Load the Game

Twitter showing weakness in front of Meerkat

• Egon Kilin
• April 13th, 2015

Twitter and Meerkat have been at odds in the past couple of weeks, as Twitter abruptly cut off access to Twitter social graphs for Meerkat, the new live-streaming application that took social media by storm. Twitter has purchased Periscope, a competing live streaming application and it is now endorsing the new app heavily to Meerkat users.

Twitter is reportedly approaching celebrities and public persons who are now using Meerkat to livestream content and sharing those streams on Twitter. According to various reports, these users are getting insistent messages from Twitter asking them to use Periscope instead of Meerkat. Periscope is Twitter’s new live streaming app that is tied in with its social graph and Twitter is now endorsing it heavily against Meerkat.

Twitter as a social network is really acting up, as if Meerkat and Periscope were the only popular live streaming applications that are available. There are countless more which are being used by various companies and celebrities, not to mention Youtube and Vine. To me, it seems like a clear sign of weakness that Twitter is aggressively promoting Periscope as the only worthwhile live streaming app for Twitter users. User testimonials confirm that Meerkat is easier to use and has more stability, although Twitter withdrawing social graph access was indeed a blow to the service. Meerkat doesn’t seem to be worried, but Twitter seems like it really, really wants Periscope to become the next big thing.

The social network is trying to spin off Meerkat as a service that is dying, even though there still are thousands of users who really enjoy the service. Twitter is trying to push Periscope and its link-up with the social network as the “must do” or “must have” combination for active social networkers who share a lot of content through either of these two mediums. If Twitter and co. are pushing publishers and celebrities to use the Periscope instead of Meerkat with threats like restricting access to certain services, we’re not sure how well that will be received by the community. Do you think that Twitter should really be worried about Meerkat? Which service do you think is best, even though there aren’t many differences between Periscope and Meerkat?