Will Meerkat Die? Maybe Yes. Arguably No.

The question Will Meerkat Die? invites a robust analysis, but it’s too early to say. It’s going to be tough, for sure. But there are some parallels between Meerkat and Instagram. Instagram used the Twitter graph to grow. So when Twitter stopped showing their images in-stream, there were rumours on death of Instagram. But look where they are now! Ultimately, Instagram succeeded because it turned into an independent network with high social engagement instead of a photo storage site that relied on others for traffic. Meerkat and Instagram both have/had a heavy reliance on other people’s networks (OPN) for growth. But sounds like @benrbn is trying to get Meerkat to the same place as Instagram — an independent social network spawned through the Twitter graph but sustained because of internal engagement. Another example is Kik, which launched and had initial growth through a similar OPN model before BlackBerry cut them off. But the growth and engagement hasn’t slowed. Does Meerkat have a tougher go because Periscope and Twitter are married? Yes. Does it have a chance to succeed anyway? Absolutely. Keyhole is a real-time conversation tracker that provides keyword and hashtag analytics for Twitter and Instagram.