Periscope - Explore the world through someone else's eyes

@jonas @sleinadsanoj I only saw Twitter supporters/investors declaring it to be a "groundbreaking UX"

@jonas @austenallred yes, but I thought they would at least have SOME kind of basis for it? They said it would be as much a "revolution" as "Instagram"... Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but I sure as hell can't find any of that. :-/

@jonas @sleinadsanoj Have you seen those floating hearts?! Groundbreaking! :)

@jonas @sleinadsanoj @morewillie Well to be fair, Twitter acquired Periscope a long time ago, so *technically* they did break a lot of this ground. They just broke it far away where only twitter employees could see :)

Stre.am are already to market with a livestreaming app that is available on Android, but nobody seems to be talking about them. It is all about @appmeerkat and Periscope. I see that, at least, Periscope list an Android developer on their team, so there is hope. Right @kayvz? One of the clear insights found in @johnkoetsier's Mobile User Acquisition report (http://insight.venturebeat.com/r...) is that the most successful developers launch on both iOS and Android - not just one or the other. Yet - every day - we still see teams (well funded ones at that) bring iOS apps with the 'promise' of an Android version later. It happened this week with Instagram's Layout too (remember, they still haven't delivered Hyperlapse for Android).

@therealsjr Thanks for pointing out stre.am, just tried it out on Android and it works quite well. Strange no one seems to be talking about it.. :/ I always find it interesting to see one app explode (meerkat), while others stay "in the dark" (stre.am, younow, upclose). Both Meerkat and Periscope will get an Android app "soon"! It's a real pity Android users are being left out so much.

@vandeveire totally agree, android is always the second pick :( makers c'mon show android some love...

@alexia @dtrinh @rrhoover Thanks Ryan! I think David Pierce did a great job covering the backstory here after we spoke in detail about it: http://www.wired.com/2015/03/per... I think Joe and I sort had the same inkling around the same time. For me, my trip to Turkey planted the seed. We both were fascinated by the idea of seeing the world, right now, through someone else's eyes. But our approach / execution has changed A LOT from when we first started working on the idea. We definitely didn't start with live streaming in mind (we didn't want to make a video company for the sake of having a live video company). We started with photos, and a flow that resembled more of a marketplace. Basically: you'd put a 'bounty' on something you'd want to see, and other people could put claims on that bounty in the form of photos. Say I wanted to see what it was like at the Tokyo Fish Market.. you could create request and have others submit photos (that could then get upvoted/downvoted). We had a lot of fun building it, and using it but realized a few things 1) Photos aren't a great way of seeing what's happening right now, somewhere. Just not dynamic enough, and "now" enough. 2) Exploring the world through a marketplace model is incredibly hard without massive scale. Huge cold start problem (What are the odds that there's somebody out there to fulfill a request for some specific thing I'm looking for?) We realized that live video could be a really powerful in letting you see what was happening right now (It's LIVE; it's unfiltered, it's unfettered). And we decided to flip the model and let anybody share, if they had something they wanted to show the world. Those gut changes led to our subsequent prototype, which started to take the form of what Periscope looks like today (at least, conceptually). Still, between that point and today was months of self discovery and iteration. Looking forward to talking to you more about the story when we get together :)

@alexia @dtrinh @rrhoover @kayvz thanks for sharing your insights on the gut changes going from the photo marketplace to the current app, awesome to read that

@alexia @dtrinh @kayvz @rrhoover The future will be very interesting with millions of people using this. With the location data Twitter could start digitising events with all the videos they have. Mix it up with some VR and you could relive important historic events like you were there. Here's an almost 3 year old thought provoking piece on this by @raymazza, lead game designer of The Sims: http://www.raymazza.com/blog/how...

@austenallred As far as I know, Periscope was being built before Meerkat was released. Twitter is trying to mirror their Vine acquisition strategy here, and I think it'll work. But that doesn't mean Meerkat is dead.

@austenallred Totally respect your opinion, but personally I don't look at this as a David vs Goliath story. We've been working on Periscope for a year. We may be crazy, but we just have this inkling that if we're successful in building what we think Periscope *can* be, that it'll be a good thing for the world. And we decided that doing it with Twitter would let us make that vision come to life faster. The fact that another company like Meerkat had a similar idea with a different approach is a GOOD thing. Just like Periscope, and every other startup out there: they're just hustling to build something they care about and make it come to life in the best way possible (which they may do independently, with VC support, without VC support, as part of a bigger company, or whatever other vehicle makes sense for them). I think the world benefits from having more tools to choose from, and a marketplace that's hungry to innovate/differentiate to create value for users. I don't think it's a battle between two companies. I think that we each have our own battle against ourselves to build something great, that holds up against our ideals and continues to evolve and grow. That path for each of us may end up being similar, or totally divergent.. but I think it's just too early to tell. I say that because from my perspective, Meerkat's just not on the top of my mind. Top of mind is the 11+ months worth of pent up excitement/planning around what I know Periscope is capable of if we keep building/executing.

@kayvz Regardless, congrats on a fantastic product, the acquisition, the launch, etc.

@austenallred thanks so much Austen. Really appreciate it!

@austenallred @kayvz Regardless congrats to you and the team, Kayvon!

@scottbelsky Thanks for sharing this Scott. Major shoutout to @scottbelsky for being our earliest investor, and advisor. It was his gentle nudge to consider live video rather than photos. He's been a close friend and advisor ever since.

@ubik911 I agree. Had my first crotch stream today on Periscope (after 1 day already). Never had it on Meerkat.

@bryceadams Thank you for redirecting some light to the human element. We often forget this here in the Valley.

@jiggityk So glad you feel that way. That's exactly what we were going for. None of us on the team consider ourselves "performers", so the idea of being live, on-stage in a broadcast felt pretty stressful. We wanted to find a way to reduce the anxiety associated with being live. When we first tried the "fluttering and flying" effect, the hearts just made us smile. And, as you mentioned, it really tightened the feedback loop because it 1) provided an easy way for viewers to say "i'm here, and i like!" without much work and 2) provided an easy form of validation for broadcasters (my viewers are engaged and happy!)