Social Media
Inside the Meerkat Bubble, where the air is fine
IMAGE: KAY NIETFELD/PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/AP IMAGES/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two weeks ago, I’d never heard of Meerkat, the Twitter-integrated, video-live-streaming sensation that became the darling of SXSW Interactive 2015. Now I’m sitting at my desk, live-streaming me writing this post while 63 people watch.
Meerkat is not some sort of breakthrough innovation. There are other broadcasting platforms like Google Hangouts and Ustream. I’ve used those tools, but not with the same level of devotion, excitement or results.
What makes Meerkat special? Is it special?
I’ve been traveling on and off for three weeks. So I missed the Meerkat launch and Seth Fiegerman’s excellent story. Instead, I noticed people talking about it on Twitter, people I trust and respect. So I circled back, found the app, and tried it out.
My first Meerkat was an uneventful tour of my office. As is typical with new social tools, I didn’t entirely get it. I could see a couple dozen people watching me (their avatars appear on screen), but I wasn’t sure what the experience was like on their end. I’ve since learned that, while the video quality is often pretty good, there’s a significant delay.
I wasn’t impressed, but with the app on my iPhone 6 and buzz building, there was a good chance I’d use it again.
Risk-taking
A few days later, I was at the Apple Watch Event in San Francisco. It’s not usual for me to employ a variety of social tools to give my audience a bird’s eye view of the occasion. Somewhat impulsively, I decided to start using Meerkat while the assembled journalists were waiting to check in.
The response was swift and electric.The response was swift and electric.Within moments, I had dozens of people watching through Meerkat as I walked up and down the line.
The benefit of Meerkat’s deep integration with Twitter soon became apparent to me. Every time I turned on Meerkat and started a live stream, it automatically tweeted out to all my followers. As Meerkat reminds you, “Everything that happens on Meerkat, happens on Twitter.”
On screen, I could see the number of people watching and Twitter avatars for eight viewers. The best part, though, was what I saw at the base of the screen: Twitter replies to my original stream tweet. As I walked the queue, I started to notice some people were making requests: “Talk to that person,” “Ask this question,” “Show us that.”
Later, I took Meerkat into the Apple Demo room. This is the space Apple typically sets up to give journalists and invited guests an opportunity to touch the new products. I’d never broadcast from inside an Apple Event and was more than a bit nervous that Apple would realize what I was doing and kick me out. Instead, no one took much notice and my Meerkat audience got an early, up-close look at the Apple Watch and new MacBook
With over 150 concurrent viewers, that stream was my biggest Meerkat hit, yet.
Meerkat’s was still riding high on the social zeitgeist when South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive opened in Austin on March 13. By then, I’d already decided that I would try using it during the eclectic event. I wasn’t alone.
Entering the bubble
Here’s something you should know about SXSW: It’s not the real world, especially the Interactive portion. It’s saturated with media and marketing types. They naturally use social media tools. In 2007, they helped launched Twitter and have been looking for its successor ever since.
it’s unlikely it would be half as hot without deep Twitter integrationit’s unlikely it would be half as hot without deep Twitter integration. As I noted above, it Tweets for you, shows you live Twitter reactions and, until recently, auto-followed everyone you follow on Twitter on Meerkat (which was kind of a no-no). Twitter has since limited Meerkat’s access to Twitter’ social graph.
When I asked Twitter about Meerkat a few days earlier, they seemed pretty OK with it and called it part of a hot space. The company likes the video streaming market so much it recently bought Meerkat competitor (or is it killer?) Periscope.
Over the next few days at SXSW, things got a bit out of hand. I found myself Meerkatting (yes, that’s the proper term, not “Meercasting”) moments I might normally have Instagrammed (video) or Vined. There was something addictive about having a live audience. One reason I Meerkatted so often is that the technology worked so well. I Meerkatted through LTE and Wi-Fi. The Meerkat backend did an excellent job of managing the stream. Sure, I had more than a few moments when Meerkat dropped down to audio only and even “Low Connectivity,” which meant my stream stopped, but I had more solid streams than not. It’s also worth noting that even when I only had audio, my audience would encourage me to continue.
I streamed my SXSW badge pickup, GrumpyCat and bacon, Hulk Hogan, Cookie Monster, I even propped up my phone in my jacket pocket so I could Meerkat a bionics keynote while I typed notes and took photos with my free hands.
Meerkat Mania reached a fever pitch on Sunday when I joined Mashable Founder and CEO Pete Cashmore on a Mashable Meerkat meetup. For more than an hour, we roamed the streets of Austin and live-streamed the SXSW scene. I eventually peeled off, but
hours later at the MashBash party I found Cashmore outside, still Meerkatting.hours later at the MashBash party I found Cashmore outside, still Meerkatting.
Cashmore also Meerkatted an interview at the MashBash bar with the app's CEO Ben Rubin. It was unclear to me if he took a break
Cashmore also Meerkatted an interview at the MashBash bar with the app's CEO Ben Rubin. It was unclear to me if he took a break.
All this Meerkatting by competitive media brands and journalists resulted in a mostly healthy rivalry to see who could top the Meerkat leaderboard. That’s right, Meerkat smartly included a gamification system that encourages our worst impulses. The score appears right below your Meerkat/Twitter handle. Every time I Meerkatted, the number would jump (last I looked it was over 2,000. The board leader, Mashable, has over 32,000). Time spent on a Meerkat and number of viewers appear to be factors in the score.
Soon, people at SXSW were actively competing to move up on the leaderboard. Since content quality was not a factor, it really just became about frequency and longevity.
Feed the social monster
My decision to Meerkat sometimes left me without shareable assets. You can’t take a photo at the same time as you Meerkat, though you can screen grab, if you don’t mind all the Meerkat interface elements on top of everything. Thankfully, Meerkat lets you save the stream — sometimes. At one point I found Cookie Monster in the SXSW Mashable House and interviewed him about Meerkat, live on Meerkat. It was antic fun and I thought it would make an excellent and sharable video. Unfortunately, Meerkat only saved a small portion of my stream.
Meerkat maker Life on Air Inc.’s marketing manager, Ryan Cooley admitted to me that the ability to save your entire stream is somewhat buggy and they are working on it.
Later that day, I Meerkatted Hulk Hogan arm wrestling Left Shark (yes, this really happened). It was, like most Meerkats, part of a longer video. I saved the whole thing, edited it in iMovie and then posted six seconds of the bout on Vine. It was encouraging to see that Meerkat could help feed my go-to social apps.
Can this Meerkat run?
As I Meerkatted my way through SXSW, and did my best to always announce that I was streaming live video of everyone and everything, I took note of people’s varied reactions. Some had never heard of Meerkat. Others hid from the camera or looked slightly freaked out.
When I arrived at the packed SXSW journalists party, I was met with numerous other Meerkatters. We started Meerkatting each other, which is either totally meta or completely ridiculous. It was like the bubble inside the bubble and made me wonder if Meerkat could survive and thrive outside of SXSW.
Early indications are yes.
For one thing, Meerkat is proof that this kind of technology can work. While Meerkat is new, the technology behind it has been under development for years and it shows. Meerkat is the kind of app that can sound good on paper, but be a terrible experience in practice. I was rarely disappointed in Meerkat’s performance.
And while streaming apps have launched and failed before, today is the age of mobile broadband. Everyone has 4G phone and a lot of available Wi-Fi. It’s an environment tailor-made for life-casting.
The app is currently listed as a Best New App in the App Store. That should help continue Meerkat’s meteoric growth.
There are, though, clouds in the distance
Twitter may only be putting up with Meerkat until it has Periscope ready to go native on the platform. At that point, Twitter could choose to completely cut off Meerkat’s Twitter integration, leaving only an interesting, but not necessarily compelling social video streaming platform.
Outside the media bubble, Meerkat currently reports just 160,000 users (but it also claims 20% to 30% daily growth) and may have a hard time thriving as a mainstream app. Teens, a primary driver for new social tools, appear more comfortable sharing videos in short busts.
If Meerkat wants to grow in that demographic, it may want to work on Tumblr integrationIf Meerkat wants to grow in that demographic, it may want to work on Tumblr integration.
Now, with a little bit of time outside the SXSW Meerkat Media bubble, I’ve come to the conclusion that Meerkat isn’t another Twitter, but it’s also not another Highlight (a former SXSW app darling). The act of live-streaming to a built in social media audience is an obvious and smart idea. If Meerkat fails, something else will surely take its place.
BONUS:What is Meerkat? Founder explains most-discussed app of SXSW
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