You’ve probably heard about Periscope by now, especially if you spend your evenings on Twitter. Periscope is the latest social media platform to emerge and it’s making live streaming both a joy and controversy.
What is it?
Periscope is a live streaming app which can be used from anywhere in the world if you’re an iOS user. You can watch Q&A’s, adventurous hiking and even cats.
It’s already being used by the UK’s best-known brands. For example House of Fraser announced on Twitter that they would be live streaming their press day on the platform. Red Bull was live streaming during Miami’s Music Week and Spotify live-streamed a behind-the-scenes video of Conor O’Brien of the Villagers that garnered over a thousand hearts (likes). Mountain Dew went one step further and created a video solely for the app.
This social media buzz tool is blowing up but not without its cons too. During the recent Pacquiao vs Mayweather match, audience members decided to create a loophole for fans without pay per view services, which caused uproar over piracy issues.
How does it work?
As mentioned above, you can watch just about anything on Periscope. You can watch live streams as well as replays of recent broadcasts whether they’re from people you follow or people across the globe. All you need to do is sign up via Twitter.
What makes it different?
Periscope isn’t actually the first app of its time; the applications direct competitor is another iOS-only app, Meerkat. Twitter no longer lets Meerkat show new users which of their Twitter followers also use the app. Meerkat now have a Leaderboard instead, showcasing popular users. What’s better about Periscope is the fact that all engagement stays within the app, similarly to Vine (also owned by Twitter). The app also offers a very unusual format for like a video too. Instead of being able to hit the like button once, Periscope lets you like a video as many times as you want by tapping the screen and sending hearts. Broadcasters can feel the love in real time as the hearts come up on the screen. This then also helps broadcasters pinpoint what their audience enjoy more too.
Is it here to stay?
It appears that Periscope has the advantage over Meerkat as it rewards its users for posting great video streams and allows them to save their videos for later viewing.
With more and more brands endorsing the platform and using it, Periscope has the potential to become another regularly used platform. It definitely stands a better chance than Twitter’s previous endeavour, Vine, anyway. Semi-professional entertainers and a love story drove vine’s popularity. When that didn’t work out, the app became a little less interesting and as a result less popular.
With Periscope being used by anybody and everybody, and now allowing users to open a map to see who is live around the world, it stands a better chance of sticking around. Once it sorts a few bugs and becomes available to Android users.