Twitter acquires video streaming app Periscope

Normally you expect tech firm acquisitions to be announced with great fan-fare. The strategy kills two birds with one stone—creates media hype and flex financial muscle. Twitter spurned that strategy when it acquired Persicope…apparently sometime in January. Twitter and Periscope both confirmed the acquisition this week, though. At the time Periscope was still in its blueprint phase and had no app to demonstrate its video streaming platform, which may have led to the delay in making the acquisition public.

Twitter’s newly acquired business is a live video streaming app with the ability to tweet out links of video streams on its platform. In other words, Periscope is like the suddenly viral Meerkat app and offers the video viewing capacity of Vine albeit for live streams. Unlike Vine or Meerkat, its users do not have to be redirected to an external platform but can view streams directly on Twitter.

Other features include private and public broadcasting abilities as well as a comment system for users. Also unlike Meerkat, its streams do not self-destruct once viewed, thereby making it possible for users to replay video streams at will. These features put Twitter’s Periscope, Meerkat and in a smaller way Vine in head-to-head competition for which would provide the best means for video integration on Twitter.

Twitter has not officially confirmed details of the acquisition, but reports suggest it paid about $100 million to acquire Periscope. Only time will tell what this acquisition will mean for Twitter, or how it might impact the future of Meerkat, or to a lesser extent Vine.

Stay tuned to TechSpective for up-to-date news on Twitter and your favorite tech firms. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Have you used Meerkat yet? Do you like the idea of live video streams?