Meerkat Decides to Move Away From Livestreams in Favour of a Social Network

Meerkat CEO Ben Rubin has decided to transform the Meerkat experience, after livestreaming tools from Twitter-owned Periscope and Facebook pushed users away.

Rubin sent around an email to investors, Recode reports, openly admitting to Meerkat’s struggles. It turns out that whilst Meerkat’s livestreaming functionality was a hit, competitors offering a similar service elsewhere were having a huge impact on interest.

Speaking to Recode, Ben Rubin has revealed that his app is waving goodbye to its old self, now focused on delivering a social network where “everybody is always live.”

Even though the Meerkat app still functions as it always has, the team behind the app are now putting their attention and time into other projects. Understandably, Rubin remains tight-lipped when it comes to discussing the future of Meerkat and the planned changes, however it’s thought that the new experience will be more Skype-esque in nature.

The report notes that it will likely turn its attention away from livestreaming content to strangers around the world to private conversations with friends in smaller, group video chats.

It is still unclear as to how long the transition will take, but we are very interested to see where Meerkat goes in their direction towards a new social network.

[via Recode]