Microsoft launches Stream, a video service for businesses

Microsoft has announced the launch of Microsoft Stream, a new business video service, allowing users to upload, share, and organise ideas across their company.

In a blogpost, James Phillips, corporate vice president of Microsoft Business Intelligence Product Group, wrote that anyone with a business email address can sign up for the preview of the service.

Designed for participation, the service offers users to upload and organize videos either by starting a channel or contributing to a channel. The users can simply drag and drop their videos with an added description, and hashtags too.

The service also allows users to tag, and discover relevant contents through ‘trending’ videos, hashtags, likes and other key search items. Trending videos will appear on user’s homepage along with the links to the customs channels, such as HR, training, or company events, created by users.

In addition, the service also offers secure access and content protection using Azure Active Directory, an identity management system, to protect sensitive corporate content.

The videos can be shared using email or direct links on any platform.

Almost a decade ago, Microsoft launched a video streaming service called Sopabox, which was eventually shut down as it could not came at a par to its rival YouTube. Now, it’s yet to be seen whether the new Microsoft Stream will prove to be a viable video streaming service for Microsoft or have a similar fate like Soapbox.

As for now, according to a statement in blogpost, Microsoft customers had embraced the video business service available on Office 365. However, the company is trying to make Stream the de facto video experience in Office 365.