Calling any digital service a something-killer is usually simply journalistic shorthand: it’s hugely rare for a single company to kill another – high-profile copyright lawsuits aside. So is Twitter’s video app Periscope *really* a Meerkat killer? The evidence is decidedly mixed so far. The Verge notes that Meerkat fell out of the top 500 apps chart in the US after Apple stopped featuring it in its App Store, although that still suggests a worrying lack of interest from people outside the tech-hack / investor / startup people bubble that hyped Meerkat in the first place.
But Quartz has been exploring data on tweeted links to Meerkat and Periscope streams, which suggests that Periscope isn’t much ahead: both apps enjoyed a huge spike and then a decline after their launch. Which, if you’re a cynic, might suggest that neither app is destined for a long, lucrative life. But we’ll be interested to see how Twitter promotes Periscope beyond its initial dazzle. Anyway, to answer the question: is Periscope really a Meerkat killer? Not yet, and if anything, a wider lack of interest will be the guilty party in this case. That said, Madonna is debuting her next video on Meerkat…
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