Yahoo has announced that their live video streaming service Yahoo Live will close December 3, nine months after launching.

Yahoo Live, from Yahoo’s now downgraded Brickhouse unit was the first entry by a major player into the live streaming space, up against existing players such as Ustream.tv, Justin.tv and others.

The strength of the service, compared to most competitors was the ability to group video chat easily, a feature since copied by some in the space.

The move is surprising: live video has long be regarded as a hot growth vertical with millions in VC funding backing various players. Yahoo hasn’t said publicly why it is closing the service, but as Mashable notes, live video isn’t cheap to provide, and in tight economic times, a marginal service like Yahoo Live may have been an obvious candidate to drop.

Yahoo Live to close is a post from: The Inquisitr

Live video streaming service Stickam has entered the mobile phone streaming spacing, launching a dedicated mobile client.

The initial release sees support only for the Nokia N95 and N96, but the company is working on an iPhone client for future release.

The move takes Stickam into new territory in a competitive space. On the live streaming side, Stickam competes with Justin.tv, Ustream.tv, Mogolus, Yahoo Live and others, in mobile streaming the market so far have been divided between Flixwagon and Qik. The move offers growth opportunities for Stickam by entering a space not yet targeted by its main competitors, although given the mobile streaming market is still limited by technology and regular use, the move may see an increase in content created by existing members than attract new ones.

Streams featured on Stickam’s home page generate more than 40,000 live views each hour of broadcast. Stickam.com has more than 2 million registered users, and receives more than 2.5 million unique monthly visitors and 4.8 million daily page views.

Stickam enters mobile streaming space, iPhone client coming is a post from: The Inquisitr