

Meerkat Learns Buzz Doesn't Always Mean Business - drsilberman
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-15/meerkat-learns-buzz-doesn-t-always-mean-business

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borgia
I am still absolutely struggling to see a popular use case for these
applications. I would be interested to read about how those who
financed/invested in these products, Meerkat in particular, came to the
conclusion that it was worth a punt.

The only time I heard Meerkat being mentioned was in the context of Periscope
stepping into its place at launch time. The only time I've heard about
Periscope being used since its launch was in reading about HBO shutting down
those streaming GoT on it.

"If you build it, they will come" seems to have been morphed into "If you
build it, hopefully they'll find a reason to use it" here.

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kleinsch
The easiest way to get attention from the media is by creating something that
the media is interested in. Internet media types love the idea of citizen
journalists submitting live video from breaking events, so it's an appealing
angle for them to write about. The story (what Meerkat could do) is a lot more
exciting than the current reality (how many people are _actually_ using
Meerkat).

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notahacker
Like Twitter, it's a not-especially-good idea that's one major celebrity
thinking it's cool or a couple of major livestreamed incidents away from being
potentially pretty big. Integration with existing social networks is going to
be the key bit for regular users though, as the average person wants to
passively showcase the cool thing they're doing to their friends rather than
random members of the public.

It's not a hugely novel idea though; a couple of days ago we had an article on
the first girl to lifestream her life, in _1996_.

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nicktal
When are we going to learn? Ripping some tech PR and being at SXSW getting PMF
with techies and media-types for a product that needs mainstream traction is a
death-knell.

The same happened with Secret/Whisper last year and I commented that based on
my focus groups in the Midwest, Yik Yak was going to clean their clock. And
they did.

It's because mobile is so pervasive and mainstream we need to look at the
market from a mature distribution perspective. Dare I say even from a packaged
goods perspective. How do you get a new brand of yogurt on the shelves? What's
the quality bar necessary? If you win at distribution where everyone lives,
you win period.

The "Crossing the Chasm" Christensen model that worked for Google over a
decade ago when the preferred medium of distribution of a tech product was not
mainstream does not apply today for consumer.

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exelius
The live-streaming market is still young. I doubt Meerkat's investors are
expecting profits or a viable business model any time soon (this seems like
the classic "build a user base and figure out the rest later" model). While
buzz may not mean business, it definitely creates opportunity.

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taksintik
Actually it does..it's just not sustainable under its current incarnation. The
buzz factor is real and meerkat team have earned brand equity that can be used
for countless other projects for years to come.

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minimaxir
"Brand equity" doesn't work if people forget your startup within _weeks_.

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ryandvm
Easy come, easy go.

