“A startup company or startup or start-up is an entrepreneurial venture or a new business in the form of a company, a partnership or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. These companies are generally newly formed and are innovation in a process of development, validation and research for target markets.”

One of the hottest growing start-ups of 2015 is Periscope. The literal meaning of the word “Periscope” is an apparatus that consists of a tube connected to a set of mirrors or prisms, by which an observer (typically in a submerged submarine or behind a high obstacle) can see things that are otherwise out of sight.

But the Periscope which we are talking about here is not this apparatus but an app developed by Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein. Other founders include Aaron Wasserman and Tyler Hansen. They have developed a live video streaming app for iOS and Android.

Periscope Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein

How Periscope came into existence?

Fascinated by the idea of being able to discover the world through someone else’s eyes, about an year ago, the founders decided to make something which could closely resemble teleportation i.e. going to some other place without moving from your original place. This nearly sounded impractical and not feasible. Like what it would be like if you could see the sunrise from a hot air balloon from some distant place in the world? Among a number of ways to explore the world and the events taking place in it, the founders felt that the best way to enjoy and experience a place at this very moment in time is through live video. A picture surely captures a moment forever but a live video can actually take you to the place and show you around.

Twitter bought Periscope before it even launched

Twitter had quietly purchased the startup behind this app in March 2015 for a whopping $100 million reportedly. The app was initially being used in closed beta until its launch in public on March 26, 2015. This was a relaunch of the app on iOS under Twitter’s own App Store Account. A few months later, the android version of Periscope was released on May 26, 2015.

Periscope ios & Android

Periscope versus Meerkat

With the Periscope app, users can easily stream video footage from their devices to their followers. Viewers who watch these footages can comment on them and can also send “hearts” to the streamer i.e. the person who is streaming that video. The hearts can be sent by tapping on the screen as a mark of appreciation. Another feature of Periscope which makes it different and better than its rival app Meerkat is that the footage can be replayed later in case of Periscope. However, in the Meerkat app, once the stream of the footage gets over, the footage is gone.

Service

The services provided by Periscope can be enjoyed from its mobile app as well as from Twitter. When a user connects to Periscope from Twitter, the user can allow other Periscope users to see live-streaming of the videos whose links he tweets. The privacy of the videos uploaded by users has been well taken care of by Periscope. A user can control whether he wants to make his video public or whether he wants to allow only a certain users to access his videos for example his friends or family. There is a tab names as “People” which displays the users to whom the most hearts have been sent during the real-live broadcast.

periscope on twitter

The terms of service of Periscope mentions that rebroadcasting copyrighted content will be a form of violation of the Periscope’s TOS, and the offending account may get suspended or banned.