Periscope
The app that popularised live streaming from your phone, bought and then closed by Twitter
- Founded
- 2014
- Closed
- 2021
- Lifespan
- 7 years
- Total funding
- $1.5 million
- Country
- United States
- Sector
- Social media
- Founders
- Kayvon Beykpour, Joe Bernstein
- Investors
- Founder Collective, Google Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Bessemer, Maveron
- At its peak
- More than 10 million accounts four months after launch (August 2015)
- Cause of closure
- Acquired and shut down
What did it do?
Periscope was a live video streaming app for Android and iOS. Users could start a broadcast from their phones instantly, and viewers could send the broadcaster “hearts” by tapping the screen. Broadcasts could be public or visible only to selected people.
Why did it shut down?
Twitter bought Periscope in January 2015, before the app had even launched publicly. The app grew rapidly in its first year, but from December 2016 its features were moved into Twitter's own app. As other social media platforms with similar live-streaming features spread, Periscope's usage fell. In December 2020 Twitter announced it would close the app, citing declining usage, a product restructuring and high maintenance costs; Periscope was removed from the app stores on 31 March 2021.
The story
The idea was born in Istanbul in 2013. Kayvon Beykpour was in the city when protests broke out in Taksim Square, and he turned to Twitter to find out what was happening. He could read about events, but he could not see them. Beykpour and Joe Bernstein decided to design an app that would let anyone stream live video from their phone to the world.
The pair founded the company in February 2014 under the name Bounty, and in April 2014 raised $1.5 million from investors including Founder Collective, Google Ventures, Menlo Ventures and Bessemer. Before the product had even launched publicly, Twitter bought the company in January 2015; Business Insider reported the price at around $120 million. The acquisition was announced on 13 March 2015, just as the rival live-streaming app Meerkat was drawing huge attention at the South by Southwest festival. Around the same time, Twitter had cut off Meerkat's access to its social graph.
Periscope launched on iOS on 26 March 2015 and on Android on 26 May. On 12 August 2015, just four months after launch, it announced that it had passed 10 million accounts and that users were watching a combined 40 years of video every day. Apple named it the iPhone app of 2015. In June 2016, when the official feed was cut, a sit-in in the US House of Representatives reached C-SPAN through a congressman's Periscope account. Success also brought copyright problems: the season premiere of Game of Thrones and the pay-per-view Mayweather–Pacquiao fight were streamed through the app without permission, and the UFC alone sent more than 650 takedown requests. In June 2018 a Turkish court banned Periscope in Turkey on the grounds that it infringed the copyright of a Turkish company called Periskop.
In December 2016 some of Periscope's features were moved directly into the Twitter app. As other social media platforms offering similar live-streaming features spread, usage declined. In December 2020 Twitter announced that the app would be closed because of declining usage, a product restructuring and high maintenance costs. Periscope was removed from the app stores on 31 March 2021; broadcasts remained viewable on Twitter.
Periscope is a textbook case of a feature that lasts while the product disappears. Live streaming became a standard part of social media; but the standalone app that started that shift dissolved into its buyer's main product.
Lessons for founders
- If you are building a feature that could be folded into a platform, establish early the distinctive usage habit that will let you survive as a standalone app.
- Once an acquired product's features start moving into the main app, the standalone app's days are usually numbered; plan the transition for the team and users accordingly.
- In products built on user content, such as live streaming, put copyright and content moderation processes in place before launch.
Sources
- Periscope (service) (Wikipedia)
- Twitter is shutting down its Periscope apps (The Verge, 2020-12-15)
- Periscope shuts down, six years after popularizing mobile live streaming (The Verge, 2021-03-31)
- Twitter Acquires Live-Video Streaming Startup Periscope (The Wall Street Journal, 2015-03-09)
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