A video platform in a hashtag

In early 2015, Meerkat took off at SXSW and the mobile live streaming trend was born. Meerkat wasn't the first live streaming app, but it showed the world how simple it could be to "go live".

Many people liked the ephemerality of the app, feeding off the popularity of Snapchat. At first it was used as a quick way to share a moment with your internet friends, but we thought there were many important use cases for this tech and behavior. We believed there was a set of missing features, and the first step was to give live streamers the ability to save their video content.

Katch (initially called KatchKats) first launched as a frictionless way to save a Meerkat video. Meerkat users logged in through Twitter, and every time a stream was started, a tweet was sent out announcing the stream to all of the user's followers. Users could then save their streams by simply putting #katch in their live stream title. Katch would listen for this hashtag on Twitter and start saving the video chunks. When the stream was complete, we reassembled the full video, uploaded it publicly to YouTube and sent the live streamer their link.

We had previously built tools for event discovery and hashtags listening for our other product Seen.

Brand & Voice

Customer perception of the Katch brand became a key differentiator for us. As an underdog in the live streaming space, the team focused on a community-first approach - putting transparency, honesty and responsiveness to user feedback above all else.

Klyde, our mascot and logo, was a cute introduction to our product but also served as a critical communication tool. Klyde became the way in which we channeled the voice of Katch, using every opportunity possible to delight our potential and existing users. He was the friendly, happy face users saw with each engagement.

Conclusion

I believe Katch paved the way for many of the post-live use cases, some of which can be found today in Periscope, Facebook Live and Instagram. Designing and building Katch was an exciting ride. It was a privilege to engage, learn and grow with the live stream community.

Katch discontinued service in May of 2016.