Tumblr’s newest service of live video will give a tough competition to Facebook and Twitter

Yahoo owned blogging platform ‘Tumblr’, announced that it would be launching live video to help compete against same offerings from Facebook and Twitter. The new characteristic, unlike Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope, won’t have its own underlying technology platform but will allow users to post from YouTube and other video services.

Tumblr in a statement said, “By the end of today, you’ll be able to broadcast yourself directly into your followers’ dashboards. And they’ll be able to broadcast themselves directly into yours. We trust you all to be beautiful, weird, compelling, and just generally Tumblr about this whole thing.”

Tumblr estimates it has some 300 million blog accounts but its growth has lagged behind that of many rival social networks. It will also help its users to upload from Google-owned YouTube as well as other applications such as YouNow, Kanvas and Upclose.

According to the research firm eMarketer, Tumblr is used by around 8.7 percent of US Internet users, far below the 69.9 percent who use social networks in general.

The Live video streaming tool has gained immense popularity on social media in fresh months with the launch of Periscope last year and Facebook Live.