Meerkat was a hit at SXSW, now what?
Meerkat is the hottest new app that had everybody talking at SXSW. They’re currently scratching and clawing their way up the social media ranks.
Meerkat lets you live stream your personal videos. You download the app on your iPhone (it’s on Android but only for watching at this time) and then all of your followers get to watch what you record while you record it.
What makes this different than YouTube or Vine?
Well, it’s all done in real time, so you watch live or not at all. Meerkat has taken off like crazy and their user base is growing rapidly.
Twitter turned their back on Meerkat recently to give their very similar app, Periscope, an advantage. This is a bummer for Meerkat because now their users will have to build their friends list in the app instead of through Twitter. Meerkat users will of course still be able to tweet the videos, but your stream used to show up on Twitter instantly and now it’s a bit harder to distribute.
There’s kind of a battle going on between the two at the moment
Everyone on the internet seems to be debating which app is going to reign supreme. Lots of comparisons are out there but it’s hard to tell from reviews which one is superior. Meerkat has been out there a tad longer and built their user base through Twitter so their brand is already in the forefront.
Sometimes in the mobile application world there will be better apps on the market with better features but they don’t have the buzz. That is what could take Meerkat over the edge.
It’ll take some time, of course, to see which app ends up on top but celebrities are giving Meerkat lots of press and we all know the opinions of celebrities rule everything, amiright? Kidding, but they do have massive followings, which lends a lot of power to apps like this if they’re endorsing it.
A bit disenchanted
I loves me some social media but I’m a little disenchanted by all the new stuff these days. Hooray, now I get to see live videos of all my friends doing everyday stuff no one really cares about, instead of just seeing a picture of my friends doing everyday stuff nobody really cares about.
Who knows if Meerkat or their competitors will have any staying power? It could be the next Snapchat or it could be like Ello. You never know how these things will go. Meerkat has a lot of momentum so it will be interesting to see if they can keep it up.
#MeerkatApp
