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One thing I find curious is none of the articles about meerkat (that I've read) have mentioned that Color did the same idea in 2011 [1] as one of it's many pivots. I'm curious as to what's different between the two and why one might succeed where another failed.

[1] http://www.androidstatic.com/color-for-facebook-streams-your...

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Qik was doing this ages ago. If I were to be cynical I'd say that this is different because it's backed by a big VC firm, which in turn gives them access to hype. But nothing more.

Qik had Marc Benioff, Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz as early investors, before the latter two started their fund as I recall. They didn't have a big VC firm backing them, but they did have notable investors.

Meerkat could still go the way of Color. They're quite early in their public life, from what I can tell, and suddenly facing a much stronger competitor.

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