Overview
Periscope made a phone into a live broadcast channel. Viewers could respond while the broadcaster was still filming. Twitter acquired the company in January 2015, before introducing the public app that March. The combination linked an immediate video experience with a network already organized around current events.[1][4]
The separate app ended in March 2021. The team cited declining usage and rising support costs, while saying that most core capabilities had moved into Twitter. Its history therefore includes an early company acquisition, continuing product development, and a later product retirement.[7][8]
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Founding Story
Kayvon Beykpour and Joseph Bernstein had already built school apps together and worked at Blackboard. After leaving, they explored new ideas. Beykpour’s planned 2013 trip to Istanbul prompted an interest in seeing a distant event through someone’s phone. He called the idea “a teleportation experience.”[2]
The first concept, Bounty, let someone request a photo from a particular place. Its supply problem was severe: the right photographer had to be there when the request arrived. The team shifted to live video. That changed the product from asking for a specific photograph to discovering something already happening.[17]
A later founder interview connects the experience to latency. Viewers needed to influence a broadcaster quickly enough to feel present. Lower delay made a chat message useful while the scene was still unfolding. The accessible transcript reproduces Beykpour’s account; it is not a measurement of historical network performance.[10]
Twitter acquired Periscope in January 2015 and launched its iPhone app publicly on March 26. Precise legal incorporation remains unverified.[1]
Timeline
- 2013: The travel experience that prompted the product idea, in the founders' later accounts.[2]
- January 2015: Twitter acquired the company.[1]
- March 26, 2015: The iPhone app launched; Android was still forthcoming.[1]
- June 2015: Twitter documented brand campaigns using the live format.[4]
- January 2016: Twitter brought broadcasts into timelines, and GoPro announced direct camera integration.[3][5]
- 2017: The Super Broadcaster program added a paid-support mechanism.[6]
- December 15, 2020: The team announced retirement of the separate app.[7]
- March 31, 2021: The final-day message was reproduced in contemporaneous reporting.[8]
What They Built
A broadcaster shared a live camera feed from a phone. Viewers contributed chat messages and hearts. The interaction required relatively little production equipment, but it asked the broadcaster to sustain an experience while watching the audience's response. Twitter's early brand guidance encouraged responding to comments and examining watch time and replays.[4]
In the 2016 profile, Beykpour emphasized “interactivity with the audience.” Audience input could change the scene while it unfolded. That gave the format a different creative rhythm from editing a finished video.[2]
Distribution changed in January 2016. Live streams and replays began playing inside Twitter timelines. The official announcement reported more than 100 million broadcasts since launch. A person could encounter a stream where they already read updates.[3]
GoPro added another source of footage. Its announcement described switching between an iPhone camera and a HERO4 Black or Silver during a broadcast, while the camera also recorded locally. The partnership broadened what could be filmed without requiring an entirely separate audience network.[5]
The NFL’s 2016 Twitter agreement also included pre-game Periscope broadcasts with players and teams.[19]
Market Position
Target Customers
The product served at least two roles: people creating live experiences and people discovering or following them. Brands added a third use case by bringing an existing audience to an event. A platform could attract viewers for exceptional moments while still needing enough broadcasters to provide repeat reasons to return.
Market Size
A smartphone audience is a distribution possibility, not a revenue estimate. The relevant questions are how often broadcasters return, whether viewers arrive at the same time, and what either side values enough to fund. The reviewed evidence does not provide a standalone revenue series or an independently measured profitable audience size.
Competition
Meerkat was an early rival mentioned in contemporary profiles. The broader competitive pressure came from live capabilities becoming part of larger services. That process also happened inside Twitter, where Periscope's features became easier to use without visiting its own app.[2][7]
Live mobile broadcasting remains available elsewhere. YouTube's current help describes channel eligibility, scheduling, chat, and replay settings. A new product cannot treat the disappearance of Periscope's app as proof that live video is unavailable.[12]
Managed video also provides an alternative to owning delivery infrastructure. Mux’s current pricing separates input, storage, and delivery. Its basic free-input tier excludes live streams. A builder must price live video with a supported quality tier, even if some delivery minutes are included.[13]
Business Model
Super Hearts created a paid interaction. Users bought coins, gave Super Hearts to broadcasters, and eligible broadcasters could ask Twitter to redeem accumulated Stars for cash under the program's rules. These units had different meanings, and redemption required program eligibility.[6]
Twitter also explored advertising around broadcasts. Its 2015 shareholder letter described a pilot that let marketers promote Tweets containing Periscope video. This attached monetization to Twitter's existing advertising tools. The reviewed material does not isolate Periscope's net revenue or costs.[14]
For distribution, the company supplied recognizable examples. Twitter documented Target's Lilly Pulitzer and Eddie Borgo activity, Adobe's Creative Cloud broadcasts, and Orange's interactive #HelpVictor campaign. These examples establish use, without isolating a sales effect.[4]
Traction
In August 2015, Periscope reported passing 10 million accounts and more than 40 years of live mobile viewing per day. The viewing measure excluded the web and replays. These were registration and watch-time figures, not paying subscribers.[18]
The January 2016 broadcast count shows large creation volume, but it does not measure unique active creators, revenue, or profitability. The later wind-down statement described declining usage. Both can be true: a product can reach a large cumulative total and then lose the repeat activity needed to support it.[3][7]
In a later interview, Beykpour said the team misunderstood many broadcasters’ motivation. They wanted conversation or recognition. He described this as a mistake. It is a founder's interpretation, not a quantified attribution of every usage decline.[10]
Outcome and evolution
The team announced retirement on December 15, 2020, citing declining usage and support costs. The app and Super Broadcaster program ended March 31, 2021.[7][8][15]
As reviewed October 23, 2026, the Periscope landing page says past public broadcasts continue on the web. This statement is narrower than a guarantee that every historical recording survives or that every old account remains usable.[9]
The founders' work also continued elsewhere. Macroscope's own current team page identifies Beykpour and Bernstein as its cofounders alongside Robert Bishop. The founders now work on a separate software-development company.[11]
Key Lessons
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Periscope needed broadcasters and viewers to return at the same time. Removing camera and publishing friction helps, but the broadcaster's motivation and the audience's availability still shape repeat use.[10]
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Twitter’s timeline preserved Periscope’s live capability while reducing the need for a separate destination. Track the feature, app, team, and ownership independently when judging the outcome.[3][7]
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Periscope’s cumulative broadcast count and later usage decline answer different questions. Watch repeat use and support costs together. The team's later maintenance decision shows why a launch milestone cannot settle the long-term operating question.[7]