Twitter in acquisition talks with video streaming app Periscope

Twitter is in talks with maker of video streaming app Periscope,  for acquiring it for $100 million.

The microblogging website had been looking at ways to ensure that its bottom line benefited from users who did not tweet or even login. In that backdrop, a streaming service that allowed 1-to-many broadcast (the viewers need to be connected just to the broadcaster via a hosting webservice) made sense.

However, even as Twitter looked to snap up Periscope, the acquisition may have been prompted by the success of the Meerkat stream-tweeting model as by other motivations.

Meerkat, a streaming service, rode on Twitter's identity, communication and distribution system. The moment  user started a broadcast on Meerkat, an auto-tweet mechanism would send out tweets to all those following the user.

Given the huge popularity Meerkat gained with this sharing mechanism, there was speculation that Twitter might seek to acquire it.

The microblogging site had reportedly blocked the feature that allowed apps to tweet on behalf of people, before allowing it.

According to commentators, an aggressive tweeting-streaming model (where every time you tapped on 'stream', a tweet went out to all one's followers) was a bit too much. However, video-streaming, especially live-streaming, would make the Periscope acquisition advantageous for Twitter.

With Periscope, users can upload live videos wherever they were and broadcast it to allow people to watch it.

According to a Techcrunch report, the acquisition would prove beneficial for Twitter as it was in line with its real-time sharing option.

The availability of high-bandwidth, prevalence of mobile cellular networks, and the emergence of powerful mobile devices with good cameras also made sense for Twitter to add Periscope to its service.

Commentators add live video streaming would make Twitter a more favourable option for activists, reporters and documentarians.