Up Periscope? Mere Meerkat? The Next Big Thing(s) in Live Streaming
About a month ago at my on campus job, one of our maintenance guys was walking around with his phone held out in front of him. Innocently, I went up to the desk and asked what he was doing. He said, “Say hi, you’re live on Meerkat.” Immediately my face turned bright red and I shyly waved at the camera. As he followed me for the next minute I asked him what in the world Meerkat was. He proceeded to tell me that our Twitter followers could now click on a link to watch a live-stream from his phone.
“Being able to have a live-stream of video from your phone….yeah right,” I thought. “Its just a fad.”
Then a few weeks later my favorite band announced for followers to watch their concert live via Periscope, another live-streaming app. This time a camera did not ambush me, so I decided to find out more about these live streaming apps. 
Here’s what I learned:
Q: What is it?
A: For lack of a better term, we are going to go ahead and refer to these live-streaming apps as the “next big thing” in the social media world. Essentially, these apps give you a way of alerting people that you have gone on live-feed. Which means, they can then watch live through your video.
Q: Aren’t Meerkat and Periscope the same thing?
A: Meerkat had its debut at South by Southwest this year. It was the talk of the music festival and even raised a bunch of money. (It also had a famous meltdown involving pop icon Madonna) At the same time, Twitter had bought Periscope. Like any competitors these apps have a few differences but have the exact same idea. Meerkat had a 2-3 week head start thanks to SXSW but these apps are currently neck and neck. We are sure to hear more about this “race to be the best” throughout the next couple of months.
Q: Why?
A: These apps could be the “next big thing” for news, music, and many other things. More and more, people are turning to Twitter and the Internet for everything. When a newsworthy event happens it is usually on Twitter before the media knows about it. Think about this in terms of live-streaming, people are more likely to stay in tune with the news if its available on smart phones. I’m not exactly sure what is appealing about watching the average person go through their day, but that’s another topic.
Q: How are the apps used?
A: Normally, I like to wait until after things are cool to join but this is something I couldn’t wait for. I downloaded both apps and if I’m being honest I was a little freaked out at first. It is actually live people, doing real live things, right on your phone. WHAT? That’s pretty cool if I do say so myself. The main difference is on Periscope comments are made in the app, while on Meerkat they go directly to Twitter.
Well, if you didn’t already know this, I’m telling you that the next big thing is here and I highly recommend checking it out. Here are some links for more information.
