Meet Twitcasting, the Japanese app that’s a few steps ahead of Meerkat and Periscope

Last month, US-based live-streaming apps Meerkat and Periscope ignited a frenzy in the western tech media. The darling app at this year’s SXSW Interactive, Meerkat had its wings clipped when its Twitter integration was suspended. Then, out of nowhere, Twitter launched rival service Periscope. The latter service had been hiding in stealth, acquired by Twitter back in January. Not to go down without a fight, Meerkat announced a US$14 million funding round just hours after Periscope made its public debut. Still, the Silicon Valley media machine largely crowned Periscope the winner.

Across the globe, Tokyo-based startup Moi Corporation was watching the headlines with a combination of disappointment and excitement. Moi’s own live-streaming app, Twitcasting, has offered a similar experience since 2010. Even more, Twitcasting’s global user community just broke 10 million this week.

“It was surprising that Silicon Valley journalists were talking about these two new apps without mentioning services in Asia,” Yuki Ishikawa, Twitcasting’s global operations manager, tells Tech in Asia. “Similar for US teens and Snapchat, Twitcasting has become a major part of the lives of a lot of Japanese users.”

While the startup won’t reveal its exact number of monthly active users, Ishikawa explains that it’s over 50 percent of its total registration count – more than 5 million.

“The reason we don’t say the exact number is that it’s so complex,” he explains. “We have iOS and Android apps and a PC version, as well as login users and non-login users. We made the app so that people could use it without having to log in, so some users use it this way. We don’t count those users toward the 10 million [registered users], but we include them as active users.”

Even with seemingly nonstop coverage of Meerkat and Periscope, the services aren’t particularly popular beyond the Silicon Valley set. While it’s too early to discern total downloads or a monthly active user count, Meerkat never broke the top 100 chart for iOS in the US. The Daily Dot also estimates that the apps had only 20,000 active users each on the day of Periscope’s launch, and Business Insider pegs Meerkat’s user base at half a million. This is all without even touching on retention, something that Twitcasting has succeeded at.

People shouldn't be asking whether Periscope is killing Meerkat but whether either has figured out retention pic.twitter.com/RrALjmdJAO

— Justin Kan (@justinkan) April 6, 2015

Big in Japan (and Brazil)

Twitcasting has already become a platform in its own right, where communities congregate and stars break out.

When former AKB48 idol Tomomi Itano went solo, she streamed promotional videos for a new single on both YouTube and Twitcasting. According to Ishikawa, about 4,000 people watched her 37-minute YouTube stream. 22,000 tuned in for her six-minute Twitcasting broadcast. Maco, a popular Japanese singer who covers western artists, asked her Twitcasting followers to support her new album after it was released. It hit number one on the Japan iTunes charts that day. Pop culture icon Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is also a user, and the service has even been featured in a film and a hit manga.