Twitter's Periscope is the “wild west right now”

Sarah Homewood
By Sarah Homewood | 8 May 2015
 

Twitter's live streaming app Periscope has been described as the “wild wild west” as the social network tries to work out the best way to control licensed content being streamed via the app.

Speaking at the CeBIT technology conference this week Shana Allen, sales director for Twitter Australia, said: “It's the wild wild west right now I would say.”

“It's an exiting time, but there’s a lot of experimentation and new rules being put in place, and technology being implemented in order to regulate those things. At the moment it's very much reliant on users to report those things or content producers to report those things,” she said.

Twitter recently came under fire in the US for users of Periscope illegally streaming the boxing fight between Mayweather v Pacquiao, which if users wanted to pay-to-stream were charged USD$89.95.

Speaking on the use of Periscope to stream the “fight of the century”, Allen said: “Periscope is a really exciting and interesting platform. Obviously with live streaming there is that opportunity for things to be broadcast that users don't have the rights for, at the moment it's a bit more policed by other users, and the team monitor at Periscope as well.

“There's going to be a lot of things put in place to help with that and that's going to come from the content producers – whether it's HBO or whoever is broadcasting that content – there’s going to be a lot of different ways to ensure that that content is protected,” she added.

During its Q1 results call Twitter announced that since the app launched more than a million people have logged on to give it a go.

Despite the strong showing from the app, Twitter’s managing director of global brand and agency strategy, Jean-Philippe Maheu, previously told AdNews that with Periscope being such a new offering by the social network, there are no current plans to monetise the service.

“Periscope is a live broadcast app and right now we're just focused on making sure the application works well and making sure the users are enjoying the application and also driving adoption,” Maheu said.

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