I have recently been exploring Periscope (www.periscope.tv), the new streaming media app / service that came into existence roughly a year ago and that was bought by Twitter for approximately $100 million in March 2015.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to check it out more for the learning / entertainment value, than the short-term business opportunity. The gist of Periscope is that anyone who downloads the app can broadcast him- or herself to people anywhere. Hashtags can be used to drive viewership to streams.
The newness of the application and the free-for-all content that’s being shared is reminiscent of the early days of the Internet. Broadcasts range from self-help gurus and business opportunity hawkers to pre-newscast set dialogue, to people walking their dogs to Tony Stewart driving in his regular car to his next race.
It seems like most of the people using the app are doing so for their own entertainment or revenue objectives, which through hashtagging enables an entertainment / lead generation platform for anyone who is following / watching.
Assuredly, business adoption will increase over time and creative utilization will blossom. Yet, I think there are many hurdles to making the case for investing in (yet another) social channel right now, the primary one being that if you study the broadcasts, the average number of viewers at any time is quite low (under 10). Thus it is a costly endeavor, relative to other more evolved social engagement channels. Stay tuned.
