in the fight of Meerkat vs. Periscope, Who’s successful?

June 5, 2015

up to now few months, livestreaming has taken the digital world by way of storm, connecting users world wide to carrying occasions, live shows, breaking news, and product launches. the primary mainstream firm to enter the space was once Meerkat, and has grown to nearly 2 million users nowadays. no longer lengthy after Meerkat’s launch, Periscope got here onto the scene with a vital accomplice in their nook – Twitter. They gained 1 million users inside just 10 days of unencumber within the Apple App store.

With each step that Meerkat has taken to replace and differentiate its carrier, it sounds as if Periscope is continuously proper at the back of. Periscope launched its app for Android only some weeks after Meerkat launched theirs. When Meerkat sought the enhance of celebrities and national brands like Madonna and red Bull, Periscope wasn’t a ways behind, attracting leisure moguls like Carson Daly and Ryan Seacrest.

whereas the concept that of each Meerkat and Periscope is similar, there are still ways that each app has set itself aside. one of the most greatest differences between the 2 is that on Periscope, you have get admission to to a livestream for twenty-four hours after it ends, whereas on Meerkat, the move is long gone right away. relying to your preferences and challenge for privacy, this single distinction may resolve which app is right for you. Periscope additionally has get entry to to Twitter’s “social graph,” which permits users to attach with their Twitter followers that use the app.

In a head-to-head combat like this, there has to be a winner, right?

Let’s take a look at each app’s execs and cons, in addition to their doable for future growth.

Meerkat

Being the primary livestreaming app to hit the social scene, Meerkat has successfully attracted and retained the “early tech adopter” class of consumers. if you happen to’re the type of one that is all the time looking for the subsequent giant factor in cell know-how, likelihood is you probably have Meerkat downloaded on your cellphone presently.

After being unveiled at the 2015 South with the aid of Southwest (SXSW) pageant, consumers flocked to the App retailer to obtain the free app, and Meerkat won 160,000 followers within the first month. in addition they launched their app for Android sooner than Periscope, giving them a head start on that target market.

in the beginning, Twitter allowed Meerkat get admission to to its social graph; on the other hand, they revoked this partnership after Periscope’s public launch so Meerkat may not use the get right of entry to as a competitive advantage. whereas this was certainly seen as a blow to Meerkat’s development, they have discovered a few tips on how to differentiate themselves and provide a positive user expertise.

As prior to now talked about, one of the greatest variations between Meerkat and Periscope is the availability to view livestreams after they’ve ended. whereas some customers would in finding the moment disappearance of streams to be irritating if they tuned in late, many others love this feature. consumers are extra taken with their on-line privateness than ever before, as hacking into financial and social media debts has become a daily incidence. understanding that your streams vanish upon completion offers peace of mind to consumers who would possibly no longer wish to use the app if the situations were completely different.

have a look at how Snapchat has taken off, with over one hundred million daily lively users as of late. The app used to be founded on a similar premise to Meerkat, having the ability to share content with chums and have it disappear after 1-10 seconds. Now, Snapchat has multiplied its reach with the tales and discover features to maintain publisher content material on hand for twenty-four hours, however its original goal continues to be the most well-liked aspect of the app. It’s evident that it is a achievable target market of consumers, and Meerkat is making it work in its want reasonably smartly.

the other main advantage is that Meerkat now lets you share your streams on facebook, which Periscope does now not. With Periscope’s popularity on the rise and Meerkat’s apparently stagnant, this can be the rush the app desires to stay a strong competitor.

even though Periscope seems to be the front-runner in the industry, don’t brush aside Meerkat simply yet, in line with founder and CEO Ben Rubin. Like most industries, he feels that there’s quite a lot of room for more than one avid gamers, saying that “it would be hilarious to assert Twitter cannot exist because you put up statuses on fb.” every app has distinctive options that cater to a personalised target audience, so even if they’re in a roundabout way attaining the identical goal, it doesn’t imply it must be a monopolistic market.

Periscope

Periscope made its presence identified all over the extremely-expected Mayweather-Pacquiao (MayPac) fight in could, when thousands of users logged in to view free streams of the in shape. both Periscope and Meerkat confirmed the struggle (inflicting a bit of of criminal controversy), but Periscope was once naturally the most popular medium, with 10,000 viewers on one stream by myself. Periscope has ceaselessly grown its consumer base for the reason that then, and it’s clear that when you’re related to Twitter, you’ll do beautiful smartly for yourself.

probably the most important advantage to Periscope customers is that you just don’t have to change your complete agenda around just to view a flow that’s of pastime to you. if you happen to miss out on it, that you could seize it at a time that’s extra handy. normally conversing, the perception of Periscope is that it’s easier to make use of than Meerkat and is smartly-developed for the sort of new app. These advantages might certainly be because of the truth that Meerkat was launched first and Periscope might research from how users reacted to the app and observe it to their own product.

Having full access to Twitter’s API (together with the social graph), Periscope can better understand its customers’ preferences and interests, and you can very simply to find and fix with Twitter followers on the app. For brands particularly, this can be a great method to have interaction with loyal buyers and provides them unique insight into upcoming promotions, product launches, and basic company updates.

And the winner is…

In evaluating Meerkat and Periscope, you really can’t crown one as the winner just but. Meerkat gained a big aggressive benefit by using being the first to launch, attracting early adopters much like folks that supported Apple in its early (and less fashionable) days. on the other hand, Periscope has Twitter on its side, which has drawn plenty of users to the app and created a loyal following.

I indubitably don’t consider that any such firms will fade out utterly and leave one model to dominate the distance; but I do assume that over time, these two apps will begin to vary even more. As livestreaming continues to develop in popularity, these corporations will be able to analyze extra about their user base and replace their product to very best serve these audiences.

To be honest, this business has fairly a how you can go. model consciousness for both Meerkat and Periscope is a lot decrease than other video-primarily based networks, like Vine and Snapchat. across all shoppers, Meerkat’s complete brand awareness is at 9% and Periscope’s is only at 6%. Breaking it down by using explicit age groups, Meerkat dominates all age levels apart from the important 18-34 group (which is almost certainly as a result of the Periscope-Twitter alliance). they are also more popular general with both women and men, so that you may surely argue the good thing about being the one to find the “subsequent big thing.” client willingness to check out out these apps is fairly high at 21%, so there is a great opportunity to snatch a bigger share of the market down the line.

it is going to be attention-grabbing to see how Meerkat and Periscope fare within the long-run, as consumers turn out to be more acquainted with both merchandise and strengthen preferences. Periscope may be best the percent these days, however I wouldn’t rely out Meerkat solely. They’ve developed a loyal following, and their presence on facebook continues to provide them a aggressive advantage on the preferred social community on the planet. stay tuned!