumption of mobile live streaming releasing an AppleTV app on the new AppleTV hardware.

November:

• Periscope adds fast forward & rewind to replays increasing the value and focus on the 24 hour replays of periscoper's videos.

December

• Facebook live announced they are rolling out a 30 minute live streaming feature as part of their native app for all Facebook users on iPhones in the very near future..
• Channels & Tribe emerge as focused brands & communities for channel focused live streaming content. Here are a few: Krue.TV, ParachuteTV,PeriGirls, Scope4Good
• If I missed something please tweet me and I'll happily update the timeline!

So as you can tell 2015 has been full of change and live streaming is changing almost as fast as most marketers opinions on the value of live streaming has been. Back in May when I was giving a keynote about the power of live streaming, I had two notable marketing thought leaders let me know that "this live streaming thing it's cool, but Brian it's nothing new and is going to fizzle out by the end of year!" Those same thought leaders submitted content to a 2016 predictions blog post mentioning that their focus in 2016 would be on live streaming strategies and how it's changing the game. They weren't the only ones that were wrong in 2015....

I was WRONG about Live Streaming in 2015!

Now we are all allowed to make mistakes and not everyone has to be an early adopter or get predictions correct. I should know as earlier in 2015 I made the claim that Meerkat would dominate Periscope then a few months later claimed that Facebook would never roll out a live streaming platform to the masses.

• Well I keynoted the Periscope Community Summit in the summer of 2015 and will be the host & emcee of the 2016 Periscope Summit in January and have admitted how wrong I was about Meerkat vs Periscope.
• On top of that as I finish writing this blog post and hit submit, I'll be delivering my first Facebook Live Stream from my personal account as I was just given access today..... only a few months after guaranteeing it would never happen! (watch here)

So the cool thing about predictions much like being a meteorologist, its fun to guess, nobody knows exactly what the future will hold and really nobody remembers who said what when the time comes. So what are my predictions for 2016? Stay tuned for that blog post as well as my 2016 predictions for how live streaming will change business and the marketing industry in 2016. Until then please check out the 69 Thought Leader Predictions Blog by my friend Bryan Kramer and checkout my first Facebook Live Stream below!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on 2016 and live streaming changing the game in 2015, Just use hashtag #ThinkLikeAFan on twitter and I'll RT and share your thoughts with my community! Also make sure to sign up for my email newsletter below as I have big things in store, including exclusive live streaming content and insider gear for those in my email community!