Twitter to Shut Down Periscope Five Years After Launch

Twitter is shutting down Periscope as a separate live video streaming app after incorporating most of its core capabilities into the Twitter Live feature within the main app.

Twitter said in a blog post Tuesday that it made the “difficult decision” to discontinue Periscope by March 2021 in part because the app “is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while.”

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time,” it added.

Twitter bought Periscope for $86 million along with social media startup Niche in 2015. The acquisition “heralded a new age for live streaming,” according to Deadline, as Twitter sought to address the rapid growth of competitor Meerkat.

Twitter would go on to integrate live video into the main Twitter app in December 2016, describing the feature as being “powered by Periscope.” But as TechCrunch reports, it “has been building out its own video offerings in recent months, rendering much of Periscope’s features redundant as a standalone app.”

Periscope “wasn’t a staying force, in the same way that other live streaming services — like the juggernaut of Twitch — would become,” The Verge said.

According to app analytics firm Sensor Towers, Periscope has had around 101 million installs over its lifetime, with installs down 7% so far in 2020.

Twitter said that “the capabilities and ethos of the Periscope team and infrastructure already permeate Twitter, and we’re confident that live video still has the potential of seeing an even wider audience within the Twitter product.”

But Gizmodo was skeptical, saying, “We all know deep down that anyone serious about live streaming is already on Twitch or TikTok or Reddit or YouTube or any number of apps that let you do exactly the same thing.”