Facebook – Periscope depth

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This is the right time for Facebook to torpedo Twitter.

  • Facebook’s Live Video offering which allows users to broadcast themselves to their friends and followers is being moved from just celebrities into advanced testing with real iPhone users.
  • Clearly, the stage is set for this feature to be offered as just another feature within Facebook that threatens to take all of the wind from Periscope’s sails.
  • Periscope is an app offered by Twitter (that it bought for $100m) that offers exactly the same function enabling video broadcasting to one’s followers.
  • Live Video is also to some degree is also targeting YouTube whose original moniker was “broadcast yourself”.
  • There are two criteria which will decide who wins.
    • First. How easy, fun and reliable the two services are.
    • Second. How well video broadcasting catches on outside of its traditional use of news dissemination.
  • When I look at Twitter with its 320m users, I see a service that is great for disseminating news and one that is awful at communicating with your friends and associates.
  • In that vein, Periscope was a great purchase as it fits exactly into what Twitter does and enhances what it is good at.
  • However, from the Facebook perspective with 5x the number of active users and vastly superior usability for communication, this makes sense from enhancing engagement with the consumer.
  • Many people use Facebook as a postcard service to tell their friends what they are doing and where they are.
  • This enhances that but very much like video calling, it is questionable to what degree this will appeal to the consumer segment.
  • Consequently, I can see video broadcasting splitting down two fault lines with news and reportage going over Twitter / Periscope and personal video broadcasting going via Facebook.
  • The issue for Twitter and Periscope is reach.
  • Its user base is stagnant while Facebook’s is 5x larger and still growing, albeit pretty slowly.
  • This means that for reaching an audience, Facebook is likely to be a better bet and is not impossible that Facebook ends up swallowing the broadcast and news dissemination opportunity currently held by Twitter.
  • I suspect that this is exactly what Facebook intends to do and its timing could not be better.
  • While Twitter sits at the crossroads wondering what to do and being slowed down by a part time CEO, it is vulnerable.
  • Hence, should Live Video start to get some traction, this will only compound my concerns and worries surrounding Twitter.
  • Facebook remains my top long-term choice (see here) and I still think that there is plenty of room for Twitter to fall further.

RICHARD WINDSOR

Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.