Facebook Live: Where a YouTube star can ea like an Olympic icon - CNET

"We wanted to invite a broad set of partners so we could get feedback from a variety of different organizations about what works and what doesn't," said Facebook's VP of global operations and media partnerships Justin Osofsky in a statement.

Facebook's pursuit of the stars of the very small screen underscores the growing influence of a generation of celebrities that mainstream audiences are clueless about. The thing about fame is it can't exist at all until enough people agree that you have it. While some older folks might scratch their heads about who or what Smosh is, the sketch comedy duo probably has enough of a following that they don't need to worry about it.

The bottom line is that companies are interested in young audiences. As Facebook ages and younger people gravitate to other platforms like Snapchat, drawing in that crowd with the inteet famous could spark a new Facebook habit, according to Altimeter analyst Brian Solis.

Solis specializes in digital marketing and cultural shifts, and spoke last month at VidCon -- a conference built around online video.

It's exactly at a place like VidCon that you realize even though "inteet famous" might still smack of a lower worth than "Hollywood famous," the line is blurring.

"[Younger millennials and Generation Z] are not watching television, they're not reading magazines the way that younger generations did before them," Solis said. "Their idols are these online creators because their mobile phone is their television screen."