Meerkat and Periscope won’t work because millennials generally prefer asynchronous services over live services. Millennials like Netflix, not broadcast TV, because Netflix fits our schedule.
That said, if Meerkat and Periscope focus on a single type of content (i.e News) — they could become very useful.
Why is asynchronous better than live?
Let’s look at Stackoverflow (asynchronous help) versus Codementor (live help).
Stackoverflow is something I use almost every day. It’s great because there’s a breadth of content that is indexed. I can find solutions to problems I’m facing because many developers have faced these problems before and already solved them. There are services like Codementor that are trying to build a live version of Stackoverflow. They’ll have a niche of customers but it won’t be the global phenonmenon resource that Stackoverflow is. What are the chances of someone with the right solution being online at the same time as I am facing that exact problem? The chance will always be smaller than just having people record their solutions, for me to find in my own time, when I happen to be having the issue.
Live services like Twitch.TV are successful because they are focused on one vertical.
Twitch is for avid gaming fans that are emotionally invested in the games they spend days and nights playing. Twitch.tv is a gaming hub and you can go watch a live stream of a specific game you’re currently passionate about. The content on Twitch can be anticipated — it’s always going to be streams of gameplay. Periscope and Meerkat will be about anything and nothing.
Meerkat and Periscope can work if they focus on news
Justin.tv didn’t take off because it was too generic — anyone could start streaming anything. This is the same reason that Meerkat and Periscope will not work as currently constructed.
Meerkat and Periscope could work if all they did was live “News.” Then, the world would be able to tune-in into any live news event (the heroic plane landing in the Hudson, fighting in Syria, etc.). Everyone could be holding a news-camera and we would all get live, unfiltered access to what’s going on in the world right now.
