Here's how Twitter could make money from its Periscope acquisition
Flickr/Loic Le MeurLowercase Capital founder Chris Sacca has been an investor in Twitter, Instagram, and Uber, to name a few.Twitter acquired live video-streaming app Periscope earlier this year, giving it a valuable tool to expand into live entertainment and other video events.
Twitter has been mum about how it might eventually make money from Periscope, which consumers can download for free. But longtime Twitter investor Chris Sacca has a theory.
In a lengthy, nearly 8,500-word blog post on Wednesday, Sacca expressed his views about what Twitter needs to do to re-ignite growth and get it out of the Wall Street doghouse. In that post, the Lowercase Capital founder touched upon what he says is Periscope's big monetization opportunity.
Periscope's goldmine lies in building an archive of old videos created with the app by users ranging from magician David Blaine to entrepreneur Richard Branson:
When the time comes to monetize Periscope (which I agree is not yet), the easiest path will be to place very short/Vine-length ads just before the playback of archived broadcasts. There is absolutely no need to place ads into a livestream and interrupt the user experience. The archived video playback alone will generate incredible cash-flow in addition to being perfect for search results and a huge honeypot for attracting new users.
There's only one problem: Periscope videos currently disappear after 24 hours, a feature that Sacca calls "heartbreaking," and concerning to him as an investor. "Each of those videos would otherwise be interesting and watchable for a long time to come, but now they are gone."
"All broadcasts on Periscope need to be archived for playback permanently, unless the broadcaster chooses to delete the recording," he says.
This vision for Periscope runs contrary to the current trend of ephemeral social media content, epitomized by Snapchat's disappearing photos and videos. Perhaps the bigger opportunity, at least in Sacca's view, is for Periscope to be more like YouTube, a repository of evergreen videos that attract a steady stream of eyeballs and advertising dollars.