Becks Backs Periscope Rival Myeye
David Beckham has reportedly become a founding investor in a new British startup which could take on live-video streaming giants such as Periscope and Meerkat.
The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star, who moved a step closer to securing a soccer franchise in Miami this week, has also become a minority equity holder in the iOS/Android app MyEye.
Beckham will use MyEye, which has been in stealth-mode for over a year, exclusively for short-term live streaming content.
Total investment for the app, from Beckham and others, has been in the region of £2m.
On MyEye, streamed clips will expire after 72 hours. By contrast, Periscope videos only last 24 hours before they disappear, while Meerkat’s streams can never be watched after they are over, unless the user saves them.
Despite being relatively new to social media, Beckham has over 77 million Facebook subscribers, acquired more than four million followers in the first 48 hours and six million in the first week when he joined Instagram in May (a Guinness World Record), but is yet to join Twitter.
Behind the startup are British tech entrepreneurs Mark Betteridge and Lee Musgrave, along with partner Paul Kavanagh. Betteridge and Musgrave were previously head of studio and head of art for Rare Ltd., the games developer behind some $5.5 billion of sales of games including GoldenEye 007, which was later sold to Microsoft in 2002 for $375 million in cash.
In a statement, Beckham commented: “I’m always looking to back and support British businesses that have the ability and vision to do something truly transformational on the global stage, and I believe that MyEye has the potential to change the way people interact through social media. I have been cautious about the partners I work with in the digital world and I’ve been very impressed with Paul, Mark and Lee. They have a great track record of building successful businesses and I’m excited to collaborate with them going forward.”
Like Meerkat, MyEye is platform independent although users will be able to share streams out via social media. Users can adjust privacy settings around geography to obscure their exact location and curate from whom they receive broadcast notifications.
The most popular clips are recognised each day and users can find the best material using MyEye’s Globe search functionality. Users can stream to the world or keep things direct between streamer and a friend, or amongst a private group.
