Twitter has been looking at ways of improving their video offerings for some time. The release of Vine has changed the way users send video, and this was enhanced by the ability to record video and share it with the release of Twitter video this year, but in tech it’s all about what’s next and for Twitter it appears that what’s next is streaming video.
Twitter has apparently purchased live video streaming service Periscope, with the announcement coming through the Periscope Twitter feed, which was also confirmed via a tweet by Twitter’s VP of Product Kevin Well
You may have heard some news: It involves a blue bird. #YouCanGuessTheRest #WeJoinedTheFlockInJanuary #AreWeUsingThisRight #IsThisThingOn
— Periscope (@PeriscopeCo) March 13, 2015
Excited to officially welcome @periscopeco to the Twitter team. Can't wait for everyone to see what they've built! https://t.co/6eAJjpXmaS
— Kevin Weil (@kevinweil) March 13, 2015
At this stage Twitter hasn’t announced any official plans for Periscope, but the company did say back in November that they would be planning more standalone apps to add value to their main app. Currently Twitter only has 2 apps: Vine and obviously their main app, Twitter. For many, this move to purchase and retain apps as their own entity mirrors Facebook’s current plans for the likes of WhatsApp and even the Occulus Rift platform.
The obvious elephant in the room is the current controversy surrounding Twitter and new video streaming service Meerkat which has recently caught on. Meerkat uses the Twitter social graph to let users announce their broadcasts and be advised when friends have begun broadcasting, but Twitter today shutdown this access and some are seeing the purchase of Periscope and this action to limit Meerkats access as interconnected.
There are some differences between the services though, with Periscope offering the option to playback streams at a later date. Meerkat only offers access to the stream as it’s occuring and it’s differences such as this which seems to be the preference, at least for some users.
The purchase of Periscope indicates that there’s some traction, or potential business value in the streaming video business for Twitter, perhaps in some way shown by Meerkat. Its not immediately clear how Persicope will be integrated into Twitters video strategy as a whole and the coming months will shed light on what’s going to happen with the service and obviously Meerkat.
