Meerkat's Disappearing Videos Ride the Snapchat Wave

Social media's newest vanishing act

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By Annie Massa

March 12, 2015 at 1:00 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Is Meerkat, an app for livestreaming videos on Twitter, the next Snapchat?

Less than two weeks after debuting, Meerkat has amassed 100,000 users by letting them share live videos with their Twitter followers. Viewers can comment on broadcasts during streams, but they can't replay or save the video, giving it a similar ephemeral vibe as Snapchat's disappearing photos (the app's icon even resembles Snapchat, with an image of the cute African carnivore instead of a smiling ghost).

Dave Morin, co-founder and CEO of social-app Path, went live at the Apple Watch event this week, attracting a virtual audience of 818. Churches have started to use Meerkat to broadcast services. Pro-skater Tony Hawk, who has 3.86 million Twitter followers, livestreamed a video of himself skateboarding in San Diego over the weekend.