It looks like Twitter is going the extra mile in making sure that the live video streaming service it purchased, Periscope, will be favored by users over rival Meerkat. Reports have surfaced that the social media giant has been calling celebrities who use Meerkat to try and persuade them that Meerkat is no longer popular and that they should go for Periscope instead.
Sources also claim that Twitter has been talking to a number of media companies that also use Meerkat, telling them that if they do not use Periscope exclusively, their access to Amplify could be cut off. For those not in the know, Amplify is Twitter's own take on the concept of commercial television -- it basically pairs media companies with brands in order to generate promoted tweets based around video content, making it possible for both media companies and brands to reach a much broader audience.
Interestingly, Twitter is not the only one reaching out to personalities. Meerkat has also been purportedly trying to get celebrities from Vine (which Twitter owns) to broadcast via Meerkat (something that Meerkat denies). It gets kind of complicated when you consider the fact that some celebrities on Vine also have begun using YouNow, yet another live broadcasting app. Meerkat did manage to get Madonna to join its fold.
If these reports are true, then it is clear that Twitter is really making a big effort to get itself into a position where it can dominate in terms of broadcasting reach. And it is not just in social media, but in live video streaming, too -- the heated competition between Twitter's Periscope and Meerkat is certainly proof of that.
But with the way that Twitter is going about it, one might think that the company is on the defensive end. Or maybe just ultra-aggressive? After all, the company had its own CEO, Dick Costolo (along with Chris Sacca), make a rather strong sales pitch to celebrities who used Meerkat.
It was among the startup community that Meerkat began to attract some following. But because it is essentially just an independent startup, it needed all the help (and publicity) it can get in order to break into the mainstream. And having celebrities promote it sounded like a very sensible idea.
Meerkat had built its live video streaming app on top of Twitter's social graph, not knowing then that Twitter had bought competing live video streaming app Periscope. Twitter has since cut off Meerkat's access to its social graph (quite abruptly, to be frank about it).
But others might think that Twitter's aggressive tactics may not be enough to sway user preferences. After all, users nowadays are much more smart and informed about their decisions. And even if Twitter can convince celebrities to stay away from Meerkat, it may be more difficult to persuade end users whose preferences may or may not be the same as celebrities.
