Periscope Gaining More Traction Than Meerkat on Twitter

Since SXSW, much has been made about the competition between Meerkat and Periscope, the two new social live video streaming offerings. The the latter comes directly from Twitter, as the company acquir...
Periscope Gaining More Traction Than Meerkat on Twitter
Written by Chris Crum
  • Since SXSW, much has been made about the competition between Meerkat and Periscope, the two new social live video streaming offerings. The the latter comes directly from Twitter, as the company acquired it before launch.

    Which one is gaining more ground? Well, if new data from Socialbakers is any indication, the edge has gone to Twitter’s own Periscope.

    “Content creators have seemingly switched over to Periscope in terms of the number of live streams they’re tweeting,” a spokesperson for the data provider tells WebProNews. “This data comes from tweets analyzed from our sample of 25,000 brand, celebrity, entertainment, and media company profiles. We determined Periscope and Meerkat live-streams based on the links in the tweets (We excluded certain extreme outliers that were posting a ton of live streams, but the trend is the same regardless.).”

    “Around March 26th when Periscope launched, these profiles began posting many more Periscope live streams and fewer Meerkat live streams on Twitter,” the spokesperson adds. “Now, the majority of live streams posted are Periscope ones.”

    The victor has hardly been decided just yet, however. Both Meerkat and Periscope launched as iOS apps without Android offerings, though that will soon change for both. Twitter said upon the launch of Periscope that an Android app was in the works, but didn’t provide a timeframe. Meerkat just announced a public beta for Android, so it’s at least getting there first, though it got to iOS first too, and that doesn’t seem to have made a huge difference.

    Engadget credits Twitter’s “clout and a better user experience” with helping propel Periscope ahead.

    Interestingly, Periscope hasn’t even been available a month yet, and it’s already getting takedown notices thanks to people live-streaming the Game of Thrones season premiere. This could be an ongoing problem for both apps.

    It may be too early to call Periscope the winner of this emerging space, but it is going to be hard to compete with Twitter on its own turf. If you haven’t tried out Periscope yet, and are thinking about doing so, read this to learn more about its ins and outs.

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