Ustream opening up its internal SDK and API to developers, enabling anyone to build Meerkat-like apps, by invitation only for now
Context & Ripple Effects
Meerkat went from a side project that took off to the center of SXSW attention in days, and Twitter answered by confirming its own play in the same window via the Periscope acquisition. Ustream's move here is the third position in that fight: rather than launching another consumer app into the hype cycle, it is renting out the streaming plumbing itself.
By invitation-only exposure of an internal SDK and API, Ustream lets any developer assemble a Meerkat-like experience without building broadcast infrastructure — turning the company's backend into the product while the consumer apps battle for attention.
First-order effects
- Developers gain immediate access to proven livestream infrastructure by invitation, lowering the cost of shipping a competitor to Meerkat or Periscope to mostly front-end work.
Second-order effects
- The playbook spreads downward through the market: within two months Meerkat itself counters Periscope with its own developer platform, confirming that the API layer, not the app, is where differentiation is being fought.
Third-order effects
- Twitter eventually concedes the same ground, opening Periscope Producer API in private beta for publishers — a pattern pointing toward live video consolidating around infrastructure providers and distribution owners while standalone consumer apps become interchangeable skins on top.
The trend: Live video is stratifying into an infrastructure layer rented out via SDKs and APIs beneath consumer apps whose features alone can no longer sustain a moat.