The End of Katch.me with More than One Million Loyal Users

Katch,‘ Hulu For Live Streaming,’ shuts down with more than one million active users due to lack of venture capital funding.

Katch is online service that allows users to save live-streams from Periscope and Meerkat, will shut down on May 4th, 2016 after attracting more than one million users. Mobile live-streaming got a big boost in credibility just a few months after Twitter acquired and released Periscope.On Tuesday, Katch.me, one the start- ups build to support the rise of mobile live streaming announced it will shut down.

Found in March 2015, Katch.me allowed users to save live broadcasts to user’s profile by adding #katch at the end of the broadcast title. It was an important service at that time for Meerkat users because its videos disappeared immediately. Periscope broadcasts are only viewable for 24 hours on the application. With Katch, broadcasters could have a page and keep their videos like a portfolio with sharable options such as embedding, downloading and social media.

CEO Tarikh Korula shared on Medium, “We always saw Katch as a Hulu for live streaming. But if we were going to get there, we would need more resources.”

According to Maria Serbina MBA, Business and Marketing Strategist and the founder of IM&C – Influencer Marketing and Consulting, Katch was an essential tool for her content creation and sharing.Serbina said, ”I used Periscope and Katch to share my marketing and business knowledge with my clients and followers. Katch allowed me to save my videos and have them available for future use. Also, Katch integration with Twitter was critical for a message sharing and building my brand. It hurts to see #katch to go. Periscope community lost great application.”

Maria also mentioned that latest developments with Facebook Live and YouTube could change the landscape of live streaming. YouTube is reportedly building its own application called Connect that could be a threat to Twitter and Periscope.