By now, you’ve probably heard of the new startup Meerkat from news headlines or friends. But you may not know exactly what Meerkat is, and what makes the month-old startup interesting. In essence, Meerkat is an app for iOS that allows users to livestream from their phones and post about it on Twitter. It has integration with Twitter, which it uses as the backend for the social network component of the app. Users can follow their Twitter friends that have also installed the app and get notifications whenever they are streaming, which is what sets it apart from services like Ustream and Twitch.
Meerkat has been making headlines lately due to its presence at South by Southwest (SXSW) and investments from venture capitalists. After a $12 million investment last week, it’s been estimated to have a $52 million total valuation. At SXSW, Meerkat gained users through attendees broadcasting their waits in line and experiences at various booths, really through no action on the part of the Meerkat company itself.
A few weeks before Meerkat’s ascent in Austin, Twitter bought a competing company, Periscope, to build their own version of Meerkat’s livestreaming technology. After the acquisition, Twitter cut off Meerkat’s access to their social graph API. Previously, Meerkat would automatically have users follow all of their Twitter friends that had also installed the app. Now, users have to manually search for their friends and follow them individually. This means, among other things, that it will be harder for Meerkat to compete with Twitter when they launch their livestreaming service based on the Periscope platform.
Of course, that is the risk a company runs when it bases their business on the foundation of another one. This doesn’t mean Meerkat is out of options. They can still operate as a competitor to Twitter, given that they are already established, or they could be acquired by another big company wanting to enter into the space, like Facebook.
Twitter isn’t the only one not entirely thrilled with Meerkat. Startup incubator Y Combinator hosted their demo day this week—an event during which startups present themselves to potential investors—and banned the use of Meerkat by audience members, citing potential Securities and Exchange Commission rule violations as the reason why.
Many are anticipating that the app, and others like it, will become a point of contention for many private events to come, such as Google Glass was way back when. Right now, Meerkat is only available for iPhones, though there is a barebones version assembled by the team that can be used to view streams on Android. According to the company, a full app is coming soon.
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