The most fire video application meerkat: simple to outrageous but successful

Guide: Simple meerkat does not give users too many rules and regulations, under a simple rule, users create a variety of play. For example, the media use Meerkat live their interviews, celebrities completed online AMA (ask Me anything) activities, politicians announced their own inauguration process.
Research conclusion:

1. As a mobile phone video live application, Meerkat's product design is simple enough. This simplicity is reflected not only in the operational interaction, but also in the core logic of the product---------------a live real time.

2. Community outreach is the first step towards Meerkat to the user, and a more critical step is at the SXSW conference. Its unique live mode coincides with the General Assembly scene, rapidly detonating the spread.

3. Compared with its predecessor, Meerkat's success in one months has amply illustrated the importance of the "tuyere": Although the two-generation products are only 2 years in comparison, today's mobile network is faster and more suited to the rise of video applications than the 2013.

4. As an "experimental" product, Meerkat's current logic is "no Limits", which users can use to do any live, lengthy inaugural speeches or short instant creations. This may spark a new philosophical battle over mobile products in the future: What is the power of the public to engage in such a seemingly disorderly national video spree compared to professional television programs?

They were unexpectedly popular.

What does it feel like to be happy too suddenly? Two of the most popular products in the tech circle have been caught up in such surprises.

One called "Foot kee", this image application because of its movie scene-style image editing function in the circle of friends quickly well-known. At the same time, on the other side of the ocean, a video broadcast application called Meerkat also experienced the same leap red speed, online less than one months, has become the United States Science and Technology circle the hottest new products.

Video Live application? Why does it sound so new that the product model suddenly gets such a high degree of attention today? When we uncover the details of the company's growth experience and accidental success before the birth of Meerkat, maybe you will be like the founder Ben? The same state that Rubin (Ben Rubin) shared on Facebook, Can't help knocking down three letters: omg! (God!)

What kind of application is a meerkat?

Meerkat, the English word itself means a mongoose, also known as a meerkat, an animal that lives in Africa. If you have seen the animated movie "The Lion King", the cartoon character in Timon is a meerkat.

The most fire video application meerkat: simple to outrageous but successful
In Meerkat's app, its product logo is a mongoose's graphic, with a yellow background color, and seems to resemble another popular American social application Snapchat. In fact, there is a similarity between the two in terms of certain characteristics of the product, because they are based on a product mechanism that "once you look at it, there is no chance to see it again."

Meerkat's video live function is entirely based on the mobile phone, the user mobile phone camera-oriented scene can live to the attention of users. You may be able to live in concert, news events, outside of the car, or even live in your home scene or have a real-time quiz with your friends. Moving properties makes the live broadcast random and fragmented.

1. How to use the product

As a live video application, Meerkat does not want to do a video live tool, but want to do video live community.

Users open meerkat, first must use their own twitter account login, because the product itself does not provide a built-in account function. After successful login, the main interface is very simple, one input box plus two buttons. If you want to start live now, click the Stream button on the right to go directly to the live state. If not, start by writing down your upcoming event topic in the input box, and then click on the Schedule button on the left to start the live broadcast time, so your friends will be notified when you live.

The most fire video application meerkat: simple to outrageous but successful
Into the live interface, the upper left corner of the screen will show the number of people watching the live broadcast, while the lower left corner of the product to show you and this live interactive information, such as how to comment, who ordered the praise, who has been broadcast.

When the broadcast is over, the live person can choose whether to save the live video to the local, for retention records or to share to other video sites. But the audience will have no chance to see the live video again after the live broadcast.

The most fire video application meerkat: simple to outrageous but successful
2. The relationship between products and Twitter

Note that as users log on using their Twitter account, every move in this area will be synchronized to Twitter. Users start live, and their Twitter account automatically displays the live messages and live links.

Twitter buddies see the message and click on the link to see live video on the PC. Even users ' comments and Zane on the video will appear on Twitter. Such a promotional approach, so that meerkat users directly from Twitter to obtain the initial attention.

This, of course, led to Twitter's vigilance, after all, Twitter itself bought a live video called Periscope, unfortunately this product has not been launched, has been Meerkat robbed the limelight.

Not long after Meerkat's launch, Twitter turned off its ability to pull the chain of friends, which led to Meerkat users not seeing directly which Twitter buddies were using the app. The blockade has not been a fatal blow to Meerkat, but it has become the focus of media debate.

3. Product growth Process

It is now one months since Meerkat officially launched the App Store on February 27, and sources say the number of users in the product is over 300,000.

What is the concept of 300,000? Founder Rubin used two years to make another video live application Yevvo before developing meerkat. The 300,000 users, equivalent to Meerkat, took one months to get the size of the user Yevvo spent two years.

The driving force behind this includes two factors: Product Hunt product community and SXSW Congress. The former is a new product submitted and recommended by the community. Meerkat on product Hunt and became the most recommended new product at the top of the line. Such exposure makes the tech circle the first users of Meerkat. Product three days to obtain 15,000 users, forming more than 8,000 video streaming.

Then, at the beginning of March, the famous cultural event of the United States held SXSW, as once the red Twitter and the Foursquare of the Conference platform, any in this environment is widely used in the new products will become the focus of the technology circle.

Meerkat with its video live function is suitable for this scenario, coupled with the early days of the foundation of technology users, soon everyone began to try to use this product to live on their SXSW see activities. This large-scale dissemination effect makes the meerkat during the congress the user growth rate reached 30%-40%.

Meerkat: A trip to failure before accidental success

Meerkat is not the first live video application by founder Rubin. In March 2013, Rubin's first live video app, Yevvo, was online at the App Store. Although the product in the second half of 2013 had a short period of user growth, and won the Angel round 500,000 dollars and a round of 3.7 million U.S. dollars financing, but the development of 2014, weeks active users only 2000 people.

After reflection, Rubin gave up Yevvo in December 2014 and turned the product into a private live video application air. The team CTO spent 8 weeks alone in the development of air to develop an experimental application meerkat. The surprising thing followed, the team's main application air no one, Meerkat quickly attracted everyone's attention.

There is a puzzling question: Why Yevvo and meerkat form a completely different market influence, as is the case with live video applications?

If they are the biggest difference, the most obvious thing is born in the mobile speed at different points of time, compared to 2013, 2015 into the 4G gradual popularization phase, users began to have a faster mobile network environment.

But another difference, still to return to the product level. Compared with Yevvo and Meerkat, the latter is characterized by the minimalism of its interface. There are not too many labels and buttons, only one main screen. Will yevvo previous video recommendation, according to the geographical location of the video function cancellation, leaving only one of the most basic product features: Live video and user attention.

There is also a point, Meerkat will previously need to film the limit of video to cancel, so that users into a more natural state of the shooting, that is, the vertical phone can take a live picture.

So the product of simplicity gained attention, and Rubin attributed the result partly to the same effect of Snapchat. Users choose a product on the mobile side, the more easy-to-use and lightweight, do not have to have too many choices, but easily immersed in it.

In product promotion, Rubin in the media interview, the two products to promote the perspective of the use of different rhetoric. When he introduced Yevvo more than a year ago, Rubin emphasized the "authenticity" of the live broadcast, and now Meerkat, Rubin emphasizes the sense of participation that comes with the live broadcast. "The future of social networking is not sharing, it's about enhancing the world's sense of participation." "Live with me to experience what I'm going through."

Is the time for the three-nation video broadcast really coming?

Of course, users don't care about the concept behind the product. What they need is to do something with this product.

The simple meerkat does not set too many rules for the user, under a simple rule, users create a variety of play. For example, the media use Meerkat live their interviews, celebrities completed online AMA (ask Me anything) activities, politicians announced their own inauguration process.

Does this state of natural development really allow more users to get used to the live video? Now the meerkat may have just changed a path to explore the end they wanted to reach two years ago.

In the field of video live, not no product success. Twitch, the Amazon's 1 billion-dollar game video broadcast last year, has more than 100 million viewers and more than 1.5 million anchors. But Twitch's predecessor, Justin.tv, is a non vertical video broadcast platform. It was not until 2010 that they quickly completed the transition when they found that video streaming was their most important source of traffic growth. Traffic growth at the same time, The Advertiser's favor also began to ensure that the site's revenue source, followed by the introduction of a pay model.

Back to the mobile video live, to do a live video social platform, or eventually transformed into a vertical video live community, Meerkat's current exploration is clearly only the first step. They also need more data and feedback to make the next decision.

Thankfully, the first batch of users who are willing to take a taste of it has come in.

"Everything on TV is boring, and I'm here to see what's fun." A meerkat user wrote this comment in a live video.

(This article analyst: Wang Intern Xiahu Qing also contributed to this article)