# Periscope

> Periscope reported over 200 million broadcasts after its first year of live streaming.

- Owner: Twitter; co-founders Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein
- Kind: App & software
- Sector: Technology
- Seed date: 2015-03-26
- Peak date: 2016-06-22
- Spread Score: 53 (Notable), v1.2
- Mechanics: Pairing, Low-effort copy, Platform jump, Press loop, Political adoption

## Summary

Periscope launched after a celebrity beta. Public broadcasts linked to Twitter, then played inside tweets. C-SPAN carried a lawmaker’s stream during the House sit-in. Twitter closed the standalone app, citing declining use, and kept live streaming.

## Timeline

- 2015-03-13 — Twitter / Periscope (X) — Twitter confirmed its January acquisition of Periscope before the app became public.
- 2015-03-26 — Periscope (App stores) — Periscope released its iPhone app to the public after a private beta that included celebrities.
- 2015-03-26 — Hacker News users (Open web) — Hacker News users discussed the released app and compared it with Meerkat.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/periscope

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Periscope.” Case HIS-00340. Spread Score v1.2: 53/100. Updated 2026-10-13. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-00340