Twitter CEO Costolo: Hillary Clinton’s White House Run Is First ‘Periscope Campaign’

Hillary Clinton’s use of Periscope in her presidential campaign is a sign of bigger things to come for the platform, said outgoing Twitter CEO Dick Costolo during the Bloomberg Technology Conference Tuesday. “It’s going to literally change the way, again as part of Twitter, people think about communications platforms,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Brad Stone, referencing Clinton’s significant use of the video-streaming app.

Clinton’s first official rally as a presidential candidate was last week in New York City, and she streamed it through Periscope in an effort to make social media a big part of her bid.

Periscope launched in March and, according to Costolo, reached 1 million users within the first 10 days. In an effort to put video at the forefront of Twitter’s future strategy, on Tuesday it also released auto-play video in the app. “That’s all part of a system we’re trying to build toward around a native mobile video ecosystem that lives in Twitter and incorporates Twitter video, and Vines, and Periscopes that all sort of work in a seamless fashion,” Costolo said.

Under pressure from investors not satisfied with the microblogging platform's growth, Costolo also announced his resignation as Twitter CEO, with co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey stepping back up to the top position in the interim from July 1.

Costolo was named CEO in October 2010 in an effort to make Twitter profitable.