t2 decodes the Meerkat and Periscope apps...

What are Meerkat and Periscope?

These are live-streaming apps that link to a user’s Twitter account… well, not always but more about that later. You can watch live videos from around the world: from a biker on a spin around Rome to Mariah Carey working her assets through the gates of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, from Tyra Banks smizing (that would be smiling with one’s eyes!) to Nick Jonas hitting the right notes at his concert. The videos can be watched by anyone who has either of the free apps installed. In simple words, both apps make a video camera and a small screen out of your phone. Either you shoot to broadcast or become a viewer who dips in and out of someone else’s world.

The origins

The Ben Rubin-created Meerkat, which evolved from AIR and Yevvo, was founded in 2012 and made its big debut at South by Southwest in Austin this year. Periscope, the brainchild of Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein, shook up the live-streaming space when Twitter bought it out for a reported $100 million in March 2015. It’s living up to its tagline: “Explore the world through someone else’s eyes.”

The similarities

Both apps allow viewers to watch live streams from anywhere in the world. And you can comment while watching videos. If you like something, share your approval through a ‘like’ on Meerkat and a ‘heart’ on Periscope.

The differences

Both rely on Twitter, which means the microblogging site has the upper hand. New Meerkat users are prevented from seeing which of their Twitter followers are also Meerkat users. But the app got around by creating the ‘People You May Know’ feature and there is also the Leaderboard that lists popular Meerkatters, which gives one a fair idea of who’s worth following. Only early adopters of the mongoose-family logo can still see Twitter followers on their lists. Another big plus is allowing users to schedule broadcasts for a future date.

Periscope, on the other hand, offers a bigger database of users. Also, all broadcasts are stored for 24 hours, unlike Meerkat that gives users the option to save streams.

How a broadcast is publicised

Both apps send out a tweet before a live transmission. A click on the link on Twitter takes you to the broadcast, which, by the way, can also be viewed on the desktop. 

Shift from Twitter to Facebook

Meerkat is distancing itself from Twitter, on the app’s iOS version, for obvious reasons. This means you can now publish Meerkat alerts directly to Facebook and new users can sign up without a Twitter account. A recent update has allowed users to scan the address book to find a network of friends on the service. 

Celeb quotient

Katy Perry, who has 70.3 million followers on Twitter, recently used Periscope to promote her Epix (a joint venture of Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM) concert-movie, Katy Perry: The Prismatic World Tour. At the screening she Periscoped the film’s red-carpet arrivals. The app has also found a follower in TV anchor Seth Meyers who recently streamed the Late Night show from the set. Other users include chef Jamie Oliver, Arnold Schwarzenegger (who also uses Meerkat) and Tyra Banks.

Meerkat followers include Jimmy Fallon, Ashton Kutcher (also an investor), Jared Leto, Rio Ferdinand, Madonna (who is also high on the Leaderboard), Diplo, Afrojack, Hardwell….

Piracy concerns

The recent “fight of the century” involving Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao was illegally live-streamed by users on both the apps. 

This brings us to the question: What is the future of TV broadcasts? On the day of the fight, Dick Costolo, the CEO of Twitter, tweeted: “And the winner is... @periscopeco”. Though he later clarified that he was talking about live streams from backstage before and after the fight, but he did indirectly hold a mirror to a more important question. 
Another case would be the HBO hit series Game of Thrones. There have been reports of fans without a cable package (or for that matter TV sets!) watching the premiere of season five illegally via the apps. 

So, are the apps at fault? Katy Perry recently told Mashable: “You’ve got to embrace the future or you’re left behind… I embrace them mostly as long as they’re not obtrusive.” 

Besides, Twitter and Meerkat have the right to remove content and terminate a user’s account. 

At the moment the selfie stick is banned at many places, soon it could be the turn of the mobile phone. Jack White has already banned mobile phone photography at gigs. 

‘Now’ journalism

Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer recently wrote in the online magazine  Medium: “Every few minutes over the last few days, my phone vibrates with another notification that another person I follow on Twitter has joined Meerkat. Everywhere I have gone here at South by Southwest, from the convention centre to the food trucks, people are talking about Meerkat. And if that same discussion is not happening at every media outlet and presidential campaign around the country, they are making a huge mistake. If 2004 was about Meetup, 2008 was about Facebook, and 2012 was about Twitter, 2016 is going to be about Meerkat (or something just like it).” This means, any breaking story can be made available at the blink of an eye. It can also mean that citizen journalists now have a tool but in the hands of a rookie, incomplete (if not wrong) information would be a dime a dozen.

Have you used Periscope or Meerkat? Tell t2@abp.in