The Story Of Periscope | A Case Study

Introduction

Periscope is a live video streaming app available for iOS and Android platforms. Developers Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein are the makers of this app. Beykpour and Bernstein were traveling abroad in 2013, when they came up with the idea for Periscope. When protests broke out in Taksim Square Beykpour was in Istanbul. Curious about the incident, he wanted to see what was happening there. He searched Twitter for updates but he could only read what was happening and he wanted more information, and that’s when the idea for periscope hit him.

They started the company in February 2014. They called the company “Bounty” and were able to raise $1.5 million from Founder Collective, Scott Belsky, Maveron, Google Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Bessemer, Stanford – StartX and Sam Shank in April 2014. But even before the app had been launched, Twitter acquired Periscope for the amount of $100 Millon,. Similar streaming application Meerkat had been a huge hit at south by southwest (SXSW) 2015. Meerkat got cut off from Twitter’s social graph just as the festival was starting, and Twitter decided to move on to the next level with The acquisition was officially announced in a tweet from Periscope and retweeted by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo on March 13.

On March 26, 2015, Periscope was launched. Later, on May 26, 2015, Periscope was released for Android. Periscope has gained a big user base and is one of the most successful live-streaming platforms. It currently faces competiton from similar livestreaming platforms Meerkat and YouNow. Plan It all started when Kayvon Beykpour met a fellow Stanford University graduate, Jessica Verrilli, for coffee. Kavyon showed her what he was working on then, i.e. Periscope. He described Periscope as a mobile teleportation service. Using the app, users could livestream whatever is happening around them for anyone who wanted to watch. It was different from Youtube because while viewing experience in youtube is passive, it offered active viewing experience. Viewers could comment, ask questions, and like broadcasts in real time.

The idea came to Beykpor when he and Joe were travelling abroad. While in Istanbul, Beykpour wanted to get as much information as he could on the protests, which had just broken out in Taskim Square.

Related Read: Story of Airbnb | Startup Case Studies

Acc. To Beykpour,

“It just occurred to me, there were so many smart phones out there, why wasn’t there a way for me to ask who else was out there what was happening there?” Periscope offers active broadcast as well as response. You can stream whatever is happening around you, anytime to want and your viewers can watch you live. Viewers can participate actively by liking and commenting, real-time.

Execution

After founding the company in February 2014, Beykpour and Bernstein successfully raised a seed round from angel investors, including Adobe executive Scott Belsky. In an E-mail addressed to Business Insider, Belsky wrote, “When I first met Kayvon and Joe I was struck by their desire to spread truth and empathy by enabling anyone to experience the world through someone else’s eyes. We joked that Periscope was akin to teleportation, a technology and user experience that lets you be anywhere and witness anything. This became a lot more serious when I witnessed a major fire in San Francisco, a child’s first steps, and a man’s cancer treatment.” Impressed with the idea of Periscope, Verrilli introduced Beykpour to some bigwigs at Twitter, including CEO Dick Costolo and co- founder Jack Dorsey. Twitter soon realized what they were sitting on and offered to buy Periscope.

Present and Future

Periscope continues to operate independently, with its own team, brand and headquarters, thanks to Twitter. Their aim is to be the pulse of what’s happening around the world in real time.

It is the belief of co-founder Belsky that Periscope will be a ‘huge part’ of Twitter’s future.

Original Article was published in Startup Helpost

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