So Long, Meerkat

Ready to jump on the live-streaming bandwagon? You’ve got a few good options, courtesy of your social media standbys Facebook and Twitter. To heat things up a little, the two are currently battling out to claim the live video app throne.

In an article in the Wall Street Journal this week, Twitter announced that its standalone live video app Periscope has surpassed two million daily active users. The app currently hosts more than 10 million total accounts. Not to be outdone, Twitter’s longtime industry nemesis recently decreed that all users with verified profiles will be allowed to broadcast live videos to their followers with its Facebook Live feature.

While the two titans have yet to shove each other out as lead contender, they have been effectively dropkicking the independent competition out of the ring. Among the most notable competitors to be squeezed out is Meerkat, the company that first generated buzz on the live-stream front as the premier content hub for cool kid festival South by Southwest.

In early May, Meerkat reported it hosted two million total users. Now, according to WSJ and data from App Annie, a user population chasm between Periscope and Meerkat has widened further. Periscope was the ninth most popular social networking app in the Apple App Store this week, while Meerkat topped out at 316.

“It’s good these numbers are growing but take these numbers with a grain of salt,” Nate Elliott, a Forrester analyst, told WSJ. “This is a little, tiny baby step in the right direction.”

Mr. Elliott said that 10 million Periscope accounts converts to only 3 percent of Twitter’s entire user base.

Facebook, on the other hand, fuels its live event coverage via Ustream, a service that streamed content from everyday users similarly to Periscope’s old model. Since its inception in 2007, Ustream has since shifted to primarily business clients, streaming events like athletics, Facebook Inc.’s streams of Hillary Clinton and the “Game of Thrones” premiere.

Facebook is already dominating the video sharing space and has successfully trumped YouTube at its own game. The social media giant has even edged out its child company Instagram.

So, is live video content the new frontier? Regardless, founder of Ustream Brad Hunstable believes that video is about to become the new selfie.

“I think it’s just another data point that video is on a really rapid growth rate across multiple platforms,” Hunstable told WSJ. “Video is the most engaging medium.”