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Image: Kon Karampelas

Twitter has announced it will wrap up Periscope in March 2021, citing the cost of keeping the service running with a dwindling number of users.

"The truth is that the Periscope app is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while," the company said in a blog post[1].

"Over the past couple of years, we've seen declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time. Leaving it in its current state isn't doing right by the current and former Periscope community or by Twitter."

The process for closing down Periscope has already begun. Users are unable to make a new account or purchase coins to tip broadcasters. This will be followed by the app being pulled from app stores by March 2021. Users will be able to download videos created in the service until the March deadline, with broadcasters able to cash out their tips until the end of April.

Twitter added most of the capabilities that Periscope offered have been made available in Twitter itself.

"The capabilities and ethos of the Periscope team and infrastructure already permeate Twitter, and we're confident that live video still has the potential of seeing an even wider audience within the Twitter product," it said.

"It was a genuine honour to pour our heart and soul into building something that other people loved enough to use and build their own communities around. Thank you so much."

Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that Twitter has signed a multi-year deal[2] to use its services to power Twitter timelines.

"This expansion onto AWS marks the first time that Twitter is leveraging the public cloud to scale their real-time service," AWS said.

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