Live streaming app Blab, which competed with Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook Live, has shut down, having failed to generate a returning user base.

In a blog post, CEO Shaan Puri said that while Blab had amassed 3.9 million users in less than a year since launch, only 10 per cent were coming back on a regular basis. He conceded that “most live streams aren’t interesting enough to justify stopping what they are doing to watch your broadcast”.

“The struggling with live streaming is that we need to show something awesome, that’s being made right now,” he said.

“Turns out, that’s really tough. It killed Meerkat, and Periscope and FB Live are feeling the pain right now.”

Puri revealed the app further tried to address the high churn by integrating replays into the offering, but this also didn’t help. “The off-the-cuff, unpredictable nature of live streams make for terrible replays,” he said. “The better the live stream was, the worse the replay will be.”

Puri said his team was now working on a new product that would focus more on social and less on content.

“Blab was great in many ways, but it wasn’t going to be an everyday thing for millions. So we’re kicking down the sandcastle, and re-building it as an ‘always on’ place to hang with friends,” he said.

Blab was a product of tech incubator Monkey Inferno.