Up Periscope - Twitter's bet on live broadcasting may pay off handsomely
After just four months, Twitter’s live broadcasting platform Periscope has surpassed 10m registered accounts, out of which 2m are daily active users.
Twitter acquired Periscope earlier this year for US$100m and the app has caught on like wildfire, allowing users toting smartphones to become instant broadcasters.
The news comes hot on the heels of Twitter removing the 140-character limit on direct messages (DMs)and expanding DMs to 10,000 characters.
In recent days, Facebook has tried to muscle in on the live-broadcasting action with a Periscope-style video feature called Live, but has so far limited it to public figures and celebrities.
Periscope said that approximately 40 years’ worth of videos are being watched every day on iOS and Android devices and on the web.
‘Time Watched’ is the new metric for live video
In what are the first official numbers issued by the live broadcasting app, ‘Time Watched’ is being labelled a critical metric, according to Periscope.
It said Time Watched actually matters more to its team than optimising for daily active users or monthly active users.
“It’s most reflective of the value we’re creating for people and the world,” Periscope’s Kayvon Beykpour said.
“Success for broadcasters means more time watched on their broadcasts. Success for the audience (viewers who are watching and participating in a Periscope) means more high-quality broadcasts in their feeds that they want to watch and participate in. Success for broadcasters and their audience means success for Periscope.
“Time Watched is also valuable because it can capture viewership of Periscope broadcasts outside of iOS/Android,” Beykpour added.
Periscope image via Shutterstock
