Periscope and Meerkat are Inventing the Future of Live Streaming

I have been a huge fan of streaming video since I launched my first website MFNRocks.com with streaming video back in 1999. The Internet is pretty close to instant gratification, but it has been difficult to instantly broadcast something to the masses… Until now.  In the last few weeks / months that has changed with the rise of apps like Meerkat and Periscope. Now users and brands have the freedom to live stream at will to their audience. I have recently just downloaded both apps and still testing to see which one I prefer.

Meerkat was first out of gate to stream a few months ago. I first heard about this app when a local radio personality tried it out on the air for one of his radio segments.

Meerkat is built on Twitter’s API, and it allows users to schedule or broadcast a live stream on Twitter to their followers from their mobile device. If your followers have the app they will get a push notification about your live stream and be able to watch, comment, and interact with you while using the app.

Twitter already purchased Periscope who developed a similar app but it was still in beta. Meerkat’s popularity forced Twitter to move up Periscope’s launch date, they also had to limit Twitter API’s by Meerkat. Twitter realized the huge potential of this instant gratification in broadcast with the younger users that needs immediacy, authenticity and mobility.

Twitter’s Periscope has a slightly sophisticated interface and a number of aesthetic advances. Periscope offers the ability to not only stream live, but the ability to replay them back at any time. You can interact while watching streams, you can see people join, leave hearts, and comment in real time. Easy to set privacy settings so you will always know who you are broadcasting to.

Twitter allows us to chat in real time, but now with video we will essentially have live real time video streaming. These products seem to be a natural fit with Twitter and will set them apart from other social media platforms. All streams default to living for 24-hours inside the app. This may allow Twitter to build an archive of videos where they can sell ad inventory.

The easier each of these apps can be integrated into the Twitter platform the better it will be for Twitter to gain and keep younger users.

These apps are also easier to use than the apps that come from LiveStream or UStream.

The question remains.. What will be the breakthrough moment that will have everyone using one of these apps on a daily basis?

You can follow me on Twitter @BryanCShaw