Live video streaming app Periscope celebrates its first birthday and confirms more than 200 million broadcasts.
Video streaming is gaining momentum in the tech industry and people want to see more than just text and images. Easy and fast Internet accessibility is another factor that has helped video streaming apps like Periscope to reach more people.
"We're proud of what we've built together and we're excited to share just how far we've come. As of today, over 200 million broadcasts have been created on Periscope and over 110 years of live video are watched every day on iOS and Android," says Periscope.
The Twitter-owned Periscope was launched in March 2015. The app has gained a lot of popularity and Periscope streams also appear on Twitter's timeline. Even though Periscope has reached a big milestone within a year but it faces stiff competition from rivals such as YouTube and Facebook.
Periscope users have not yet crossed 1 million in terms of hours of videos viewed per day in its apps. However, industry leaders like YouTube have revealed that its users watch millions of hours each day.
According to YouTube's own statistics page video streaming has been increasing in the last few years.
"The number of hours people spend watching videos (aka watch time) on YouTube is up 60 percent y/y, the fastest growth we've seen in 2 years," says YouTube. "The number of people watching YouTube per day is up 40 percent y/y since March 2014."
Both Facebook and YouTube have more than a billion users, which helps the companies to reach out to millions of users each day.
Facebook has also entered the video streaming market with great force. The social media company has rolled out its own live-streaming feature to all iPhone as well as Android users in the U.S. Facebook have also been promoting live streams via its notifications. The company offers user setting that allows viewers to disable live video notifications.
Competition from Facebook and YouTube will definitely affect Periscope's growth and market penetration. However, the company has been working hard to increase viewership via its app. In August 2015, the company confirmed that Periscope users were watching about 40 years of video per day and now it has increased to 10 million.
However, market observers believe that the company is confusing people by providing "years of video" watched figure rather than hours of videos watched per day. The latest update also does not reveal Periscope's user base.
