The Advent of Meerkat and Periscope

Meerkat and Periscope
Periscope and Meerkat are social media platforms that act as additions to Twitter. Both apps offer users a virtual streaming experience. They offer video in real time and have a variety of users. Periscope and Meerkat offer very similar services, but they differ in certain aspects.

Periscope’s mission is to show the world through other people’s eyes (1). As it is run through the app, Periscope requires a Twitter account. Periscope then posts streams to the user’s Twitter account, thus expanding the audience. One of the main differences between Periscope and Meerkat is that Periscope allows you to save video streams so that anyone can view them for up to 24 hours (2). Meerkat is live and streams cannot be viewed again after being broadcasted. After downloading the App, users can subscribe to broadcasts. Notifications are sent every time every time one of the user's subscribers starts streaming. Periscope also allows users to limit who sees their streams. Viewers can send hearts to streamers to show that they like the content.

Meerkat is also linked to a Twitter account (3). Every time a user streams, a link is posted to their Twitter account. Users create a title for their stream and the app asks for access to the phone’s camera and microphone. Unlike Periscope, Meerkat does not keep the video streams. Meerkat does not save any content in the cloud, however, users have the opportunity to put their own footage into their library. Meerkat users can also schedule streaming sessions. Notifications about the scheduled streaming sessions will be sent to followers. The first message sent is a notification that one of the user’s subscribers has scheduled a stream. The second notification is sent when the stream has begun (4). Subscribers can choose to subscribe to events on profiles of users. Meerkat also has a leaderboard. Users can earn points from viewers liking their content.

1. About Periscope

2. Twitter's New Periscope App

3. A Beginner's Guide to Meerkat

4. Meerkat FAQ: Everything You Need to Know

The History of Meerkat
On February 27th, 2015, Ben Rubin and his team of developers launched the live streaming social media app Meerkat. Upon it’s launch, the app received tons of media attention. The technology news website TechCrunch even said that “Meerkat is the livestream app that Twitter should have built”. However, a few short days after the release of Meerkat, Periscope came into the picture. On March 4th, Twitter bought Persicope, making that app Twitter’s main source for livestreaming. Ben Rubin claims that him and his team were unphased by this turn of events because as he stated in an interview with TechCrunch on May 6th, there will be “multiple winners” in the world of live streaming. He compared the competition between his app and Periscope to the multiple other social media applications that are similar to one another yet are successful in their own ways. Despite Twitter choosing Periscope over Meerkat, Meerkat still continues to succeed and gain more and more users every day. They recently released their app to Android users and are now anticipating a big leap in downloads.

Ben Rubin’s goal with Meerkat is to change social media content by empowering the audience to take part in it, rather than being bystanders. He says that the past decade was about consuming and sharing content but that he anticipates that this next generation is going to be about participation. His wants to “pioneer ‘participatory media’ through life-streaming communities”. This app was definitely a good move for Rubin and with perseverance and dedication, which it seems he already possesses; he could over-shadow Periscope in the future and re-define the world of social media.

1. TechCrunch Founder Stories

2. CrunchBase - Ben Rubin

The History of Periscope
The idea for Periscope began in mid-2013. One of its creators, Kayvon Beykpour was travelling to Istanbul for the summer. Before his trip could begin, protests in Taksim Square turned violent, right outside of the hotel were Beykpour would be staying. His imagination was sparked as he wondered why he could not see the current situation outside his hotel in real-time. He brought this dilemma to Joe Bernstein and together the two created Periscope (1). They envisioned an application that could be used for news reporting, as well as one that could capture social aspects of its users lives.

The timing of Periscope's launch out of the beta stage was, for the most part, to counter the release of the Meerkat application at the SXSW festival. Just a short time after Meerkat’s start in March of 2015, Twitter announced that they had purchased the Periscope app from its creators for a rumored $100 million (2). Before being bought by the social media giant, Periscope had no intention of being sold. However, the marriage made sense. Both social media forms have much to gain from each other. Periscope gives Twitter added publicity, while Twitter allows Periscope to reach a larger audience.

Because Meerkat was so intertwined with Twitter, it was highly beneficial for Twitter to own an app of this type. From the start, Meerkat showed a large amount of dependency on the Twitter application. Users utilize Twitter to announce their planned streams and to promote themselves. By controlling the platform that Meerkat depended on so much, Twitter could easily come up with their own app to steal back Meerkat’s market (3). As the host, they have the opportunity to promote Periscope over the competitor. Twitter has an audience much larger than either Periscope or Meerkat on their own. Thus, they have the ability to divert the attention of their multimillion-person audience toward the live-stream app that they have a vested interest in.

1. Twitter’s Periscope App Lets You Livestream Your World

2. Twitter Confirms Periscope Acquisition, And Here’s How The Livestreaming App Works

3. Periscope phone app gives millions a way to live-stream their lives

What Meerkat and Periscope Mean for the Future of Technical Communication
The different ways that people communicate (i.e. texting, social media, etc.) are changing at such a fast rate that it is impossible to predict what is exactly in store for the future of technical communication (2). Meerkat and Periscope, in particular, are continuously evolving in the face of growing digital presences and increased competition for attention in the online atmosphere. Because these platforms are constantly changing, no one will ever be a true "expert" at Meerkat or Periscope there will always be new elements of the applications to master.

In order to keep up-to-date on how to use both Meerkat and Periscope effectively, take time to reflect upon past technical writing experiences and evaluate if these past skills can be applied to Meerkat and Periscope to create meaningful content. For example, think about how multimedia content has worked on other social media platforms such as Vine and Instagram. Vine and Instagram are significant because, like Meerkat and Periscope, the main type of content created and shared across their platforms is an image, such as either a picture or a video. This multimedia content breaks the barrier between the sender and receiver of information in mass communication because people when people share these videos and images, they possess the ability to interact with each other and comment on the content (1). This interactivity is crucial to achieving goals through social media because when people are able to respond to content, it becomes both useful and appealing to target audiences. Thus, by continuing to provide a place for multimedia content designed to drive interaction between audiences, Meerkat and Periscope will continue to develop the practice of social media marketing and technical communication so that it reflects the needs of an audience living in a increasingly connected culture.

By taking the time to reflect upon what the content created on these platforms can achieve in terms of connecting with viewers and audiences, it becomes clear how Meerkat and Periscope will shift the focus of technical communication towards interactivity and an equal relationship between senders and receivers of messages when deciding what content to produce. 1. 10 Reasons to Get Personal With Meerkat and Periscope in Your Social Media Strategy

2. Periscope co-founder: Piracy standards don't work for live video