Periscope Celebrates First Anniversary and 200m Live Streams

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Twitters live-streaming app Periscope has turned one year old, and has celebrated its anniversary by announcing it has also hit the milestone of over 200m live streams broadcast through the app.

The app was purchased by Twitter for a reported $75m (£52m) a few weeks before its launch, in the midst of a huge amount of hype for rival live-streaming app Meerkat, which dominated the conversation at tech and arts conference South by Southwest.

In the year since, Meerkats access to Twitter, which it used to share its streams, has been limited by the social network, and Periscope has emerged to become the livestreaming app of choice for mobile users. Apple even named Periscope as its App of the Year.

According to a blog post celebrating its anniversary, over 200m broadcasts have been created with the app, and over 110 years of live video are watched every day across the iOS and Android versions of the app. That number doesnt include time spent watching within Twitter, on the web or replays after live broadcasts, which would drive the figure even higher.

“Were proud of what weve built together and were excited to share just how far weve come,” said a Periscope spokesperson. “For everyone who joined us along the way, we hope this reaffirms that you are a part of something bigger. Thank you for making Periscope a vibrant global community.”

This year could prove to be something of a banner year. With Facebook jumping on to the live streaming bandwagon and Google rumoured to be looking into live-streaming technology for YouTube, Twitters app could soon face some stiff competition.

At the same time, big events like the Rio Olympics, the US Presidential election and the 2016 World Cup may seem live-streaming reach new levels of exposure and popularity, even as broadcasters and organisers struggle to regulate it at public events.