Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) device owners using Twitter's app are finding a new feature in their feed: integrated Periscope videos, which can either be streamed live or watched later on demand until they expire. It's a component that Twitter has been working toward since acquiring Periscope last March.
The integration will reduce the need for Twitter users to exit one app and open another when they want to watch a live stream on Periscope: now when a Periscope video shows up in the feed, a user can tap to open the video itself. The move will also put Periscope front and center for Twitter's 300 million users, potentially boosting its own user base which sits at about 10 million, The Wall Street Journal notes.
Users will still have to go to the Periscope app to start their own live streams, submit comments or send hearts.
An integrated Periscope hasn't yet been announced for Android devices.
Twitter's video aspirations go hand in hand with its search for profitability. Like other tech companies, the social media service has operated from a standpoint of innovate now, see profits later. But its move to add a native video player has been from the start a way to stay on pace with other social media outlets such as Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), as well as open potential new revenue opportunities by including targeted advertising.
So far its strategies haven't taken the investment world by storm: Twitter's stock share price is down by 45.66 percent from this time a year ago, according to The Street. However, the company shored up its earnings in 2015 -- partly by laying off about 8 percent of its workforce -- and posted a net income growth of 24.9 percent year over year.
Twitter's gradual integration of Periscope into its apps appears to be in line with the methodical approach it has taken to video for the past several months, so it's not far-fetched to imagine that an even tighter integration of two the apps' features, such as retweeting or sending hearts, will take place over time.
For more:
- see this WSJ article
- see The Street's take
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